Earlier this week a good friend introduced me to Logan LaPlante. Logan is a 13 year old homeschooled teen that lives in Tahoe. I loved the confidence this 13 year old demonstrated when presenting at their local TEDx conference. He is self-assured, funny, charismatic, bright, enthusiastic and hungry to learn… His presentation is about Hackschooling, which is so Montessori (follow the child)!! He wants to focus on how to THRIVE in life. This boy gets it! That is our goal as parents, to Teach our Children How to Thrive! Let me introduce you to Logan!
Logan started his presentation with THE question children hear most often… “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. I don’t know about you, but I’m almost fifty years old and I’m still trying to answer that question for myself! And that is my point. For most of us, we are still dabbling, attempting to identify those things that bring us the most shalom (Hebrew for peace, completeness, wholeness). I don’t think most of us had the luxury of even contemplating what those things might be when we were younger.
I love the question that Logan posed… “What if we based education on the study and practice of being happy and healthy”? Here at Live and Learn Farm, we are focused on doing just that! We teach our children that thriving is more important than JUST having a job; being happy (in life and career) is more important than being wealthy; and our health is more valuable than gold. We focus on trying to help our children determine what they love to do, so they can explore career choices doing “that”. I’ve come to the conclusion … if you love your work, it’s never a chore!
Our faith, our love of nature, and our belief in life-long learning is the foundation that everything else is built upon. Introducing experiences and encouraging exploration is an important aspect of our homeschool, in other words, we encourage our boys to “practice” being happy, healthy and engaged! Currently they are engaged in art, music, writing, photography, gardening, sports, camping, hiking, raising farm animals, game development, and slide motion videos as various past-times. Some of these are new interests and some are waning interests… but they are all being explored and we, as parents, are actively encouraging them.
WE have to be the innovators on how we educate our children. Are we going to take the easy way out? Remember the children are watching! Are we going to use a curriculum that keeps our children in the house, on the computer or in a book? Or do want them living and experiencing life as they learn their curriculum? In order to encourage our children to think differently, to live life differently, to focus on things other than the dollar or the easy way out… we have to model it for them! Just like photographers and artists look at landscapes differently, we must do the same! We only get one chance with our children… I encourage you to examine everything you teach, how you teach it, and why. Examine what you are modeling… I challenge you today to take their curriculum to the next level. Refocus, recommit and re-engage! Teach your children how to thrive!!!
Until next time….
Trish Corlew
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I really enjoyed reading your article and listening to Logan speak. Oh, oh the possibilities of home schooling or should I say, “Hackschooling.” So, so glad I did it.
Amazing! I saw your link (Trish L.) on Linked In (ironically enough 😉 and had to have a look. I am a Debate, Public Speaking and Theatre teacher by profession so I was very impressed by Logan’s talk and I could tell that he was the “real deal” and he truly knew what he was talking about. I have been writing about ideas like your farm school for years now and wondering if I would ever get the opportunity to work at something like that in my lifetime. I also have done a lot of reading on Democratic Pedagogy and Sudsbury model and I find that it is quite consistent with what you are doing and how Logan appears to be learning. I am not as familiar with Montessori because I have typically focused on Secondary education and as you know most Secondary education scenarios move far away from anything unlike the typical style of education.
My wife and I have now been teaching overseas for 12 years and I have recently left teaching in a single school to start my own educational consulting business here in Mexico (D.F.). I am in the process of trying to create an after-school school that focuses on theatre, debate and public speaking as a means to enrich students. I am currently working on the business plan for the school as well as the curriculum. However, what Logan’s very eloquent talk reminded me of is the fact that I have been teaching in a school setting for so long that I need to rethink how I can be more self critical of my process and style of teaching/learning to reconstruct my curriculum in a way that is more accessible to the students, as well as more enjoyable, and less like the standard classroom.
Thanks for the reminder! Great job!
Mark Webber
http://webbersconsulting.com/
Trish, while I was posting my comment Brad posted his third installment of the series of articles that the read. This third article is talking about EXACTLY what I was talking about although I erroneously added one extra S to the name. It is Sudbury model.
Have a look,
Mark
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130506174323-101631122-school-fun-a-new-model-part-3?trk=mp-reader-card
Mark it is SOOO Montessori without using the name. Watch this about the founders of Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C_DQxpX-Kw… And research it!!! You will LOVE it!