Changing Education Paradigms

This is another TED talk I came across… it’s quite short and easily digestable (although it seems to end quite abruptly… there may be more somewhere.. 😀 )

Very interesting, and I agree with a lot of what he’s saying…
Our homeschooling journey has evolved over the last few years… I went through the school system (and, by and large, enjoyed it..) so my initial focus was on workbooks and standardised testing. I’ve drifted over to the unschooling side of things since then, although I still cling to “the rules” a bit 😀 .
I think, at the moment, that we should go with the best of both worlds… I agree that divergent thinking is an important trait in any educational situation – the ability to learn, to use the information given, is more important than amassing facts with no connection to reality.
Having said that, I still want my boys to learn facts! I still feel the need for some sort of structure… I don’t want them to get to graduation and realise we forgot to cover an essential subject! I can’t help thinking, though, that a lot of that is based in my fear rather than reality…
A friend posted a link to the updated Australian Curriculum… I haven’t checked it out completely, but I will find it helpful as a basic guideline..

I want my boys to –
Stay curious…
Keep an open mind..
Question!
Be able to distinguish between fact and opinion..
Be flexible..
See, experience, and explore the whole, beautiful wide world out there!

I still need to find the balance between structure and… non-structure? 😀 I think they are steadily learning each day… both in their different ways…. and, in the end, we learn/discover/grow for a lot longer than twelve school years…

 

Published in: on May 16, 2012 at 10:22 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Talking With God

Today was one of those bleah-what-shall-we-do-for-school type of days… I don’t want the boys to get too much into the workbooks-as-drudgery thinking (although it’s sort of hard not to…)
Thankfully, our combined Bible readings this morning led us into thinking and talking about how God talks to us, and the importance of listening and letting Him guide us….
…. and there was our curriculum for the day!!

I wrote down five aspects of life – Personal, Spiritual, Social, Work, and Giving Out (Mission). I then had the boys take time to pray specifically through each one, and write down anything that came to them…. at this point, there was no “wrong” – it was mostly an exercise in hearing, and I didn’t want them talking themselves out of something that God was saying, but that didn’t seem “normal”, or “comfortable” 😀

After this part, they could then pray through again, and check….

… and then they were to draw it all up into a sort of mind map, with lots of colour and illustration  (note to self – little beans’ notion of “lots” vastly differs from mine….) They spent the morning on it, and took it seriously… results were very interesting!
I love it when God steps in to everyday life! 😀

Published in: on May 9, 2012 at 9:01 pm  Leave a Comment  
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