Nurturing Your Child’s Brilliance: Passion-Oriented Education

When we first began homeschooling, I hadn’t yet considered that this would be the perfect platform through which I could discover each of my children’s passions. We had simply embarked on a journey that I felt somewhat prepared for because of my teacher education and experience in the classroom. I didn’t realize how drastically my educational paradigms would change and that I would begin to see education in a completely different light than I had as a former public school teacher.

 

Initially, we began homeschooling with many of the public school paradigms in place: the main subjects were highlighted and focused upon; all curriculum executed and directed by me; subject areas not part of the core program (like, art and music, for example) were considered fringe subject areas and we would get to those when we completed the ‘more important’ subject areas. I shudder to think that I might have continued on in that same frame of mind, pushing my children to spend most of their days doing things they dislike and are not naturally good at, while saving the ‘extras’ for afterwards, and only if time allowed. How freeing it has been to see and value each of our children as individuals with unique gift mixes and interests, to help them develop as much skill as possible in their areas of deepest interest, hiring the best mentors we can afford to help move them toward excellence.

 

I have been inspired by Resa Steindel Brown’s experience as shared in her book, The Call to Brilliance. Having to let go of her public school teacher paradigm as I did, she formed an astoundingly successful homeschool co-operative which saw the majority of their children head to college when most children are beginning Middle School. Her approach goes beyond simply allowing your children to be free to be who they are. She, very purposefully, found ways to nurture her children’s (and other children’s) gifts so that they could perform to the very best of their ability. Below is an excerpt from Resa’s son’s site (http://passionorientededucation.com/guildabout.php) aiming to help others find and nurture their children’s innate brilliance.

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see communities of learners beginning to form, and to see our children grow deeply in their God-given areas of brilliance, mentored by the best in that field and passionate about learning and growing in excellence?

 

The program created by Resa Steindel Brown, author of The Call to Brilliance (www.thecalltobrilliance.com)

Passion Oriented Education (TM) Guild Overview:

Description: POE (TM) is a passion-oriented education. A POE (TM) Guild is a co-operative activity group for parents & children designed to execute and support the philosophies and methodology of a Passion Oriented EducationTM.

PHILOSOPHY: All children are born with the seeds of their own brilliance and will thrive in an environment that helps them find, nurture and sustain the passion that leads to that brilliance.

WHY PASSION: Passion propels us forward, summoning our innate drive to explore, discover hidden interests, talents, gifts, and create. A passionate environment is supportive, contagious and engaging, sweeping up adults and children alike.

STRUCTURE: A POE (TM) Guild consists of a motivated director and a group of enthusiastic, hands-on parents. While the director organizes and facilitates the group, it is everyone’s job to work together to implement the ideas, methodologies and activities of a Passion Oriented Education TM. Families meet twice a month for official meetings. Children meet weekly for activities and sub-groups meet as needed.

	Identify Interest	Fuel Interest into Passion	Ignite Passion into Brilliance
Expose	To a Wide Range of Experiences	To a Specialized Set of Experiences and Activities	To Appropriate Mentors and a Larger Community
Monitor	To Identify Interest	To Identify and Facilitate Passionate Absorption	To Identify More Specific Types of Passion.
Assess	How to Fuel That Interest	How to Fuel That Passion Into Tangible Results	How to Reach Sustained Passion and Bring Brilliance Out into the World
Provide	The Next Step towards Passion	The Next Step to Brilliance: Booster Activities	Expansive Set of Opportunities

POE (TM) Guild – parent generated activities include:

• Workshop Classes: designed to help children find their interests, talents and passions.
• Guest speakers: role models ( for children and adults alike) who are living their passions.
• Fieldtrips: to broaden a wide range of experiences.
• Playgroups, social groups and events: to help children who are finding their passions connect to each other and interact with other families who have similar values, goals and experiences.

Noam Chomsky – The Purpose of Education

“It doesn’t matter what you cover; it matters what you discover.”

Great video. Well worth 20 minutes.

Measure by Measure: Motivation & Evaluation

Rethinking Marks and Other Extrinsic Motivators

Daughter. 16. Typing feverishly. Focused.  Thinking through ideas. Creating, writing, expressing, analyzing.

Son. 14. Practicing guitar endlessly. Eyes closed. Shaping musical ideas. Listening, perfecting, creating, colouring.

What motivates DD16 to read, write and study all day, to organize her work meticulously, to fall asleep listening to Great Speeches that Changed the World? She has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, an inherent desire to learn all that she can about as many subjects as possible.

What motivates DS14 to play classical guitar music several hours a day, to delve into classical music history, to spend hours more listening to great classical guitarists, learning many of the songs he listens to and deeply enjoys? He has found what he loves more than anything else and, joyously, it happens to coincide with his natural talents.

Both are motivated by doing what they love and living in the freedom to pursue that interest as deeply as possible. They are not bound by bells or testing or standardization expectations. Instead, they are free to delve deeply into learning in their area of interest, free to become proficient, excellent. Motivated solely by the satisfaction of learning and doing the very best work possible, loving the process.

They do not need me or anyone else to push them to learn, to persist through the difficult process of learning new ideas or skills. Receiving marks or a report card will have no positive effect on their motivation. They learn and grow quickly and deeply because they love the process.

What is it that compels us to consider important only that which is quantifiable and measurable?

Consider what Alfie Kohn says:

“The carrot-and-stick approach in general is unsuccessful; grades in particular undermine intrinsic motivation and learning, which only serves to increase our reliance on them. The significance of these effects is underscored by the fact that, in practice, grades are routinely used not merely to evaluate but also to motivate. In fact, they are powerful demotivators regardless of the reason given for their use.” (p. 201)

Isn’t it far better to discover my children’s deep interest and greatest area of ability, to find creative ways to inspire my children to want to learn and keep learning of their own volition? Does not intrinsic motivation far surpass the punitive approach that grading can often be?

“Numbers and letters in our grading systems get in the way of what is important in classrooms. When we reduce learning in our students’ eyes to numbers and letters, we lose passion, we lose complexity, we lose fun, we lose depth, we lose the essence of learning.” (Wisehart, p. 146)

Consider orchestra conductor and author of The Art of Possibility, Benjamin Zander’s unconventional approach. He says:

“Michelangelo is often quoted as having said that inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within. If we were to apply this visionary concept to education, it would be pointless to compare one child to another. Instead, all the energy would be focused on chipping away at the stone, getting rid of whatever is in the way of each child’s developing skills mastery, and self-expression. We call this practice giving an A. It is an enlivening way of approaching people that promises to transform you as well as them.  It is a shift in attitude that makes it possible for you to speak freely about your own thoughts and feelings while, at the same time, you support others to be all they dream of being. The practice of giving an A transports your relationships from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility. […] This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.”

 

Zander continues:

“What would happen if one were to hand an A to every student from the start? Roz [Zander’s wife] and predicted that abolishing grades altogether would only make matters worse, even if the Conservatory could be persuaded to support such a plan. The students would feel cheated of the opportunity for stardom and would still be focused on their place in the lineup. So we came up with the idea of giving them all the only grade that would put them at ease, not as a measurement tool, but as an instrument to open them up to possibility.

 

 

“Each student in this class will get an A for the course,” I announce. “However, there is one requirement that you must fulfill to earn this grade: Sometime during the next two weeks, you must write me a letter dated next May, which begins with the words, ‘Dear Mr. Zander, I got my A because…,’ and in this letter you are to tell, in as much detail as you can, the story of what will have happened to you by next May that is in line with this extraordinary grade.”

 

“[…] Often people are quite uncomfortable with the idea of grating the unearned A because it seems to deny the actual differences between one person’s accomplishments and another’s. We are not suggesting that people be blind to accomplishment. Nobody wants to hear a violinist who cannot play the notes or to be treated by a doctor who has not passed the course. Standards can help us by defining the range of knowledge a student must master to be competent in his field. It is not in the context of measuring people’s performance against standards that we propose giving the A, despite the reference to measurement the A implies. We give the A to finesse the stranglehold of judgment that grades have over our consciousness from our earliest days. The A is an invention that creates possibility for both mentor and student manager and employee or for any human interaction. The practice of giving the A allows the teacher to line up with her students in their efforts to produce the outcome, rather than lining up with the standards against these students. In the first instance, the instructor and the student, or the manager and the employee, become a team for accomplishing the extraordinary; in the second, the disparity in power between them can become a distraction and an inhibitor, drawing energy away from productivity and development.”

 

In our homeschool, I choose not to give marks to my children, not because I don’t want them to live out their full potential, but because I feel that finding ways to motivate them intrinsically is the best way to help them accomplish all that is possible for each of them, devoid of fear and bribes, full of confidence and joy in the learning process.

~ Sharon

Genius Redefined

A wonderful reminder to all of us as we facilitate learning in our homes, that we must seek to discover the inner genius within each of our children. God created us each with unique gifts and purpose.

French Resources

Someday, when life is less busy, I just might create some of my own French video resources and Ontario curriculum-correlated activities that homeschoolers can access and use. However, this season in my life does not seem to easily lend itself to planning and completing such a lofty project so, for now, I’ve listed a few online French learning resources. Hopefully some of them will be suitable for your family and ages. The great news is, these are FREE

 

• BBC has several streams of French learning depending on your previous experience with the language. Most of what I have seen is created for high school/adults, even the material meant for beginners. Free sign up and you are able to access videos, as well as oral and written practice exercises - http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/
• Great site for beginners with many free videos: http://learnfrenchvideo.com/
• Audio French resources including numbers, days of the week, family relationships and fairy tales translated into French, read by a francophone: http://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/
• One of many Open Learning online options, this free French course for beginners created Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative includes exercises, activities and videos: http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses/french

Enjoy! À bientôt et joyeux Noël!

 

Sharon

saltresource

 

The Story of Gillian Lynne

~excerpted from the book The Element by Ken Robinson

Gillian was only eight years old, but her future was already at risk. Her schoolwork was a disaster, at least as far as her teachers were concerned. She turned in assignments late, her handwriting was terrible, and she tested poorly. Not only that, she was a disruption to the entire class, one minute fidgeting noisily, the next staring out the window, forcing the teacher to stop the class to pull Gillian’s attention back, and the next doing something to disturb the other children around her. Gillian wasn’t particularly concerned about any of this — she was used to being corrected by authority figures and really didn’t see herself as a difficult child — but the school was very concerned. This came to a head when the school wrote to her parents.

The school thought that Gillian had a learning disorder of some sort and that it might be more appropriate for her to be in a school for children with special needs. All of this took place in the 1930s. I think now they’d say she had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and they’d put her on Ritalin or something similar. But the ADHD epidemic hadn’t been invented at the time. It wasn’t an available condition. People didn’t know they could have that and had to get by without it.

Gillian’s parents received the letter from the school with great concern and sprang to action. Gillian’s mother put her daughter in her best dress and shoes, tied her hair in ponytails, and took her to a psychologist for assessment, fearing the worst. Gillian told me that she remembers being invited into a large oak-paneled room with leather-bound books on the shelves. Standing in the room next to a large desk was an imposing man in a tweed jacket. He took Gillian to the far end of the room and sat her down on a huge leather sofa. Gillian’s feet didn’t quite touch the floor, and the setting made her wary. Nervous about the impression she would make, she sat on her hands so that she wouldn’t fidget.

The psychologist went back to his desk, and for the next twenty minutes, he asked Gillian’s mother about the difficulties Gillian was having at school and the problems the school said she was causing. While he didn’t direct any of his question at Gillian, he watched her carefully the entire time. This made Gillian extremely uneasy and confused. Even at this tender age, she knew that this man would have a significant role in her life. She knew what it meant to attend a “special school,” and she didn’t want anything to do with that. She genuinely didn’t feel that she had any real problems, but everyone else seemed to believe she did. Given the way her mother answered the questions, it was possible that even she felt this way.

Maybe, Gillian thought, they were right.

Eventually, Gillian’s mother and the psychologist stopped talking. The man rose from his desk, walked to the sofa, and sat next to the little girl.

“Gillian, you’ve been very patient, and I thank you for that,” he said. “But I’m afraid you’ll have to be patient for a little longer. I need to speak to your mother privately now. We’re going to go out of the room for a few minutes. Don’t worry; we won’t be very long.”

Gillian nodded apprehensively, and the two adults left her sitting there on her own. But as he was leaving the room, the psychologist leaned across his desk and turned on the radio.

As soon as they were in the corridor outside the room, the doctor said to Gillian’s mother, “Just stand here for a moment, and watch what she does.” There was a window into the room, and they stood to one side of it, where Gillian couldn’t see them. Nearly immediately, Gillian was on her feet, moving around the room to the music. The two adults stood watching quietly for a few minutes, transfixed by the girl’s grace. Anyone would have noticed there was something natural — even primal — about Gillian’s movements. Just as they would have surely caught the expression of utter pleasure on her face.

At last, the psychologist turned to Gillian’s mother and said, “You know, Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn’t sick. She’s a dancer. Take her to a dance school.”

I asked Gillian what happened then. she said her mother did exactly what the psychiatrist suggested. “I can’t tell you how wonderful it was, ” she told me. “I walked into this room, and it was full of people like me. People who couldn’t sit still. People who had to move to think.“

She started going to the dance school every week, and she practiced at home every day. Eventually, she auditioned for the Royal Ballet School in London, and they accepted her. She went on to join the Royal Ballet Company itself, becoming a soloist and performing all over the world. When that part of her career ended, she formed her own musical theater company and produced a series of highly successful shows in London and New York. Eventually, she met Andrew Lloyd Webber and created with him some of the most successful musical theater productions in history, including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.

Little Gillian, the girl with the high-risk future, became known to the world as Gillian Lynne, one of the most accomplished choreographers of our time, someone who has brought pleasure to millions and earned millions of dollars. This happened because someone looked deep into her eyes — someone who had seen children like her before and knew how to read the signs. Someone else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down. But Gillian wasn’t a problem child. She didn’t need to go away to a special school.

She just needed to be who she really was.

Math Videos Linked to Ontario Math Texts

Lately, we have been making liberal use of online math videos. There are some wonderful teaching resources available that make helping your teen learn their high school maths much easier. Of course, many of you are aware of Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org which has copious amounts of math videos on any math topic, from elementary school right through the high school grades.

Recently, I have come across another very helpful site, created by an Ontario teacher and linked to our math textbooks. Since I am not in a position to be able to teach the upper level math concepts to my children, these videos have been indispensable to us.
http://sites.google.com/site/yourmathvideos/

Enjoy!

Sharon