Self-Inspiration?

I recently decided to read through my Education Journals and my Blog - freedomeducators.com. I'm not sure why or how I decided to do this. Maybe it is an attempt to reconnect with myself. Maybe it is the desire to see where I've been and where I'm going. Maybe I just wanted to reflect back and see what topics I've studied and shared and which ideas I had/have that maybe need to be further studied.

I've shared before that my mother passed away over 6 months ago (her birthday is this month). I also shared that I've struggled a bit to get my fire back...you know...that passion for life, for studying, for progressing...

Well, I had lost it. My grief. My pain. My lonesomeness in my grief and pain. These all contributed to my lack-luster past 6 months.

But now...I can see that reading through my own writings has started to fuel my fire. That, and the fact that I'm entering a new stage of my grief process that allows me to move on, have greatly enhanced my desires lately to get back on track.

As I randomly leafed through my Education Journals and clicked my way through my blog, I began to feel INSPIRED!

All I can say is that I am incredibly thankful that I wrote! I am thankful that I had Education Journals and this blog to re-inspire myself with my own words! I am thankful that my random clicking through my blog made me realize how far I've come. I'm thankful for somewhat jumbled notes and untidy journals that showed my progress and thoughts, and that I really have come a long way.

Who knew you could inspire yourself?

The Cards: Update

I posted recently about mastering "The Cards" and thought I would write an update about how that is going.

First, it is going about like I expected. The person I hoped would latch onto the idea, well, he does not have any interest in using the method. The person I knew would LOVE it, has adopted The Cards for her college studies.

Christian's opinion...thumbs down.

Marlayna's opinion...thumbs up.

I am also using The Cards in the way I posted about by utilizing The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. I am almost through writing up cards for American History before 1860.

It is a long process, one which I am not very good at since it involves mastering memorization. However, I am almost through writing up the cards for that section and read through them about once a week.

My review of using this method so far is mixed. The very person I hoped it would help the most, has no desire to use the method.

*sigh*

It seems I am back to searching for inspiring methods to help my son be more engaged in learning in new ways.

Core Phase Learning

I tried to teach my child with books.
He gave me only puzzled looks.
I tried to teach my child with words -
They often passed him by unheard.
Despairingly I turned aside, "How shall I teach this child?"
I cried.
Into my hands he put the KEY,
"COME," he said, "AND PLAY WITH ME."

~ "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" page 191

Why is it so hard to grasp the need to learn through play? Is it so hard to realize the balance of learning needed for Core Phase children, teens, and adults? Yes, it is, or we wouldn't be having this discussion, would we?

In my previous post I introduced some ideas on Three Types of Learning - Basic, Inspirational, and Creative. I'd like to discuss in this post about the balance of these three types of learning for Core Phase.

Core Phase Learning

During Core Phase, the main focus of our education should be "Creative Learning". However, in conveyor-belt education systems, we see the opposite is true. Children learn best through play, mimicking others, and repetition. Like the triangle represented here, most of a Core Phase child's time should be spent in Creative Learning, with some time dedicated to what "inspires them" and a little time in learning a basic education.

Let's define them each a little further for the Core Phase child, teen, and adult.

Creative Learning

This is the time when children should complete their Core Phase.  Children naturally want to learn about the world through play. They pretend to play house, with a dedicated Mommy, Daddy, Baby, etc. They "mimic" family life and relationships. They build towers of blocks, cups, pillows, and eventually venture into forts, castles, and battleships.

Life is full of exciting things to learn by playing with baby dolls, Barbies, Legos, stuffed animals, and household items. But, they also learn by drawing with crayons, shaping Playdoh with their hands, making mud-pies, and making swords out of sticks. There is no limit to the imagination...all things are possible while at play!

Right and Wrong, True and False, Good and Bad can all be taught through play. Children see the world through concrete terms. This is the right time and perfect time to teach about Family Life, Society, and God.

Inspirational Learning

With most of a Core Phase students time spent in Creative Learning, there is some room for inspiration. Core Phasers naturally want to know the "why" of everything that interests them. Take those roads as they appear. Make the effort to explain, touch, and feel the world. Nature is a very inspiring place to spend time as a Core Phase student.

For older students and adults, nature and life around them is the best place to start looking for inspirational learning. This can be in the form of a nature studies book with pictures or writings about what they see and experience. Follow the paths of interest...never stop a person from exploring unless it is dangerous or unwholesome.

Basic Education

All children who are not forced eventually want to learn to read, write, and do mathematical figures. Core Phase students will want to know what is in books, what the street signs say, and how many cookies are on their plate. These can come very naturally throughout the life of a child. It is when we begin to force this type of learning that we see the fatal failures that Core Phasers need to avoid.

Relatively little time needs to be spent on a Basic Education for Core Phase students. Most of the Basic Education will be covered in the Inspirational Learning arena if properly introduced when the student is ready. Devote less than 30 minutes a day towards traditional Basic Education. Rather, introduce a variety of learning opportunities through Creative and Inspirational Learning instead.

Conclusion
Finding the right balance in what type of learning should be done in each phase is the key to success! Most "supposed failures" in home education can be quickly remedied with adjusting your balance of learning. For Core Phase, the majority of stresses come with putting too much Basic Education in front of your child while ignoring Creative and Inspirational Learning activities.

Another book I highly recommend for all home educators is The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook. It is very compatible with all of the Thomas Jefferson Education principles.

Basic, Inspirational, and Creative Learning

One of the things I see missing the most with those that I mentor is a clear understanding of the different types of learning. As people continue to be attracted to Leadership Education, they also begin to feel a little bit lost. Uncomfortable even. This is quite normal as we step out of our comfort zone of what we know, out into the foreign land of what we don't know.

I hope over the next few weeks to explain some new concepts about why this might be the case. At least, it is what I see as part of the reason. So...bear with me and please comment on what you think about it all. These concepts are a work-in-progress for me as well, so I hope to learn along with everyone else.

Basic

There is a basic level of education that everyone is expected to have by the time they graduate. We consider this an education in reading, math, and writing that allows a person to navigate the world as an "educated" person. This basic level is obviously very important, so important that it has become the ONLY focus for many schools, both public and home.

We see schools even called "Back-to-Basics" schools that drop creative programs, like music and sport, in favor of focusing on the basics that a student needs. This can lead to a very stunted education that lacks many important features to make a well-rounded person.

Inspirational

This level of education can be best described as that spark, that rush of curiosity that makes us explore. We feel something that inspires us to look into a subject with excitement about learning what it is all about. This type of learning is very much a lost art in modern day education. We focus on what we are supposed to learn rather than what we want to learn.

That desire, that initial inspiration to learn is one of the most difficult things to manufacture, which is why it is practically non-existent in most public and home schools. It has to be gently cultivated, not forced.

Creative

Some people naturally have a desire for creative learning. Small children are full of this type of learning. They build a tower, knock it down, and build it again...repeating over and over and over. Why? Because it's fun! This is creating over and over something that teaches them about the world they live in.

With older students, we see glimpses of creative learning in schools in the form of art classes or an occasional project. It is far underutilized with older students, being largely squashed out of existence unless it fits a suitable Basic education requirement.

Part 2...
This is a very short description of three main methods of learning. Most things fall within one of these types. As people begin to think about education as a whole Liberal Arts Education, we begin to see the need to study through these types learning...but in what balance? Which types of education should be used and when? How much time should be spent in each?

...more coming soon!

Waiting For A Challenge

Mr. Willoughby and Marianne Dashwood

I've been reading Sense and Sensibility for an upcoming Book Club meeting with ladies from my church. I was pleased to see a classic on the list. I've read it before, but like all classics, can be read again with great pleasure.

This Summer has been a rather long, boring Summer. We are back in a city we lived in before, but in another part of town that is new to us and not close to our former friends. While we know our way around the city and not everything is new, it is new enough to not have established close friends, be enrolled in any activities, or have a routine of social activities. Plus, we don't have much money to entertain ourselves with, so our homebody nature has been amplified by circumstances.

I realized that our boring Summer is giving us all a sense of malaise. I want that to change and began thinking of what we can do to break out of the current discouragement.

It dawned on me that Nayna might enjoy reading Sense and Sensibility with me, in fact, I thought she may have already read it since she has read several other Jane Austen titles. I asked her about it and she hadn't read it yet. Suddenly I asked her, "Do you want to read it and go to Book Club with me?

Within an hour she is happily engrossed in Sense and Sensibility. All she needed was a simple suggestion, something I have avoided somewhat purposefully this Summer. Maybe it was just the thing we needed. A void was created by allowing everyone to get to a point where they welcome input from me in the form of simple suggestions. The time to hang out and be "bums" for several weeks has given everyone a hankering for a Challenge to be presented. Of course, they rarely ask for that challenge, it just has to come at the right time.

 

Fiction vs. Non-Fiction or Male vs. Female?

Conversation:

Mom: "What books from the TJED for Teens list do I need to get from the library for you this summer?"

Nayna: "I don't know. I've read most of them."

Mom: "Really? I thought you were around the half-way mark?"

Nayna: "Well...I just can't find any I want to read."

As I continue to compile transcripts for this past "school" year, I've noticed an interesting trend. My daughter, Nayna, has read more fiction than non-fiction. I've looked over her TJED for Teens list and she has read 43 of the 100 books listed. In studying this further, I realized that she has read almost all of the fiction books on the list, with only a few non-fiction titles completed. She is like me! She loves fiction, but has a hard time delving into non-fiction.

My son, on the other hand, typically does not like fiction (except for anything Louis L'Amour). We had a very different conversation earlier in the year.

Conversation:

Chris: "Mom, I can't stand fantasy books."

Mom: "Why not?"

Chris: "They are just so unbelievable. People can't really DO any of those things. Plus there's all those fake species from fairy tales and myths."

Mom: "I like fantasy. I know it isn't real, but it is an entertaining story." (specifically speaking of a book called "Elantris")

Chris: "I only like stuff that someone can really do."

As I pondered this conversation some months back, I remembered reading or hearing Oliver DeMille talk about a mentor that told him he was very good at reading and studying non-fiction, but he had neglected the fiction. He then challenged him to read "Les Miserables". (Quite a formidable read I might add). I wonder if this is a male/female difference. My husband also likes documentaries and non-fiction stories and information. I prefer fiction if given a choice. I wonder why?

Could it be that men are "doers" so they gravitate to non-fiction? What does that make women? Fantasists? I don't know...but maybe women do like to have little breaks from reality where men like to have adventures where they can picture themselves as the character, thus the need for it to be "real". That's my best guess and I would be happy to hear other's opinions of the subject.



The question becomes:

"How do I mentor and inspire my daughter (and myself) to read non-fiction and my son to read fiction?"

New Inspiration!

One thing that I think is baffling about a TJED Leadership Education is to figure out exactly what will inspire another person. After all, isn't it hard enough just to figure out what inspires me. Much less another person, even one of my own children. Yet discovering what inspires another person is exactly the job of a good mentor. This is the true quest of every TJED Leadership Education parent...to inspire our children.

There are some things that a mentor can ask, some basic questions to consider. I've found The Compass to be a good place to start. The book Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens also has exercises to help mentor our youth and adults. I always recommend that each parent complete the exercises in Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens before working through it with their youth. Another fantastic resource that is particularly helpful is a set of exercises by Moor House Academy titled Educational Self Assessment and the Family Vision. (See this post about these tools).

Using all of these tools has helped me to think about three important things:

1. What are my educational goals for myself?
2. What are the educational goals for each person that I mentor?
3. What do I want our family life to look like?

Here are the exercises in PDF form.

Educational Self Assessment




Family Vision




 

The Reluctant Writer

from shutterstock.com

I have a reluctant writer. He is an awesome student in many ways, but still, writing is not and never has been, his favorite way of expressing himself.

The problem comes in when I, the mentor, want the Scholar to be and excellent writer! I begin to worry (fear) he will not be a great writer and so start to feel panic (fear again) about failing to inspire him to love writing. This fear begins to permeate my thoughts. I've discovered that when fear begins to enter the picture, my conveyor-belt past begins to edge forward and want to take over the situation... literally! I want to fix it and I want to fix it now!

However, the Leadership Education way is different. It is not fear that leads to force. It is secure that leads to inspire!


"But, how do I do that?" you ask.

It is hard. I've been asking myself the same question. So, we had a Mentor Meeting with my son and discussed our "fears" that he would not be proficient at writing for his future. Since we have an open and loving relationship with this son, he then expressed how he feels his writing is good enough and that it feels like an assignment to him (which is what I had turned it into).

Hmmm...so we see he is not inspired to want to write the essay assignments I had given him. Looking back, I'm laughing at myself that I didn't see it sooner. Of course he is not inspired by my fear-based assignment! He needs a secure-based inspiration.

Today we sat down to discuss the types of writings that inspire him. I did also instruct him on the requirements that may be placed on him in the future, maybe in a career situation or his own businesses aspirations.

What kinds of things might he need to write? Advertising? Proposals of his ideas? Responses to inquiries about his business? Etc.

What skills does he need to adequately get his ideas on paper or electronic media? Punctuation? Spelling? Grammar? Etc.

So, what can he do to get those skills?

He decided that he wants to go back to a journaling approach where he records his ideas and interesting things that he learns about. OK. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but a step in the right direction, back to secure-based inspiration!

 

TJED Conveyor-belt

Death of Socrates

I was going to post another Classics List for transcript purposes, but decided this needed to be posted instead.

On a Yahoo Group, of which I am a member, a discussion topic came up that has really got me thinking about TJED Conveyor-belt and the vast number of TJED based classes. I felt it need to be answered a bit more. So many people are looking for classroom environments for their Love of Learners and Scholars and I wonder if the choices out there meet the mustard.

Quote from a "TJED Muse" post: "When I asked the kids what they thought they'd REALLY like this class to look like, almost all of them agreed that they wanted to have a "sit down and take notes and lecture" part to the class each week, and they wanted it to last for 15 minutes. They also wanted a test. That was their request. Now, I wouldn't have designed a TJ Ed class that way, but it is what they wanted. So after four weeks, I talked to them again, and asked them what they had noticed. They noticed that they LIKED the lecture/notes, because they wanted to make sure that they were able to do that like the kids who attend public school."

My Answer: Have you ever considered that the reason these students asked for that type of learning environment is because that is the only picture of education that they have in the world today? Let's consider some other learning environments that brought people from thousands of miles away in a time when travel was difficult and time consuming, for example; Socrates, Aristotle, and Euclid.

How did they teach their students? Did they have tests, pre-essay and post-essay samples, or a syllabus? Or, did they inspire through asking and answering the tough questions, challenging the status quo, and showing by example what it takes to think for oneself? They taught their students in a Socratic discussion style in which they asked questions, deep thinking questions, and tried to answer them. These thinkers did not send out the questions before hand, rather they came up within the discussion.

As I read and study the great thinkers through the classics, I see very little classrooms that look like what we know today. For myself, I don't want my kids to get more of the world, I want them to get more of what is lost...a true educational experience that steps outside the box and asks the hard questions. In order to do that, it might mean taking the road less traveled and searching for those educational experiences that will impact them the most rather than a plethora of mediocre, which there is plenty of out there.

Does this mean we never experience the conveyor-belt? Of course not! There is too much around to avoid. But what it does mean is that we are careful and purposeful in what we choose to spend our time doing. There are many good things out there, but are they the best things? Only each family can answer that question for their family. I do hope, however, that we each keep the goal in sight as we make those decisions. Will this class, teacher, mentor, school, book club, group, friend, etc. lead my child closer to their end goals? Is this the best choice, or just a good choice?

For more on Socratic discussion, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method and
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-role-of-socratic-questioning-in-thinki\ng-teaching-learning/522

Course of Study for 2011-2012

Each year is a new experience in preparation for the next year. One of the things that I like is to get a general plan in order with some of my thoughts on what we need to study together. I like the files at donnayoung.org for helping me get organized. I'll be featuring a few of the forms that I personally use over the next few posts.

The Course of Study form is one of my favorite all-in-one-place forms to show my general outline for the entire year. I combine my two youth still at home on the same Course of Study. Many things we do together but for those things that are separate it is listed by their initial. To some this may seem a bit vague. Basically, I am outlining the mentoring portion of what we are studying. The rest will be determined throughout the year as the Scholar finds new interests and passions to study. It is important to remember that this is not a complete layout of the year, but this is a list of the things that I want to inspire them with and what I will share with them during our devotional, read aloud, and do-together portions of our education time.

Some are just resources for further study in specific ares. Some items are review, something we often turn to when we need to brush up on certain skills, like grammar and spelling. These resources are on the list for sporadic use. A few items are curriculum that has been purchased for that use. Each student chooses which resources they will use at any given time.

They Aren't Doing Anything!

I used to worry extensively about my older children (Love of Learning and Practice Scholars at the time) seemingly "not doing anything". My conveyor-belt mind wanted to see worksheets, tests, and papers every day. I was worried they would not learn enough and that they would not keep up with grade levels.

For probably an entire year, we did no "formal math"...that's right...no worksheets, drills, tests, or lessons. We did play some math games and I pointed out areas of math that we were using in our every day life. One website that I used is Living Math, which I dutifully tried various ways of introducing math in fun ways.

Still.....no "formal math".

I wondered if they would ever pick up the higher maths.

Over the last year, Nayna (Self-Directed Scholar) has finished 3 "years" or levels of math. She completed Algebra I in just 5 months. She started on December 1, 2010 and told me yesterday that she was ready for the Final Exam, which she passed with an "A".

I would have never thought TJED would work with math. For some reason, I could just never get around my conveyor-belt education thinking with math. I figured I was loosing time and would need to force/require. Instead, what I did was Structure Time, not Content. I told them they need to do something "math" every day, it didn't matter if it was a Sudoku puzzle, measuring out ingredients for a cake, or figuring out a "real world" math problem.

Real World Math
One day Chris (Project Scholar), was trying to figure out the velocity of a figure in a game to make the figure slow down as he is being shot and loosing his energy. He has been trying his hand at game programming. When he showed me the problem to ask for help I thought, "This is advanced algebra, he has only formally studied up through fractions."

As he worked through the problem, I showed him math texts that we have that teach the concepts he wanted to know. He worked his way backward through the book in a few sections to figure out what he needed to know and then applied the math to his game programming. I was completely stunned that he was able to learn math that way.

I have always thought math had to be taught in a certain order...but I guess if a person wants the knowledge bad enough and they know where to find it, they can figure it out. I mean, how did Archimedes figure out machines and astrology? How did he discover Pi and how it applied to circles? No one was there to teach him each individual math concepts. He learned how to think and applied himself to the problem until he figured it out.

Innovative Thinking?

I found this video on chistianlogic.com and thought it was so interesting.

I have been asked many, many times why I do what I do for free. Why would I offer my time to build a homeschooling community? Why am I not charging for my TJED Teens Club? Why do I spend so much time doing freelance projects - websites and blogs? Why am I a substitute and not a full-time teacher?

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Could this phenomenon be true? What do you think?



After watching this video...

If purpose is our highest level of motivation...is it so hard to see why people are drawn to deschooling and/or Thomas Jefferson Education (TJED)? The cornerstone to TJED is that each person has a mission in life...a purpose for living...a reason for existing. This mission or purpose is then transformed into a reason to be educated. Powerful stuff for human beings who want to be autonomous.

Inspire AND Require?

I have read several things lately about Inspire, not Require. Some people feel their kids won't do anything without requiring them. Some feel that not requiring is more unschooling and they are not comfortable with that. I have found that each child is different and is inspired under different conditions.

Marly (15) - Project Scholar
Marly is intrinsically inspired to learn. She devours books, reading hours and hours every day without me saying anything about learning. She finds so much to learn about that her day is full of learning experiences. My job as a mentor is EASY with her. She can find things to occupy her time without me and is a self-learner through and through. I find her writings have depth I didn't know she had in her. Inspiring her to learn about new topics or go into depth in other areas is as easy as getting the books from the library and putting them on the shelves. She peruses the books and eventually picks up most of the books I bring home.

Chris (13) - Transitioning to Scholar
Chris is a hands-on, I-need-to-experience-it-myself type of learner. Inspiring him is much harder in that he does not value stories very much. He values things that are "real"...really happened...or things he can do. I did finally find some books he likes, Robinson Crusoe being his all-time favorite so far. We also stumbled upon the fact that he likes Louis L'Amour books and is enjoying the Sackett series. Mentoring this child is HARD. It takes a lot of experimenting to find what inspires him, and even then it doesn't seem to inspire him long.

Did you notice I used the words "stumble upon" and "experimenting". This is what mentoring my son is to me. I have to work harder at it and search high and low, rejoicing in the once-in-a-while golden find that leads to an inspiring moment.

Inspire and Require?
During our Return and Report meetings, my son has expressed that he would rather I require something of him because he needs the direction.....hhmmm. After delving into this further, we came up with the idea that he needs a little bit of require in order to feel motivated (yes, I know this means he needs more core work). In the mean time, he very much wants an education and flounders a bit in finding things that interest him. We found that for Chris, he needs a basic outline of subjects that he should be doing each day - reading, writing, and math - and a list subjects he can touch on weekly - history, science, government, and grammar. He can choose what he does for those subjects, but he is required to work on each subject every day/week.

We have been doing this for a couple months now. Yesterday, I spoke with Chris about how this was working for him. I talked about taking away the require portion and he said, "But I need you to require me to do these subjects each day." OK, well I guess that answers my question.

Remember, YOU are the expert on your family.

Zooming Through Math...and I Didn't Even Push Them

For the past few years that we have been focusing on implementing the Leadership Education method for homeschooling I was always a little concerned in the back of my mind about if the kids would really learn. Would they really do it largely on their own without me pushing them. Math in particular is one area that most homeschooling parents feel is lacking in the Leadership Education method. The majority of books on the list are literature.

A couple years ago I decided to completely get off the conveyor belt and truly embrace all of the 8 Keys of Great Teaching. Math was an area that I did not see my kids working at very much. I would mention it once in awhile, commenting about how important math skills are and pointing out times in our daily lives where I was using math skills. For a long time it seemed that they could really care less.

Several months ago I saw that Marly was working on her Math-U-See books every day. Pretty soon she is telling me she is ready for the final exam on the Delta level. Five months later she is finished with Epsilon (October 2009). This week she completed the Zeta books and is starting on Pre-Algebra. In a little over a year she has completed 3 years of math studies. I am now noticing Christian start to work on his math every day. He is taking less time on each lesson and picking up the pace. He completed Delta last week and is now working on Epsilon.

So what happened?

I believe that giving them the freedom they needed to devote themselves to what was most pressing to them has actually made them study harder in whatever area they are studying at the time. Now, math has suddenly become more important. They feel a need to study math. And, because I am not standing over them, pushing my idea of what they need, they are naturally drawn towards what they know they need for their future.

P.S. Check out this book The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook which also has similar stories to my own. This book is not TJED or Leadership Education based, but has a similar philosophy.

August '09 - Week 1

I love homeschooling! I know you have heard it before, but I just wanted to say it again. Sam was with us the first two days this week and I discussed with her how I wished she had homeschooled. She has ALWAYS insisted that she loves public school, but she finally admitted that it is because of social reasons. HA! I always knew it, but it was nice to hear her say it. She also admitted that she enjoys being with us during our Kid School discussions because she learns "how the world REALLY works".

Devotional - Daily reading of "Let Him Ask of God"

Government - Introduction to "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen - This lead into a 2 hour discussion of current events, how it relates to the past, and the mistakes of the past that are being repeated. We also got into topics of economics, cycles in history, budgeting and how interest works. Very powerful day.

History - Middle Ages - Still working on making chain mail - Reading: Stories of Beowulf Told to Children and Story of the World, Vol. 2. "Beowulf the Hero"

Science - Chemistry - "Concepts and Challenges of Physical Science" Chapter 1 - Scientific method and basic skills.

Read A-Loud - "The Diamond of Darkhold" and "Little House on the Prairie"

Individual Phases and Studies

• Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making - Reading: "Tricksters Choice"
  
• Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making - Reading: "Warrior Heir"
  
• Samantha (Practice Scholar) - Reading: "The Hunger Games" - Studying for SAT and ACT tests and preparing for her first week at school starting next week. Can't believe she is a Senior this year!
  
• Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Reading: "Anne of Green Gables"
  

MOM NOTES: We also spent two days gathering firewood, hauling it back to our house, and stacking it up neatly to be split later. It was probably the hardest we have ever worked before! - right up there with moving.

Key #5 - Inspire, Not Require

Another installment on Leadership Education principles:

One of the hardest principles to implement from the Eight Keys of Great Teaching is Inspire, Not Require. Most of us grew up with a Conveyor Belt Education where we were "required" to finish certain educational goals whether we were emotionally, mentally, or physically ready to accomplish them. Because of this, we have a very hard time grasping the concept of how to Inspire, Not Require. I know it was very hard for me at first...maybe I'm the only one, but I don't think so.

Let's think about this example:
When we teach our children to walk do we stand them up in the middle of the floor and say, "OK, little Johnny, you are going to learn to walk today. You have until 3:00 pm today to learn to walk. We have discussed how to balance, how to place one foot in front of the other, switch our weight to that foot and then place the other one. I've even shown you every day how this is to be done. If you don't learn how to walk today, then we will have to hold you back from learning to eat by yourself."

This may seem ridiculous, but it is how we educate children around the country, even around the world. Do we take into consideration if the child knows how to balance? Or how to place their feet? In learning to walk, it seems that all parents instinctively know that it is up to the child to master this concept as time goes by, eventually mastering the process without any formal instruction. We allow them to toddle around the couch, hold onto our fingers, we clap when they take their first steps without help, and we laugh with them joyfully when they can walk by themselves across the room.

So why don't we continue this process for all education? Is it so far fetched to think that there are other things besides learning to walk that can be applied in this way? I say, "No!" We can teach our children in this way in most subjects; physical, mental, and emotional.

How does this apply to Inspire, Not Require?
Let's think about why children want to learn to walk. They see other people walking. They think, "Walking seems faster than crawling. Maybe I want to do that too. If they can do it, I can do it!" The child then begins to imitate what they see - they are inspired by others to do what they do.

Children and young adults naturally want to do what others around them do, especially if it seems important to them. All that this key principle really means is that the adults and other peers in a child's life show them what an education looks like, feels like, and smells like. Reading books is enjoyable because the stories are interesting and bring ideas to our minds that we never thought about before. Math is important to learn because Dad uses it to measure for shelves in the closet and Mom uses it to make cookies. Science is fun because we learn about animals, nature, and the world around us. So you see, it is not nearly as mysterious as it sounds. We have already parented and educated our children in this way in younger years. We now just need to continue to use this method as they grow into adulthood.