Learning Unleashed

Snow Day?  School is closed? Great! Now you can spend the day learning about what you really want to learn, right? You can't keep a person from learning even if you try (by distracting them with what someone else thinks they "need to" be learning). In fact, what kills the desire to learn quickest is forcing us to fit cookie cutter forms for one-size fits all education.  It is not education to move forward until a skill is understood and mastered.  In a class of 25 students, how many are lost in any given subject when we move forward to keep to a schedule and lesson plan?  What message does that send?  Either it is "if you can't keep up, you must be less intelligent than everyone else" or "that skill wasn't really that important or we would have taken the time to make sure everyone understood it".  

So here is a radical thought: the lesson worth teaching must be mastered before you move on.  No B, C, D or F grades.  Only A's.  What are we doing if we just "move along"?  Is that really moving?  

We don't do grades.  What would we be grading anyway?  The curriculum?  The quality of the student?  The efficiency of the teacher?  The interest in the subject?

If you want to squash a person's potential, just reinforce in them that they aren't good at a particular subject, or not fast enough, or that it must not come naturally enough.

Fact is, learning never stops and we excel in the fields where we are most curious, interested and naturally drawn.

We were designed with an innate curiosity and that is STILL the best teacher.

Make no mistake the areas that we feel weak in or show little interest usually represent a different way of thinking, a concept that we don't understand, a skill that doesn't come naturally to us.  It indicates that we operate on a different type of intelligence and that there is an opportunity to expand our mind if we can push through the feelings of confusion.  That is only done through patience and determined curiosity.  

What is it that is difficult about the subject?  Is it unfamiliar language or symbology?  Does it represent a new way of thinking?  Is it mechanical (motor skills)?  Is it an abstract concept?  Do we not understand the practical application?  Do we need to approach the subject from an angle of personal interest? (e.g. Instead of learning disconnected textbook history perhaps reading biographies is more meaningful)