Teaching Kids a Problem Solving Process

One of the major complaints I have with a lot of education is it's focus on content. A teacher shares knowledge about some topic, and tests for recall of that knowledge. Traditional instruction calls this process learning. Even formulae in math are often applied without a background understanding of how they came to be in the first place. The problem with this idea for me is that you can never learn enough content to solve all the problems you are facing. Let's say you get taught biology and then call yourself "educated". You mastered the content, passed the tests and call it good.

Well you go out into the world, and encounter a novel problem. Low and behold, the problem is an anthropology problem. So you are hosed. You go back to school, master anthropology and figure you are finally "educated". However when you go back out into the real world, you encounter an unexpected problem and the problem is related to history, of which you have little or no content in your brain. So you go back to school and learn history, only to go out into the real world, only to find a psychology problem. And so it goes. You can never learn enough content, you can never put enough content into your head to solve all the varied problems life is going to present to you.

Actually it's even worse than that. What could be worse? You can't go to public gatherings and discuss things half way intelligently, because someone is always talking about something you didn't study. So no polite discussion, you become a social outcast, and spend the rest of your life as a hermit or hermitess.

What is missing is that content is NOT king. It is important, but without a process, or a framework or a method of attacking problems for which you don't already have the answer for in your brain, you are in trouble.

There are many processes or problem solving frameworks that help our kids get to a solution, when at first they don't have content knowledge. When I give models for problem solving to my children in addition to content, I teach them HOW to fish instead of giving them a fish. I encourage them to feel the success of learning on their own, and becoming independent of me.

So here is the problem solving process in this article mentioned in the previous post: (this article is about Problem Based Learning in a Medical School Environment)

The Educational Goals for the Learners

The facilitator’s (home school parent's) overall educational goals for the students were for them to be able to
(1) explain disease processes responsible for a patient’s symptoms and signs and describe what interventions can be undertaken,
(2) employ an effective reasoning process,
(3) be aware of knowledge limitations,
(4) meet knowledge needs through self-directed learning and social knowledge construction, and 5) evaluate their learning and performance.

So if these are the goals for the learners, what were the goals that the "teacher/parent" needed to keep in mind for their performance?

The facilitator’s (parent's) performance goals were to
(1) keep all students active in the learning process,
(2) keep the learning process on track,
(3) make the students’ thoughts and their depth of understanding apparent, and
(4) encourage students to become self-reliant for direction and information.

Isn't this cool? It is to me.

To paraphrase, for my kids at home:

1) Help them identify the real problem
2) Help them think through what steps the need to take to get to the solution
3) What do they already know about the problem?
4) Where do they need to go to get more information?
5) Review with them after they have come up with their best solution the process they went though and the results it led them too, in order to reinforce the success they just had.

Doing this, enables our children to carry this sign on their chest... CAPABLE.

Late Night Reading

I am reading, tonight, yet another journal article for one of my graduate classes. I do a fair amount of this kind of reading. I don't understand everything I read the first time, but usually on the second pass, I begin to catch more of the meaning. Overall, I am getting better at it after a year working on a Masters Degree than at the beginning.

This article is about Problem Based Learning. But as I read, I feel I am reading a story about the model home schooling environment contrasted with the traditional public school approach. While not all public classrooms operate in a "teacher-tell" manner, many still do. Teachers sadly, end up often teaching as they were taught, if not in every respect, at least in most fundamental ways. I felt to share two excerpts to demonstrate what I mean...

Excerpt One

The goals and beliefs that teachers hold help frame the strategies that they implement. Schoenfeld (1998), through detailed analyses of expert and novice teachers, examined how teachers’ knowledge, goals, and beliefs lead them to implement action plans. In his study, the novice teacher used a teacher-centered approach, (1) asking known-answer questions, (2) listening to students’ responses, and then (3) evaluating the responses. For example, when teaching a lesson on exponents, this teacher (1a) asked for the answer to a problem, (2a) the student responded correctly that he subtracted, and the teacher (3a) answered “OK,” an evaluation of the response. The teacher asked the student what he subtracted and then elaborated on the student’s correct response. All this proceeded according to the teacher’s plan. This teacher believed that the students’ responses provided springboards for teacher explanations. When students’ responses diverged (as in the student didn't have the correct answer), [the teacher's] limited pedagogical content knowledge prevented him from adapting his plan. Later, on a more difficult problem, students’ responses were not what the teacher expected, and the teacher had to generate an alternative example. TThe students did not understand the connection between the new example and the original problem, and they did not produce an answer that the teacher could use to build an explanation as in the earlier example. he teacher did not have an understanding of how incorrect student responses could be a window into their understanding and how these understandings could be used to focus discussions.

Excerpt Two

In contrast, Schoenfeld (1998) found very different results in the analyses of expert teachers (Jim Minstrell and Deborah Ball). Minstrell viewed learning as a sense-making activity and used questioning in productive ways. The lesson studied focused on issues of measurement in everyday contexts. Rather than being driven by a topic from the text, as with the novice teacher, the lesson was driven by problem-centered discussions. The teacher used questioning to guide student thinking. In particular, he used a technique called the reflective toss. (otherwise known as rephrasing) In the reflective toss, the teacher takes the meaning of a student statement and throws responsibility for elaboration back to the student. (ie. "Can you share your thoughts using other words?) He used these statements to help students clarify meaning, consider a variety of views, and monitor their own thinking. For example, as students were discussing how one might decide what number might be a best value from a list of measurements, a student noted that one number in a list was repeated several times. Minstrell asked the student for clarification (using the rephrasing technique) and if there were any other repeated numbers. Another student proposed what was essentially a formula for a weighted average. This was unexpected. As Minstrell asked the students for further explanation, they developed a formula for calculating the weighted average. Ball’s classroom was more student-centered; her goal was to develop a particular type of intellectual community in which the pursuit of mathematical ideas was highly valued. She juggled competing goals as the students and teachers co-constructed the agenda. She started her elementary mathematics class by asking students for comments on the previous days’ lessons. They then discussed issues related to their understanding.

What are the characteristics of a model PBL, or home schooling teacher? (Substitute PBL Teacher or PBL Facilitator with Homeschooling parent)

The PBL method requires students to become responsible for their own learning. The PBL teacher is a facilitator of student learning, and his/her interventions diminish as students progressively take on responsibility for their own learning processes. This method is characteristically carried out in small, facilitated groups and takes advantage of the social aspect of learning through discussion, problem solving, and study with peers (Hmelo-Silver, 2004). The facilitator guides students in the learning process, pushing them to think deeply, and models the kinds of questions that students need to be asking themselves, thus forming a cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et al., 1989). As a cognitive apprenticeship, PBL situates learning in complex problems (Hmelo-Silver, 2004). Facilitators make key aspects of expertise visible through questions that scaffold student learning through modeling, coaching, and eventually fading back some of their support. In PBL the facilitator is an expert learner, able to model good strategies for learning and thinking, rather than providing expertise in specific content. This role is critical, as the facilitator must continually monitor the discussion, selecting and implementing appropriate strategies as needed. As students become more experienced with PBL, facilitators can fade their scaffolding until finally the learners adopt much of their questioning role. Student learning occurs as students collaboratively engage in constructive processing. (A subtle sales pitch for larger families ;-).

(The article is entitled "Goals and Strategies of a Problem-based Learning Facilitator, by
Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver and Howard S. Barrows, http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.lib.purdue.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1004%26context%3Dijpbl&ei=cx7ESp3DG4XitgP2gc2eCg&usg=AFQjCNHqEkVVidHdea0sHnsgqM4OGGs7cQ&sig2=1qTnZGlIn6PY1Byzkwhq5A)

The article begins with a simple example of a gradeschool classroom and moves to a medical school, where Problem Based Learning is used in much the same way to prepare medical students over a two year period for their NBDE-1 exam.

My point is sharing this, is to reinforce how simple teaching and learning at home can be. As I have asked my children about their home schooling experience, it was the projects, and major work projects like adding on to the house, and remodeling, and building of go karts and hover crafts, that presented meaningful problems and validating solutions as they figured it out.

Maybe this isn't for everyone. I am so thankful it was for our kids and family though.

How Hard Do You Want Him To Try To Help You?

Got this from my son David who heard it in a talk by President Clark at BYUI. I think I have this right. Which quadrant are you in vis-a-vis your children? Which quadrant are the best parents in? Which quadrant is God in as it relates to us as His children?

Creating Converts...

Again from Barrows.

Is Problem-Based Learning Worth the Trouble? (subheading in the article)

Interestingly, this question is usually raised by people who are asked to consider the possibility of a problem based curriculum without having ever been involved in, or observing problem based learning. Once anyone is involved as a PBL tutor and has the opportunity of seeing what students can do when given permission to think and learn on their own, he or she usually becomes a convert. Faculty members can see how students think, what they know and how they are learning. This allows teachers to intervene early with students having trouble before it becomes a more difficult issue. Faculty members work with alert, motivated, turned-on minds in a collegial manner that has no equal. This is quite different from lecturing to a passive and often bored array of students whose understanding of the subject the teacher can only deduce indirectly from their answers to test questions."

WOW!

I Bet This Sounds Weird...

Do you want your children to be dependent learners? I mean dependent on a teacher to learn?

In some readings I am doing, Barrows shares some teaching approaches that make students dependent on teachers in medical learning situations.

Making Students Dependent on Teachers

1. Directive Teachers, 2. Providing teacher driven learning expectations, 3. By pairing reading assignments with problems, 4. Telling students what they should know, 5. Faculty generated multiple choice questions to assess.

Imagine being treated by a doctor who did really well on multiple choice questions but still needs to turn to the teacher when presented with your health problem?

Maybe that is how Obama is going to come up with Doctors to serve his ficticious 50 Million people who he says don't have insurance?

Call your teacher during the operation because you came up against something you hadn't seen before?

Medical knowledge on demand for surgeons. Of course this won't work. The point is that medical institutions have changed the way they teach medicine to encourage students to inquire themselves, free inquiry actually, and learn what models, frameworks and patterns of diagnosing work as they gather, sift through and conclude from information surrounding a patients presenting problems, as their learning model.

Why do we think our kids deserve any less for their lives. Do we want them to be less capable than the best doctor? Less capable at all? Yet we often continue using the same dependance creating methods with our own children.

It worked for me, right?

Dewey

One of the great influencers of education in the first half of the 20th century was John Dewey. A controversial figure, he stirred the pot by asking questions about how children learn. This in contrast to how must something be taught? It seems funny that a teacher would look at a subject, decide how to teach it, and give little or no thought to the audience and how they might best receive the information so as to put it to good use. Yet, as we all know, that happens all the time. It is a very hard thing, I am finding out, to ask first, "what makes instruction interesting to my student audience?"

I made this chart from some writings of Dewey as found in Malcolm Knowles book, "The Adult Learner." Never mind that a Dewey quote about adult learning may apply to children. It seems it does, quite nicely.

Here is the chart:

Sorry it is so small. How do these ideas apply to educating children at home? Go ahead and give it some thought?

Cornerstones Are Very Hard

In the old days of constructing a building, a major milestone after digging down for the foundation, was the setting of the cornerstone. Once the cornerstone was in place, all other measurements for the foundation were made from it. The other stones in the corners were placed as well. Then the distance wide, the distance long and then the distance diagonally from all corners could be measured and confirmed so that you knew the foundation was the right size and that it was square. From there, the rest of the foundation stones were put in place. On top of those stones, the rest of the building could be built and if true to the foundation, it also would be square, and strong. It all began with the cornerstone.

What I am going to share may not be the cornerstone, but I do believe that it is one of the stones in the corners. It was a statement I read in the book by Malcolm Knowles "The Adult Learner". I shared it with several professional educators, and universally, they agreed to it, but also said, they had never thought of "teaching" that way. It is a short statement, which I think contributed to the power of it. He said, "... the learning theory subscribed to by a teacher will influence his or her teaching theory." (Knowles, p. 73) What does this mean? It struck me that what we believe about how a student learns, causes us to make decisions about the methods we choose to teach with. It is often, but not always, a cause and effect relationship.

So what assumptions do most teachers make about who their students are and how they learn?

What assumptions to the "teachers" of our children make and what teaching methods, then do they use?

How do these assumptions made by teachers or parents about how students/children learn, impact the generations of future adults?

Answering these questions, I believe goes right to the heart of why we chose to home school.

If Cyndy and I make the same assumptions about how children learn and choose the same methods that the public environment employ, the only difference is that we are a smaller group and hopefully a warmer environment. But we still pass on to our kids, the same traditions as the public school environment, because we may have made largely, the same assumptions.

However, if we send our children to the public school, especially, in the younger, formative years, we have no chance to change the assumptions made by others about how our children learn and therefore the assumptions about how our children should be taught.

At least at home, the opportunity exists that we as parents can adopt new assumptions about how children learn. Outside the home, those choices and their consequences are made for us and passed on to yet another generation, who in turn will most likely make the same assumptions about learning and teaching when they begin families of their own.

Much like my professional educator friends, our children as future parents, will most likely not question these assumptions, just as we have not, of how their children learn and therefore the assumptions underlying how they are taught. Our children will mostly likely, as so many parents do, pass on the traditions of the fathers. Whether the assumptions are correct or beneficial it will not matter. Even if there is a stunting effect on the use of agency by children in learning as a result of these choices it will not matter, because the assumptions are not questioned.

And even if someone suggests that the very purpose of life is that we as students are to "learn by our own experience" i.e. use of agency or freedom of choice, to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, or how to spell correctly, we risk quietly dismissing even the thought.

However, I need to point out, adopting the assumption that children are primarily empty vessels that must be filled and "teachers" are just the people to do the filling, is a much easier to do, than to create an environment where children learn for themselves what they need to learn, by being confronted with choices and learning from the results of their choices.

I am confident, though, that if we ask ourselves the question, "How can I help them learn for themselves what the need to learn?" and persist in asking ourselves this question, the answers will eventually come. We may not like the timing of the learning, but we can be comforted that they will have learned for themselves because we adopted a method that mirrors sound, even heavenly, patterns. This stone contributes to the foundation being correctly laid and the building fitly framed.

It's All About You! #2

I want to recommend a book for parents of home schoolers to read. This book isn't about home schooling. It's about parents who want to be an example of life long learning. In the last post, I brought up Covey's pyramid of influence. It says that the base of the pyramid is example. So if a parent wants more influence with a child, you at least know where to begin. We begin with example, how we live, what we value, what our actions teach our children day in and day out even when we don't say a word.

The book title is, "The Meaning of Adult Education" by Eduard C. Lindeman.

Here are a few quotes from the first chapter:


"Youth educated in terms of adult ideas and taught to think of learning as a process which ends when real life begins will make no better use of intelligence than the elders who prescribe the sysem." p. 3

"From many quarters comes the call to a new kind of education with its initial assumption affirming the education is life - not a mere preparation for an unknown kind of future living." p. 4

"Every adult person finds himself in specific situations with respect to his work, his recreation, his family-life, his community-life, et cetera- situations which call for adjustments. Adult education begins at this point. Subject matter is brought into the situation, is put to work, when needed. Texts and teachers play a new and secondary role in this type of education; they must give way to the primary importance of the learner." p. 6

"...the resource of highest value in adult education is the learner's experience... Psychology is teaching us, however, that we learn what we do, and that therefore all genuine education will keep doing and thinking together. Life becomes rational, meaningful, as we learn to be intelligent about things we do and the things that happen to us." p. 7

"...we should find cumulative joys in searching out the reasonable meaning of the events in which we play parts... Experience is the adult learner's living textbook." p. 7

For each of these quotes, I have something personal in mind. But instead of sharing that at this point, if you have a moment in your busy life, I ask you simply to read each of these quotes and ask yourself, "Why is Mark so excited about this one that he would share it?"

I will say, that one of Cyndy's most endearing qualities, is her excitement for learning things, researching things and reading about all kinds of things. For instance, for mothers' day, I knew I had a winner of a gift, when we went to listen to David McCollough, the author of 1776 and John Adams. Here is a guy who is an adult learner. When he finds something he is curious about, he finds out about it.

I think of so many friends we know, who I have observed, in the middle of a situation in their lives, and reach out to figure it out. That is when they have been the happiest. I love their energy. I think of one guy, who coaches youth sports and can't get enough about all kinds of techniques, methods, and strategies for coaching this sport well. Want to build a raft? Then read up on it and do it. Learning and doing are meant to go together.

As adults, one way we can "live for our kids" is by doing a little living for ourselves from time to time, apart from them. Our own interests, our own learning, our own curiosities, etc. What is wrong with getting excited about finally reading AND understanding "King Lear" by Shakespeare? Finding someone who can help us understand the tougher lines, and the enjoying it all the more?

One thing I have learned here at school, is this:

I can think of some people, a lot of people, for whom my life experience may not mean much. However, it makes a huge difference to me, when I am studying here. Almost everything I am studying here has deeper meaning, much deeper meaning, for me, because I have put 57 years of wear on this body and mind. I am going to finish this degree and get a diplomma. However improving my education didn't require I go here. I have rediscovered that true education is being curious about things I am doing, and doesn't require going to a building or listening to a professor. This is the education we should never stop getting.

This is the adult education that we can be an example of as we attempt to influence our children and their education. It's all about us!

Another link you might enjoy: www.infed.org/lifelonglearning/b-life.htm

Once Again, You Are The Answer

I have a week before I dive in again. I have been preparing for this summer's classes. I have the syllabi, have ordered the books, and as I receive them I begin to study them so that when we go over them again on course, it sinks in a little better. Such is the life of this 57 year old graduate student. One class I am preparing for has offered again some gems for home schooling parents of all kinds. The ideas are simple and short.

Covey talks about a Pyramid of influence. As home schooling parents we definitely want "influence" with our kids. So this model is of extreme importance.



Our focus as home educators is helping our children learn for themselves the things they need to learn. So using the pyramid of influence, we begin with our personal example. How are we examples of personal learning to our children. What makes up the example we set for them, of personal learning?

First, it helps to recognize that we as adults are no longer children. Our example then will be the example of adult learning. How is adult learning different from the learning of our children? How has the mileage of the years changed us when it comes to learning?

Malcolm Knowles is considered by many to be the father of adult learning. He had an experience I want to share that exemplifies for me, the foundational difference between how kids learn and how adults must learn. This example led Knowles to a lifetime of study about adult learning/adult education. If I have it right, he coined the term "Andragogy" the study of how adults learn and must be taught. If we get this, our feet are firmly set on the path of being an example of personal learning. As an example of personal learning, we have the foundation of influence we need to impact the lives of our children for good in learning.

The Story:

The birth of the modern theory of adult learning, known as andragogy, occurred in 1946 at a Boston YMCA. A young director of adult education organized a course on astronomy and arranged for a local university professor to teach the class. Although initially enthusiastic, the students quickly became bored with the passive lecture experience and attendance dwindled until the course was finally canceled.

Trying again, the YMCA director rescheduled the course and this time invited a member of the amateur astronomers' club to lead the group of students. As soon as the students arrived for their first class, the new teacher escorted them to the roof of the YMCA and asked them to gaze into the night sky. While they looked up, the teacher asked them what it was they noticed most and what they wanted to learn. Their questions formed the basis for the rest of the course and the teacher led discussions with a telescope on hand for ready use. This experiential method of teaching was popular with the students and the class enrollment swelled.

The young YMCA director, named Malcolm Knowles, took note of the different teaching styles and their dramatically different outcomes. The method of teaching to adult learners' interests and actively engaging the students in their own discovery became the structure Knowles would use for all of the YMCA courses. The astronomy class also marked the beginning of Knowles' lifelong exploration towards understanding adult learning. Link

There seem to be several "lists" of the implications of this experience as Knowles worked through them all. Here are a few. I don't get them all yet, because if I did I wouldn't be taking the class and doing the reading right now. So just slug through them and see if this makes sense for you.

The Short List

Knowles' theories of adult learning are complex, but his conclusions can be summarized into four main points:
1. Adults need to know why they are learning something. They should be told how it effects them directly.
2. Adults have a repository of lifetime experiences that should be tapped as a resource for ongoing learning. Similarly, adult learners bring various levels of prior exposure to any topic and that fact should be acknowledged.
3. Adults use a hands-on problem-solving approach to learning. Rote memorization of facts and figures should be avoided.
4. Adults want to apply new knowledge and skills immediately. Retention decreases if the learning is applied only at some future point in time. (The original Article)

(Remember the point of these lists is to help you come to understand yourself as an adult learner, how you are different as a learner from when you were a kid, and how you can become a powerful example of a learner now, (being an adult) so that you set an example of being a learner, in order to increase your influence with your children in their education. Whew!)


The Longer List

Adults should acquire a mature understanding of themselves.
Adults should develop an attitude of acceptance, love, and respect toward others.
Adults should develop a dynamic attitude toward life.
Adults should learn to react to the causes, not the symptoms, of behavior.
Adults should acquire the skills necessary to achieve the potentials of their personalities.
Adults should understand the essential values in the capital of human experience.
Adults should understand their society and should be skillful in directing social change.
Original Article
(Remember the point of these lists is to help you come to understand yourself as an adult learner, how you are different as a learner from when you were a kid, and how you can become a powerful example of a learner now, (being an adult) so that you set an example of being a learner, in order to increase your influence with your children in their education. Whew!)


The Longest of the Lists

SKILLS OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING

1. The ability to develop and be in touch with curiosities. Perhaps another way to describe this skill would be "the ability to engage in divergent thinking."

2. The ability to perceive one's self objectively and accept feedback about one's performance non-defensively

3. The ability to diagnose one's learning needs in the light of models of competencies required for performing life roles.

4.The ability to formulate learning objectives in terms that describe performance outcomes.

5.The ability to identify human, material, and experiential resources for accomplishing various kinds of learning objectives.

6.The ability to design a plan of strategies for making use of appropriate learning resources effectively.

7.The ability to carry out a learning plan systematically and sequentially. This skill is the beginning of the ability to engage in convergent thinking.

8.The ability to collect evidence of the accomplishment of learning objectives and have it validated through performance.

(If you want to read in greater depth, read here.Original Article

(Remember the point of these lists is to help you come to understand yourself as an adult learner, how you are different as a learner from when you were a kid, and how you can become a powerful example of a learner now, (being an adult) so that you set an example of being a learner, in order to increase your influence with your children in their education. Whew!)

I am not anxious to take much credit for how well our kids have done academically. We cover that in posts in the past. Our latest success however was William, who scored as a Junior a 27 on his ACT. Not the best in the family, but I think near the best at his age. He is cherry picking some classes at Logan High, music, science. Doing Math, reading and others at home. However, in one small but important area, Cyndy and I can say we have developed influence. Cyndy is always reading and learning and so am I. Even being here at graduate school, which is a gift from God I still can't believe, is sending a message. Life long curiosity and learning is part of the parents who lead this family. It is the example that forms the foundation of influence. It is true, that I could do a lot better at the relationships part of the pyramid. But to the extent that I am ok there, I then can teach with some authority and have influence with my kids. It does, however, begin with me.

I conclude this post, with another pyramid for you to look at. It is my vacation week, and I need to golf. Look this over and see if it speaks something to you. This is not mine. I can't remember where I got it. And I am way far away from understanding this one. My personal journey is still leading to it though. If you want to find out more, look up the books by Ferris and the Arbinger Institute. Here you go.


Love you all.

If you can't beat 'em

The semester is winding down for me, I have a few more projects to complete and then I am done, not that it matters to anyone else by my family. But it does matter to them, and that is the point of this blog.

Reading Pat Buchanan's column today, I had to ask myself the question "what is to be done?" He paints a gloomy picture of a now Godless America with the silent majority finding no way to effectively organize. The "majority" seem unable to compete well with the minority. Isn't that something? That the war on terror, that we thought was in Iraq, is really also here in our own country? The terror imposed by the few who want to control you, has triumphed for now over the many. There are lots of opinions about gay rights, for example. To each their own, as far as opinion goes. But does it strike anyone else as odd, that a group of people who make up less than 10% of the population, have gained so much power, as to destroy the idea of family and marriage when a clear majority almost everywhere, oppose it? The majority doesn't rule any more, the judges do. Unelected, unaccountable to the voting public, judges rule.

So what does this have to do with home schooling? We need to have our tea parties, we need to get together more and make a ruckus, we need to consolidate our opinions and make them known, we need, in short, to be active citizens again, knowing that this is not a skirmish, but a war of significant duration. But while we are doing all of that, we need to be more effective in teaching our kids at home, and turning out bright, intelligent, articulate, informed, friendly, persuasive kids who will be better than us at taking the fight to the enemy.

We may not have this opportunity forever. A government who can take over General Motors, Bank of America and who knows who else, certainly can find the power to take over your home and your children. So this is a time, to redouble our efforts in the home. To make decisions now about the ideas and methods and community that can make our children indefatigable in the defense of truth. It means we have to change. Old patterns in the home may not be enough. It requires walking away from some things, for better things.

I spoke with a neighbor a few weeks, ago. A wealthy physician, who downsized willingly a few years ago, because he decided for himself, that he just didn't need the overhead, trappings and entanglement that had been his life up to that point. Others thought he was crazy. I am sure he lost a few golfing partners and the like. But he walked away from some good things, toward better things. He left other things behind, as he walked toward many things better. It was change for him. It had it's moments of discomfort to be sure. Yet, it was a change based on true principles, and as such, a change that has proven itself to be of great worth to him personally and his family as well, including his kids, who also had to change along with the family.

We need to fight this terror war. We need to stand up against those who would use terror and power to destroy our families. We fight at home and we fight in the public square. But make no mistake about it. We are in a time of war, right here at home.

I encourage us all, to take time, a couple of date nights, and rethink how we can redouble our efforts at home, educationally and spiritually. It is kind of a paradox. We need to walk away from some things so we can walk toward others. We walk away from the prevailing value set that is destroying our country as it relates to our homes so we can set things right in our homes. As things get more right at home, we are more free to walk toward others in the marketplace of ideas and directly do battle with them using truth as our armor and swords, knowing things are getting better at home. These efforts need to happen simultaneously, meaning both the home and marketplace engagement. And these efforts need to cross religious boundaries. This is a time where we can't do it alone. For our future peace and for the peace of generations to come, we must fortify our homes and we must take back the control of our government to set things right.

Environment of Trust

How important is trust in the education of your child? Trust between you and them. Trust between siblings?

How effective is instruction in a home where parents don't trust one another?

What if you were sending your children to a public school, and found out that the faculty and staff there had little or no trust one for another? Would you consider that the lack of trust between teachers would have an impact on your child?

Trust is the foundational element in all human relationships. I suppose we begin a relationship with a certain assumption of trust. Then over time our assumption is either vindicated or eroded based on experience.

Trust grows or wanes like this:



From Wikipedia, "In 1958 [William] Schutz introduced a theory of interpersonal relations he called Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO). According to the theory three dimensions of interpersonal relations were deemed to be necessary and sufficient to explain most human interaction. The dimensions are: Inclusion, Control and Affection. These dimensions have been used to assess group dynamics."

Trust then, grows or wanes in these three areas much like this diagram.



Schultz makes the point, that each of these three areas must be developed at a reasonable depth between people in order for productive human relationships to be experienced.

For instance, some people who have been abused or who have been abusers, have very low trust scores generally. Therefore in the area of control, they often need over-under relationships with other people instead of equal relationships. One way they accomplish this is passive resistance, showing up late to meetings, etc. President Clinton and his wife are notorious for this behavior, as is President Obama. Shouting down other people. Using moods to manipulate others, staring others down when a disagreement ensues, all because they need total control of not only their own environment, but of others as well.

Similar behaviors are also found in the areas of inclusion and affection. Inclusion asks "am I in or am I out?" Others want to keep others out, especially when they are insecure about their own position or feel they are hiding something. Affection asks the question, "how close are we going to get?" Some people, needing to hide something or because of fear, keep others at a distance or pick one or two as their objects of affection, excluding others. These are scarcity mentalities in any case.

In any group, when major violations of trust have occurred, back stabbing, back biting, blocking, hindering, etc. the group finds itself stuck cycling around and around with no way for progress to be made in the group dynamic.

The point of this is that growing children is like growing plants. It's a lot about the environment. Whether at home or at a public school, when the environment is over controlling, lacking inclusion and affection, the children may do their duty and continue the educational experience, but they will not escape without harm, sometimes significant harm.

If you were to measure your trust environment, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you measure it?

Online Instruction Opportunity

It's another great day at USU. As many of you know who follow our blog, I decided a year ago to pursue an advanced degree in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University. After 27 years of home schooling I decided this was much more of a passion for me than business. It is a leap of faith, but so far we see the Lord's hand powerfully in our lives.

I have the opportunity in one class this semester to create some online instruction for K-12 age students. As I understand the assignment, I need to create a few modules on a subject, put them on our Moodle server and then have some students try them out and give feedback. Besides being online, the other requirements are that the are free and that they use a constructivist methodology. While some on the list, might be aware of constructivism, it is unlikely that as K-12 students many of you were exposed to it. This learning theory, in a few words, believes that individual construct knowledge as they are exposed to stimuli by adding it to existing knowledge. Instead of knowledge being "out there" that we need to ingest, knowledge is "in here" and constructed by each individual differently. Constructivist courses are often uncomfortable at first, because individuals are "waiting" for someone to tell them how it is. When they realize that they are expected to come to their own conclusions, it is a bit unsettling, but over time, becomes very worthwhile. (Last semester a group of three of us constructed a traditional instruction set about a part of PMG that supports the institute class I teach at USU Institute. It has proven to be very successful with students, though traditional. I mention this because I am supposed to be able to develop instruction using a variety of learning theories. So, while I am a constructivist at heart, I do get the other sides of things)

If any of you have ideas for courses you would like to share for our team to consider I would be very pleased to receive these ideas and have our group consider them. I am told we are not going to produce an entire course. It might be only a few modules.

If you are interested in an online experience for any of your children such as I have described, please send me topic ideas, age ranges and provide me a valid email address which I will keep private so that I can eventually give you access. The topic doesn't matter to me as we will be utilizing an outside expert for the topic we choose for guidance.

There may be other online offerings you are already using that I am unaware of. My bet, however, is that they are more traditional in approach. This can be good or bad depending on your point of view.

Thank you so much for your consideration of this opportunity.

Mark and Cyndy Weiss
http://trustthechildren.blogspot.com
d.m.weiss@aggiemail.usu.edu
dadweiss@gmail.com

Personal Learning in 2009

When I was a little boy, and the space program was in full bloom, I used to stay up all night waiting for the launch of a rocket into space. An image that always intrigued me was an astronaut surrounded by switches and gauges and knobs. He had all this control and information at his fingertips. It was all very fascinating to me then. this picture of a Boeing Cockpit will have to do, but you get the picture.

I partially fulfilled the dream of experiencing this myself when I became a pilot. While I think that world of a private pilot is still way to complicated with too many knobs and instruments, learning to combine all the information from all the instruments into my mind to help me travel safely from one place to another was fulfilling and satisfying. I guess that is why I miss it so much right now.

In a similar way, there is an idea for personal learning that I have been introduced to this last few months that has some of the same thrill and feeling of control I felt flying.

The idea is having your own personal learning environment and the giving it a bit of time each day.

Here is a link to a movie about 10 things you can do in 10 minutes that can help you in your personal learning quests. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akAfCrOVhrM]

Here are some links to maps others have made that describe their own virtual personal learning environment. Before you go there, please please understand that mine isn't as complete or complicated as theirs, nor will it ever be. So think of the idea more than needing to "be like mike".

http://tesl-ej.org/ej34/m1pix/graphic1.jpg

http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/jitt/images/5/55/Hibert_PLE_diagram_small.jpg

http://eduspaces.net/davidds/files/9773/22011/miPLEmini.PNG


I think what inspired me here, is taking the step as an adult, to promoting personal learning and growing, without needing a school, or a formal teacher or tests or evaluation or grades. I can start simple, with a blog, and facebook, and a few RSS feeds. And that can teach me a lot.

I do understand that there are many people who have given up on learning. It was like school was finally out for the last time and any form of formal learning went out the window too.

It was never that way for me. I just enjoy learning, mostly from others who are older, more experienced and smarter than I am. I was reminded recently, and painfully that for many, their circle of learning is unfortunately small and limited to like minded people and ideas. These are rarely stretched in their thinking and imagination and are comfortably "excluding" in their vision of "harmony" and group dynamics. Such people are very uncomfortable with different points of view, discussion, and the idea that others, older and wiser, could contribute to their lives in meaningful ways. Afraid I think. Did they get that fear from public schooling? I don't know, but that attitude is "I am pretty self sufficient thank you". So sad. All of us are more complete with the ideas of others.

I am in a happier place now, with others who are stretching and growing, and willing to risk sharing their ideas knowing that sometimes we are right, and sometimes we are wrong. Either way, we continue to learn in rich and deep ways. Is there exclusion here too? Sure. I think that is part of the "natural man" to hurt others through exclusion. Images of PS playgrounds, choosing teams, the new kid a school, cliques pointing and laughing come to mind. It does carry forward into adulthood. The good news is that there is less of it here, slightly. That "slightly" makes all the difference.

This idea of having a Personal Learning Environment is more available now than ever before. Instead of surrounding our selves with switches and knobs and instruments, we surround ourselves with blogs and wikis and relationships on Facebook and Ning where we can expose our ideas to others and receive their comments. Read the ideas of others and "comment" to them wanting to know more. All in all, a very inexpensive learning classroom which we make for ourselves.

Recently, I reached out for ideas from one of the social networks I belong to and had two very meaningful responses. Two people, much smarter and wiser, led me closer to finding the information I was seeking.

For me, having a PLE is important, because, of two quotes that continue to impact my life. I have blogged about them before. James Ferrell, author of "The Peacegiver" said, "Children learn more watching other people learn, than from watching other people teach." The other is from the Harvard Business School, "HOW we teach is WHAT we teach." The common thread for me is the impact of a "teacher" who demonstrates more excitement for personal learning to students, than for expounding and explaining. Having a personal learning environment, often brings to my consciousness, new ideas and perspectives about which I get very excited and animated. This personal excitement and animation is infectious. Also, my students get to see me learning about "teaching" as I try different approaches. When they observe this enthusiasm for not only the topic but the delivery of the topic, they are impacted.

So let's talk more about creating PLE's in 2009. I am preparing a presentation about PLE's and Using Technology to drive learning deeper mostly for my family, but I hope it eventually becomes good enough to post here as well.

Let's Get Together...

The more I study learning theory, the more I become convinced that we as home schooling parents can too easily fall into the trap of educating like we were educated. It is natural. It's not like it is a sin or anything like that. It's easy to default to. Yet, the whole reason we are home schooling is that we want something different for our kids in one way or another. And of course we do give them something different in many ways. Yet...

here are some methods of teaching:

Direct Teaching
Lecture Teaching
Group Based Teaching
Discussion Teaching
Case Based Teaching
Problem Based Teaching
Curiosity Based Teaching
Project Based teaching
Team based Teaching
Design Problem Teaching

There are more. The point is, people generally teach the way they were taught. People often resist anything else, because they haven't seen anything else, or had personal experience with anything else. So generally some of us, even many of us, might learn toward using what we know and have experienced, even if it is detrimental simply because we know nothing else. Kind of like those "who are kept from the truth, because they know not where to find it."

At part of my degree, I am working at a Lab School. Part of my job is to help them use technology to drive learning deeper. From time to time it can be frustrating, unless you stop and realize that although these teachers do great things in the classroom, they may not have personally experienced how technology can drive learning deeper, let alone have had the experience using technology to drive learning deeper with kids in their classes. The point is, it is the exception not the rule that people can implement something they haven't seen before. I think we can all agree on that.

Now, put these two ideas together: 1) each teaching method molds a child differently, and 2) that it is less likely that we as home schooling parents are going to teach using a method we haven't experienced ourselves. The potential result? We might unknowingly do some of the same harms to our children at home that they would have experienced in another system.

If this is true, and you might not agree, (which I can completely understand) is anyone on this list interested in working together on studying about different learning methods, their pros and cons, and sharing this work with the group? We could do this online, via online technology, make it a work in progress and also make if available to home schoolers in general!

If anyone would prefer to discuss this offline, you can email me at dadweiss@gmail.com. I thought we might consider making a WIKI where we could all contribute in an organized way and make it public for everyone.

Why not have our own research and learning experience and use our little home schooling community of learning to benefit the world?

Mark Weiss
http://trustthechildren.blogspot.com

Self Regulated Without Fiber

Again, another article refined my thinking about the reasons we chose for home schooling. Having your reasons identified, and then reminding your self of them, is important in any educational setting, where it's easy to miss the forest for the trees.

In this article, the concept of self regulation is explained by SEMRA SUNGUR, CEREN TEKKAYA, whose work in researching this area is supposed to be top notch. They wrote in their article:

"Barry Zimmerman (2002), renowned scholar in the field of self-regulated learning, defined self-regulation as the process that students use to activate and sustain their , behaviors, and emotions to reach their goals. According to Zimmerman, self regulated students set goals effectively, plan and use strategies to achieve their goals, manage resources, and monitor their progress. From that perspective, the value of self-regulation in schools is readily obvious. Students who can initiate learning tasks, set goals, decide on appropriate strategies to achieve their goals, then monitor and evaluate their progress are likely to achieve at higher levels than are students who rely on teachers to perform these functions. Zimmerman argued that self-regulated learners continuously adjust their goals and choices of strategies in response to changing intra-personal, interpersonal, and contextual conditions." (Effects of Problem Based Learning and Traditional Instruction on Self-Regulated Learning, SEMRA SUNGUR, CEREN TEKKAYA Middle East Technical University)

Do you mind if I share stuff like this? I hope not. This article is really pretty important. He is comparing how a method of instruction called Problem Based Learning, a variation of which can be done at home, compares to traditional methods of instruction, when it comes to encouraging our children to be well disciplined and continuous life long learners.

I hope all of us have as a goal, the desire to help develop our children in such a way, that they set their own goals, make their own plans, execute their own plans, revise their own plans and persist in achieving what they have planned. Again, if this is one of your goals, then the method of instruction you choose to use at home, matters. Does your method build this kind of propensity in them? Or does the method you choose make your kids just as dependent on you as they would be dependent on a PS teacher?

Is this a valid question? That we consider more methods of instruction than just one, especially in light of how different each of our children are?

The Problem With Assessment

One problem many home schoolers find themselves needing to address is how to assess the progress of their children. Cyndy has also given this a lot of thought. It seems like grades are limited in their ability to inform parents about the potential of a child, because they are often only a snapshot of what has been and not what can be.

While reading an article in my studies, I ran across this quote:



"
The state of development is never defined alone by what has matured. If the gardener decides only to evaluate the matured or harvested fruits of the apple tree, he cannot determine the state of his orchard. The maturing trees must also be taken into consideration. Correspondingly, the psychologist must not limit his analysis to functions that have matured; he must consider those that are in the process of maturation…the zone of proximal development.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST PERSPECTIVES 367"

I don't mean to share this to confuse anyone, or even mislead someone into thinking I understand all of what this quote is about. I am still trying to understand. But what I get from this is the importance of considering the orchard and the tree, not just for what they produced this last harvest, but also how the trees are maturing, growing and thriving generally as well.

Do we see or sense in our children the development of the kinds of traits and capacities that we had hoped for? This is of course easier to do, if we decide for ourselves up front, what specifically we hope for in our children. We decided that we wanted our children to be leaders, to be independent learners, and to have a well developed curiosity that only grew stronger over the years. You might decide for other things. There are no right items for this list. Your list might be different than ours and rightly so.

What is important is that 1) we choose a method of instruction that gets the job done we have envisioned on our list, and 2) that we assess the progress of our children against the standards WE have set.

Warning: We have observed over the years, that it is often the case that even well intentioned standard setting for our children will get off track listening to others and responding to their questions or judgments of how they view our children and their growth." Why isn't your child reading at age 4, or even age 8?" for instance. That is so much not anyone's business but your own. These questions are so often really saying is, "I am not comfortable with your approach. I want you to be like me and conform to my standards."

Now that Cyndy and I have married children who are also home schooling, and we see how each of the 11 have developed as leaders, as independent learners and still full of light and curiosity, we have no need to give such judgments the time of day. Further, I have to say, that we didn't pay any attention to them back in the early days either. We trusted in what we were reading and learning about home schooling, because we WERE and ARE students of the art, and we trusted more and more in the goodness and developing potential of each of our children. If others want what a non-home schooling approach has to offer, without questioning it or objectively evaluating the pros and cons of the method, have at it.

With each child we saw halting steps and bumps in the road of their development, but we continued to trust that they would get over such things, and they always did. We stuck to our guns, in both method and standards, and we can tell you, it worked. And it can work for you as well.

Plant well. Nourish well. Look at the tree, look at the general health of the orchard, and sleep deeply.

NSDL Website

I found a great source for science information I mention it here and on my blog.

nsdl.org

Most of the content is free. Some has a small fee. I was able to get some great information about the Apollo Space Program.

From their website:

"Educators need efficient and reliable methods to discover and use science and math materials that will help them meet the demands of instruction, assessment, and professional development in an increasingly complex technology-based world.
NSDL was established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2000 as an online library providing access for users to exemplary resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research.

NSDL provides an organized point of access to high-quality STEM content that is aggregated from a variety of other digital libraries, NSF-funded projects, and NSDL-reviewed web sites. NSDL also provides access to services and tools that enhance the use of this content in a variety of contexts. NSDL is designed primarily for K-16 educators, but anyone can access NSDL.org and search the library at no cost. Access to most of the resources discovered through NSDL is free; however, some content providers may require a login, or a nominal fee or subscription to retrieve their specific resources."

Enjoy.

Not A Bar Of Metal

"We are to regard the mind not as a piece of iron to be laid upon the anvil and hammered into any shape, nor as a block of marble in which we are to find the statute by removing the rubbish, nor as a receptacle into which knowledge may be poured; but as a flame that is to be fed, as an active being that must be strengthened to think and feel - to dare, to do, and to suffer. -

Mark Hopkins, Induction address as president of Williams College, 1836 as found at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=46758

Notice the date!

I May Have Found It

I had a wonderful interview with the Assistant Dean of the Huntsman School of business today. He is assisting me in some research I am doing and a short paper I am writing. One idea that came out of the discussion has stuck with me all day.

I am not sure why it is, but as home educators we often say, and I have said, that there are as many approaches to educating at home as there are children. At the same time we make that statement, we are kind of also saying, that any method of instruction will do. So you choose your way and I will choose mine and since our children are different the whole world is at peace. You don't criticize my choice and I won't criticize yours. Mutually assured educational choice. Peace in tension.

I will always respect educational choice, personal choice, freedom to choose. More and more, however, the consequences of those choices are becoming more clear. In other words, the method of instruction does make a difference. I just read tonight the following written by educational theorists, Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter in their article, "Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities". (The title of the article obscures the focus of their theory so don't be too put off by that.)

They said: "Although schools are devoted to teaching useful cognitive skills and formal knowledge, they are not designed to foster the progressive problem solving that generates the vast informal knowledge that has been found to characterize expert competence...." (Scardamalia-Bereiter 1994)

Without going into the details of the article, they contend that there are visible forms of knowledge, that are stressed in most of the efforts to educate children. Such visible forms of knowledge are acknowledged largely because they ARE visible and obvious to both teachers and parents. This kind of obvious knowledge also fits neatly into accepted forms of testing and evaluation, as well as being easily observed, measured and compared. Traditional methods of education support and encourage this visible knowledge.

However, what is not easily seen, appreciated, evaluated or easily assessed are the other important individual capacities that are the result of fostering, "the progressive problem solving that generates the vast informal knowledge that has been found to characterize expert competence." (Scardamalia-Bereiter 1994) The capacities I am talking about, such as judgment, discernment, application of knowledge outside the learning context, synthesis, adaptation, etc. are all too often quietly and effectively swept aside. As Clyde Freeman Herreid put it,

"What does our current teaching method produce? Answer: A cadre of students who if they remember anything about science it is facts, facts and more facts that can be used to answer questions on "Jeopardy," "The Wheel of Fortune," and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" We produce people who can't see any reason to understand mitosis or the Second Law of Thermodynamics because they know deep in their hearts they will never need to know this. What good is this information? We clearly fail to convince them. It's not that they try to forget this information, it just never gets into their long-term memory banks.

We faculty just don't get it. Even though we passed through the same mind-numbing process ourselves and have "learned" the same things and forgotten them just as fast, we seem to think that everyone has to pass through the same hazing process we did. After all, we survived. Someday in graduate school or beyond we might finally figure out how to use the "book learning." But perhaps not. It will never dawn on most of us that there must be a better way." (Herreid, 2003)

It is not my purpose tonight to explore what might be the possible "better way". In large, that is what the myriad of learning theories are all about, attempts to figure out that "better way". However, at what point does it dawn on us, that our generation's concerns with the education, safety and moral conditioning of our children, is not unique to our generation. For the last 100+ years, not 100+ months, bright minds such as John Dewey at the first of the 20th century to John Holt in our generation have concluded that the system is failing our children and method, not the teacher, is at the center of it.

What I have finally come to grips with is that method does matter. If Cyndy and I would have set as a goal for our children to give them minds that were full of facts, figures, historical dates, and word definitions alone, it was our responsibility to select a method of teaching to use with them that was efficient and effective in accomplishing just that. However, if we also wanted, in addition to the aforementioned goals, other skills like leadership, decision making ability, judgment, discernment, ability to communicate, moral fiber, etc. it was our obligation to select additional learning methods that best accomplish the building of those things in our our children. Method matters. A screwdriver just isn't very effective as a hammer. A spoon just isn't that effective as a can opener. The tool or the method one choses, makes a difference.

I have in my mind, the development of additional capacities in each of us, and am on the hunt for the teaching methods that will make that possible and make those capacities stick. In a recent stint with young men in a youth program, I can now see that parents were not interested in these kinds of capacities being developed in their sons because the process to make that happen, was not acceptable to them. They wanted and want the more visible forms of development, the more acceptable form of learning, to them and their sons, than the other forms of capacity that require a different approach. What a sad, but predictable choice. Sad, because like Herreid said, "Someday in graduate school or beyond we might finally figure out how to use the "book learning." But perhaps not. It will never dawn on most of us that there must be a better way." (Herreid, 2003)

Existing models serve a valuable purpose. However, when it comes to building the capacities of leadership, and character, commonly accepted educational methods just don't serve. I am now blessed to be in the hunt, when it comes to that something better. In these last few weeks, it has been nice to find out, after all these years, that there are actually some pretty smart people, who have already brought back the very game I have been hunting for. I get to hunt with them now for a while. I am so happy.

What Is The Simple Idea?

Why should (our children) be "abandoned" to systems that (fail) to take into account the fact that children learn by imitating the people around them? Having good models, having lots of time to play, and being surrounded by people who love them (not judge them and grade them and mold them) is the recipe for successful growth. - Pat Montgomery

Children learn more from watching other people learn, than from watching other people teach. - James Ferrell

I am the Way, The Truth, and the light. - Jesus Christ

Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do; - Jesus Christ

Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do.

The foundation of influence with others is example. Stephen Covey

How we teach is what we teach. Dean John H. McArther Harvard Business School

The first approach to any subject in school, if thought is to be arroused, and not words acquired, should be as unschoolastic as possible. John Dewey

A careful inspection of methods which are permanently successful in formal education... give pupils something to do, not something to learn: and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, or the intentional noting of connections; learning naturally results. John Dewey

I trust that home educating is really this simple. Mark Weiss

Plasticity

I wonder what percentage of families who begin to home school actually persist in one form or another for longer than 10 years? Longer than 5 years?

Let's say a family persists in educating their children at home for 5 years. Which five years would be the most important five years to home school? I suppose that it depends on what a family's goals are for home schooling in the first place, right?

Since there is little formal schooling before age 4-5, I am going to suggest we assume that those years are at home anyway. So I am going to suggest that the best 5 years might be.... (drum roll) age 5-10. Why? Plasticity.

One definition of the word plasticity is "easily shaped or molded" as in "he rendered the material more plastic." In educational terms, plasticity is referred to when discussing the biological bases of learning and memory. Experimental evidence has shown that brain functions in certain environments change for the better and in other environments change for the worse. "An enriched environment can significantly enhance cognitive development, especially when the enrichment comes at an early age." (Driscoll, p. 296-297) Driscoll continues, "there is also evidence that neuronal plasticity declines with age in many species, including humans. This is thought to be a function of mature individuals committing increasing portions of their nervous system to memory storage."

Combine this concept, minds being more easily shaped and formed at earlier ages, with how values inform decision making. For me, it makes sense that the time to have children in the "value oven" of the home, is in the younger years. As it says in the Bible, "Train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old, he shall not depart from it".

We have seen this in our own home. As I am in school and Cyndy has agreed to work outside the home. Our youngest is 14. With Joe, are still doing at least half of our educating at home and with Will, our 16 year old it is about the same. In conversations with them, they are very clear about the pros and cons of what the formal school environment offers, and what it does not. We talk openly about it and consider ways to avoid any negative influence from our current choices. For me, this is possible, however, because when their minds were more pliable, "plastic", they were home full time. Our family and religious/moral values are more firmly implanted from the years at home than they would have been if we had allowed other value systems to take root when their minds and hearts were so pliable.

It seems to me that any political policy or social norms that encourage younger children especially, to to be outside the home. Spending many hours outside the home when young hands others a large power of influence on the value development of our children. This can only result in a higher probability that such children will lean toward making a higher number of decisions not informed by family values. Why? Because those decisions are now informed by values other than our own. So many parents are shocked in the teen age years, when decisions made by their children seem so foreign to what they thought was being taught at home. If they stepped back and realized the dominance of the influence of others, in any educational setting other than the home, it would become evident that they were fighting a battle of time that they were losing all along.

A certain kind of plasticity can however have a negative effect on our children as well. I am speaking of moral plasticity where value system have become relative. In a relative moral environment, some things being true or valuable in one circumstance can be considered untrue and worthless in another without any sense of conflict or inconsistency. Plastic values lead to plastic decisions. When decisions are informed by variable values, plastic values if you will, you just never know where someone is going to come from! Trust erodes, relationships can suffer, true peace of mind vanishes by degrees. Such moral relativism, if implanted into supple minds at early ages, seems to be very difficult to overcome in the later years.

This all seems like common sense to most who read these posts. I guess I mention it because it is nice to know that other people, who actually do research, find a fundamental basis in their studies, that supports what seems to many so natural and obvious. I vote to keep kids home as long as possible, as long as their minds are plastic, pliable and open to our finest teaching and values clarification efforts.

Re-Emergence of PLAY! Woo Whoooo!

One of the most influential experiences of my life was listening to Pat Montgomery speak at a Home Schooling Conference in Tacoma Washington. We were on the University of Puget Sound Campus, years before our daughter Allison would have a scholarship to go there for 5 years. I remember kind of day-dreaming during the talk, when all of the sudden I heard her say, "The work of a child is play." I think I turned to Cyndy and asked her, "What did she say?" When I heard it again, I was glued to her for the rest of the talk.

Since that time, whenever I mention this to other parents who home school, the almost universal reaction is eyes rolling and a mental shut down. Even Cyndy has said several times, "Mark, you have to be careful about saying that. People get the wrong idea. They think we don't do anything else in the early years but irresponsibly allow our children to play." Of course we do other things, but that isn't the point.

I am currently a graduate student in my first year, at Utah State University. I am subscribed to the Journal of Learning Sciences. This is a journal that may publish about 12% of the articles submitted if that. So the stuff has to be good. I was scanning past articles for another topic I will soon blog about, "Case-based Learning for Middle School Kids" (A type of learning that many believe is only found at Harvard, Standford, and other graduate school environments) when I found an article entitled "Rescuing Play". I thought to myself, could a journal of this type, actually be publishing an article about the benefits of children playing? Could there actually be some academic evidence to consider about this topic that for so long I have felt so ignored about? Turns out there is.

So the link below is the article. The article is short, and the interview and discussion with the authors, a bonus, is also short. It isn't at all too academic to read. And actually brings up several key points I hadn't thought of. I had planned to blog on this topic anyway. I have been studying the various learning theories (and I stress theories) and have been surprised at how a couple these theories strongly support the idea of "play" as well. In order share that stuff, I was stumped on how to present it, without getting all complicated about some theory in order to do it. I just haven't got it down well enough to present it simple yet.

Anyway, I encourage you to read this and ponder it. While we are free to use any method to teach at our children at home, we are not free from the consequences of that choice. There are different influences associated with each "method, curriculum and approach" and they aren't all good. Some "influences" associated with our choice of method, are subliminal, and harmful as I have said before. So as you read this article, consider the influences on the mind of your son or daughter, from using play earlier, and more frequently from age 5 to 12 or so.
Click Here to read Article from The Journal of Learning Sciences

Do I Prefer Sand?

These thoughts and the questions they raise, are probably so self evident to most around me that sharing them at all might seem another "Ho-hum" blog post. Then again, it might not be.

I belong to a home schooling list. It is a list about home schooling that is oriented toward a particular faith, a virtual gathering place for hundreds of mostly like minded people, at least values wise. There is a feeling of great support, empathy and for the most part a sense of acceptance for all who participate. I would say it was a safe place for most, active contributors as well as the silent majority who mostly 'lurk and listen."

I asked a question, which I thought was a good one. Fundamentally the idea was, if methods of education in the public system have elements that are injurious to our children, and we use those same methods at home, why do we think the outcome will really be that much different? I shared that in some of the early exposure Cyndy and I had to home schooling, we drank deeply from John Holt, Raymond Moore, John Taylor Gatto and Pat Montgomery. Growing Without Schooling, as it came every few weeks or so, was as eagerly read as anything in our home. I remember hearing Pat Montgomery and John Taylor Gatto speak at a convention in Tacoma Washington. For me, part of the message was that there were expediencies in the public system, compromises if you will, that had a more harmful effect on children that had been previously thought. If you felt you could do it, home schooling was a chance to use different methods and approaches at home than in the PSS and therefore expect a different result.

Raymond Moore said, "School Can Wait," and your kids will still turn out ok. John Holt said it was possible for our children to "grow,without schooling" and still turn out ok. Pat said, for our children the "work of a child is play" until they are about age 12 or so, and they will turn out ok, in fact, such children will probably have some right brained advantages. Gatto, said that we could take the shaping of our children into our own hands, and avoid key subliminal messages that come with the system, irrespective of the instructor, and our children would be ok.

All in all, the message to me was clear. Among other things, methods used at home did matter. So, in response to the post I made on the list, instead of some saying, "Hum, maybe methods do matter and maybe I ought to think about it?" the first response was to defend at all costs that parents can use faulty methods at home if they want to and how dare you bring up the subject? Further, because it was their right to choose to use any method they want, one shouldn't even suggest a conversation about methods. The methods conversation was seen as divisive to the solidarity of the group of parents who participate in this list. So, there were one or two comments and the topic was dropped.

So I tried again, and restated the obvious. Using potentially injurious methods found in some PSS environments and expecting a different result, is insanity. I said that if parents of PS kids felt to denigrate home schoolers, as part of actively justifying their choice to opt in to public education, how different really were they than those of us, who are pretty evangelical about our choice to take education home? Actually I didn't say it quite that way, but that is what I meant. I am sure it got through, because again, outside of a few who actually were willing to consider the idea that they were doing nothing substantially different at home than what they experienced as children in the PS setting, most were either very quiet, wishing the discussion would go away, or it seemed they chose to bury their senses in the sand, rather than consider change.

What was astounding to me, and I think it shouldn't have been, is that the defense of a position, even if it was potentially harmful to the very children we hope to bless, was more important than the children themselves. The lack of discussion sharing on that list about this topic also gave me pause to consider whether accommodation on the list itself, was also more important than the children themselves?

Of course as parents we have the right to our own judgment and even the inspiration of heaven when it comes to home schooling choices, as some fell back on in their comments. But did it ever occur to the group, that our "inspiration" or personal judgment might be self-limiting by virtue of our own personal experience and our need to justify our own PSS shaping, so we can view ourselves as OK?

As I have begun this process of graduate school, one thing has become clear. I have had lots of preconceived notions that ran counter to the evidence of some pretty smart people who conducted some pretty thorough research. At some point, I had to decide to let the results of research, even if that research had some limitations, inform me, instead of ignoring it to justify my own biases. I had to be humble (or teachable is probably a better word) to allow myself to be informed and shaped by pretty convincing experiences that others may have had, than a need to preserve my own decisions as being cast in stone. In fact, I have needed to remind myself that if I wasn't somewhat flexible, we wouldn't have ventured into home schooling in the first place.

I think that John Taylor Gatto in his new book, came to some startling new conclusions about the "education system" because he also was willing to look at information and his own biases and let the chips fall, attempting then to understand the obvious rather than defend his ego.

I have concerns for chldren, first and foremost. I have always felt the need to try as best as I could to be open to change, for the benefit of my children. Of course my children have been hurt and sometimes adversely impacted. After all we have been learning on the job, not only as parents, but also managing our education choices at home. Of course, our children might want, as they get older, to blame us for not getting the job done at home. And yes, after admitting that we made mistakes and didn't have all the answers, I simply say, "OK you're right. So now what? Blaming isn't getting you anywhere, so what are you going to do about it now and how can I help? "

It is my hope that the few who read this blog, are among the best and brightest and most teachable. I hope you are willing to evaluate the pro's and con's of your educational philosophy. We ought to eliminate anything and everything including methods, that common sense says, could harm our children and leave them less prepared for the uncertain future they will end up living through. As Sir Kenneth Robinson said, "We (as parents) don't have to live that future, but they will." Let's be more open to a rethinking of the methods we use to grow our children and the potential harm or good each of our choices does to our most precious asset, our own children.

Whose Values Will They Use In Decision Making?

I hope I haven't written on this topic before. In my old age, my memory fails me from time to time.

On the surface, this post has to do with teaching our children about goal setting and goal achievement. Underneath, it has to do with much more.

The example I read was this. If the goal is to read 10 books in a year, and the goal is no more specific than that, then any 10 books will do. You could read a book on history, a book or two on sports, a few biographies and even some porn and all of it would contribute to the general goal of reading 10 books in a year.

However, what intervenes between setting the goal and achieving the goal is our values. If our values hold that porn is something we avoid like the plague, then that kind of book will not be part of the goal. Determining and being guided by our values, then, plays a really important role as we set goals and strive to achieve them.

Where this comes into focus is asking the question, "Who is more influential in helping my children establish values? The home life of our children, or the school life of our children (meaning schooling outside the home)?". I find this a valid question, because of how demanding in hours and days schooling is, outside of the home. There are at least 6 hours away from home, plus or minus, just in class and the lunchroom. Then add to that time in the bus. Add to that time spent doing the mountains of homework that they often come home with, which causes them to not be able to spend social time with the family at home. Add to that, both parents working in over 50% of the cases, causing them often, to come home tired, irritable and unprepared to focus on managing and shaping home life. The result can often be, that people other than us as parents are having more influence in modeling, teaching, and presenting values, than we as parents do.

One former school teacher I recently conversed with said that in her estimation, over 40% of the children in the public system where she had worked, had parents whose general attitude was to accept whatever the school offered without any questions as to quality or options that might benefit their children. She said, "This group is just happy their children are in school at all."

Of course, not all values outside of the home are negative, and not all values inside the home are positive. Still, for home schooling parents, it is good to remind ourselves that one positive option we have, if we take advantage of it, is to thoughtfully and purposefully execute a plan of influence, that exposes our children, in powerful and meaningful ways, to positive and moral values that will inform their decision making processes as they pursue their own goals, purposefully or coincidentally.

Again, between setting the goal and achieving the goal sit the values of our children, shaping and forming decisions they are making about the details of the goals, ie, the direction of their lives. While this might not seem to be a big deal when the are young, as the good book says, "raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Part of our home education opportunity, an important part, is exposing our children to positive and moral values that have proven over time to lead to joy and happiness instead of the counterfeits some all to often accept and use as they make life decisions.

Any help we receive from outside the home in the positive shaping of values is always welcomed. All too often, however, upon inspection, we can find, another value set, either from instructors and/or the organizations they work for, creeping into the subtleties of influence of our children work and study under. And what they do or don't do when we are not around, can often be an issue of poor values they adopted without us even knowing it has happened.

So home schoolers! Take advantage of this positive value shaping opportunity you have in your hands, "and when they are old, they ....."

Breathing Out, Breathing In... Revisited!

When was the last time you experienced a melt down with one of your children? The kind of meltdown that leads to some kind of "time out" or banishment into outer space? When this happens, and it happens to all of us at one point or another, there is often this feeling of helplessness. "What do you do when they are just out of control?" you ask. A red faced, teary eyed, jumping up and down, ranting and raving, inconsolable melt down can even be a bit frightening.

My son and daughter in law had just such an experience with Grant. Grant is 3 I think. David came home, and finds that Grant has been "transferred" to the garage to work out his tantrum. He is crying, screaming. I am not sure exactly what Launna said to David, but if it was me, I might have said "You deal with him!". David goes into the garage, and finds the red faced, teary eyed, ... all of it, pitching a fit for no observable reason. So what to do? Whether it was inspiration or exasperation, David said, "Grant, you want to kick a ball? " Grants eyes open, he looks up and nods his still sobbing approval of the idea. David says, "Ok, then go get a ball and meet me in the back yard." Grant runs to his bedroom, opens his closet, begins digging through the pile on the floor, tossing things behind him into the center of the room, like a dog digging a hole, and finally finds the ball. They meet in the back yard and begin kicking the ball. In just a few minutes Grant is centered. The red face has gone away, the sobbing has stopped, and he is laughing and running and settled down again.

As David was relating this to me, I said to him, "Well of course! I blogged about this over a year ago. You know, Silvia Ashton Warner, breath out and breath in." Obvious, of course, to a grandfather living in a remote part of the universe. David reminded me that just because I blogged about something once in my life, that doesn't mean even his #1 son remembers it. "Maybe you need to blog about it again?" he suggested.

So I am. Right now. The short version is this: Silva Ashton Warner was a teacher in New Zealand among the Maori people. She found that when she allowed for an hour or so of creative expression at the beginning of the school day, like singing, drawing, dancing, etc, that when she moved into more formal instruction, these students were more attentive. Even after lunch, she began again with a session of active creativity before teaching. Her label for this was "breath out, breath in." Let them breath out all their energy first, to prepare them to breath in the formal instruction. It makes sense. It works. (The full blog is here).

I believe there were several things that made this work for her. First, this was not a one time event, but part of the regular rhythm of her instructional pattern. Making this activity part of the daily flow, brings a kind of comfort and peace to the kids. Another thing she did, was listen to them as they were playing. She listened for their banter, their story telling, their expressions of life as described in her own words. She listened for the content and she also listened for the words they used. Then she leveraged her observations during her moments of instruction. She used the words already in their vocabulary to teach them to read, write and spell. She used the stories of their own life experience, where she could, to teach arithmetic, social studies and other topics. So not only did this activity time settle the kids down, but it provided, in a very natural way, the fuel with which she build in them a bonfire of learning.

Not too long ago, I was asked to teach a group of 12-13 year olds. There were four points I wanted to make with them. The class was after the dinner hour. I introduced my topic and then said, "But before we get into the first idea, I want to do an activity." Then I set up a relay race and said "go!" They did the race and came back panting. It was at that point, that I gave them the first topic of instruction. When I completed that, I sent them on another running race. They came back tired and breathing hard. I gave them a few minutes to recover and taught item number 2. Then I sent them on another short activity and upon returning taught them item number 3. Then another activity and then the last point. I imagine that to some, this process sounds silly and a waste of time. But I can tell you that at the end, I conducted a review with them, and they not only remembered what I taught, but were all anxious, even the most reluctant ones, to answer and share their take on each point.

Now it is true, that I am 6'4", weight over 300 lbs and have a direct nature about me. So I don't think they were disposed to argue much about the process. However, since then, I have seen other leaders of young men do this and have the same result. In addition, it is no surprise to me, that when Boy Scout Troop meetings begin and end with this kind of physical activity, that the troops organizations grow and thrive. ( I have noticed this idea is too simple for many scoutmasters also too simple for many home schooling parents, I am afraid).

While I am reading like crazy to prepare to go to graduate school this fall, I find myself even doing this same thing myself. Breaking up reading and studying activities with physical activity. (My version of a relay, however, is usually getting up to go to the bathroom.) It does the trick for me as well.

My suggestion is, to use this principle with your children at home in your teaching environment. Teachers in the public setting are always trying new ideas to make their teaching more effective. Why not you? Let us know how it works. In the meantime, I am putting this topic on my calendar to revisit in a year or so. I hope Grant finds himself kicking his ball more often in combination with his learning activities.

Does It Pay To Preserve Curiosity?

Is it really worth it to do all we can to preserve, and develop innate curiosity in our children?

As the years go by, like I shared recently in "Harvest People", you reap the harvest of years of right choices. This blog is about that. With Cyndy well indoctrinated from her degree in Elementary Education, at first, she was not very interested in home schooling. But I had one opening. She said of her teaching experience, in one unguarded moment, "The light in their eyes is going out. It is happening right before my eyes and I can't figure it out. But it's happening to nearly all of them." It was their loss of natural curiosity. That is why the light went out. The kids were learning now to negotiate the "listen and tell back" challenge. The more they played that game, the more the light went out. Learning was becoming all about pleasing the teacher, pleasing friends, pleasing others, instead of actually learning. That was Cyndy's public school experience. Frankly, this same kind of thing can happen anywhere. It can happen at home too. Preserving curiosity doesn't come natural to anyone, I don't think.

However, once Cyndy got the hang of it... well you can't turn her off now. So, preserved curiosity, the willingness to risk and fail and risk again, has become part of the mystique of our children. For a couple of reasons, 1) Cyndy and I, actually, model following our own curiosity in much of what we do. The kids learned what they saw in their parents and 2) they came to us with curiosity, and we avoided stamping it out and killing it. The example we set of our own interest in exploring, gave them permission to do likewise, and that along with their natural propensity to be curious, nutured a seed, that has grown intp a fruitful plant, from which we still are harvesting.

One example. Our number 2 daughter lost a baby over a year ago. Died in the womb. It was a sad time for the entire family. Tam worked through it, and we all worked through it. The good news is that Tam got pregnant again, and we now have a little Zoe in the family. Allison, our number 1 child, helped Tam process the loss and the grief that kept coming back from time to time. During that process, Allison wrote her a song.

Sweet baby blue how your mommy loved you
Closed your sweet eyes as we kissed you goodbye
Sweet baby blue that the heavens still knew
Sweet baby blue, in a moment and you
were gone, a short song

Sweet baby blue with the skies opened wide
Angels have welcomed you back to their side
Sweet baby blue, the world will miss you
Sweet baby blue
I’m your mom, I’m your mom

Tender days, to have you near
Still the Promise is ringing clear
I will watch over you,
Sweet baby blue

Sweet baby blue how your mommy loves you
I’ll find your sweet eyes and our heartstrings will bind us
Sweet baby blue that the heavens still knew
Sweet baby blue, just one moment with you
Carry on, carry on, carry on, carry on…

Then she put it to some music she wrote and she mixed the music and her voice using a simple MacBook and the GarageBand software. Click here to listen.

The point in all of this is that Allison is still pursuing the development of her talents, and risking their view to the rest of the world. She has finished one Master's Degree, was a Fullbright Scholar, and is now finishing her second masters at the University of Chicago. Who taught her how to write music? She taught herself for the most part. Who taught her how to perform it in such a sensitive, unique way? She tried and failed and tried and failed again, and taught herself. And who taught her how to mix this stuff on a Mac? She taught herself. And why can she do this? Because we succeeded in NOT killing her natural curiosity. Instead we nurtured it, by helping her grow her interests while we worried less about the "basics" trusting that they would come to her in time, which they have.(it is amazing to me, how many parents I talk to who say, 'But what about the 3 R's?' as if we didn't care if our kids got the basics at all. Of course they get them. But they get them perhaps at a different time than some think they NEED to get them.) In our family, for whatever reason, Allison is not the exception. All of the kids, risk and try and read and research and try some more.

Does it pay to preserve curiosity? A thousand million bazillion times over it does! And if you don't believe me, perhaps you will enjoy this TED talk by Sir Kenneth Robinson Schools Kill Creativity. Keep in mind, this isn't a statement about public schooling alone. Home schooling runs the same risks.

If this is the only benefit we derived from the blessing we have enjoyed of home schooling our children, this is sufficient. I can't stress too much how badly I hope you will take a long walk and ponder for hours what it means in your life, and the lives of those you love, to preserve the God given natural curiosity in yourself and in them. Then I would pray that you would have the courage to take steps, even hard ones to give this gift to your children. As Sir Kenneth Robinson said, we may not see the future, but our children will. Past ideas about preparing them to succeed in their future are not servicing. Our view is that homes can do more, homes need to do more, to preserve in their children curiosity for life around them.

If you agree, how about sharing some ideas on how to do just that, preserve curiosity in our children?

Us Boys

boyz.jpg
Originally uploaded by allisonweiss

With all the challenges of home schooling, are there really days when it seems like it is worth it, days when your long term dream seems to have made a short term appearance?

Please pardon a personal moment. Every now and then, a guy has to crow. We took this picture almost a year ago, Jon was home from Germany, Sam was about ready to go to Brazil. So we were shopping at Wal-Mart and saw this bench. What else is a bench for? So this is the crew, the bunch, the team the male result of all of our years of home schooling. Bright eyes, great smiles, love each other like only best friends could. It will be 3 years before we might have a shot at a picture like this again. I can't tell you in words, how much I love these guys, our family, my wife. I really don't deserve anything else in life.

More Challenges For Public Education

Not everyone can home school. That is reality. Public schools, charter schools, private schools are the predominant options in that case. However, as it relates to the Pre-school component of any education outside of the home, a report from the largest study of American child care says that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class later and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade. The researchers reported that the effect was slight, and within the normal range. Parental guidance and genetics had stronger influence on how children behaved. Perhaps unexpectedly the finding held up regardless of gender or family income, and regardless of the quality of the day care center. According to the authors, with more than 2 million American preschoolers attending day care, the increased disruptiveness very likely contributes to the load on teachers who must manage large classrooms. On the other hand, time spent in high-quality day care centers was correlated positively with higher vocabulary scores through elementary school. For more information on this longitudinal and complicated dataset (and other related studies) see http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/Pages/PDF/McCartneyANGxp.pdf

Harvest People

If businesses pay consultants to give them encouragement, guidance and remind them to keep on keeping on, when they are doing things right, where to educators go, especially home schoolers, for the same kind of a shot in the arm?

Cyndy and I have been married 33 years. June 13th actually was our 33rd anniversary. It is 32 years since we had our first child and 28 years since we decided to home school. Looking back, it is clear that the early years of our family, were like spring years, where fields were being plowed and seeds being planted. One good decision we made during that time, was not to think that we had all the answers or that our friends who were in the same age bracket had them either.

The people in our lives who had the answers were the ones in the harvest phase of their lives, the harvest people. They didn't guess about which seeds flourished and which did not. While many of our peers, who also had young children, were full of "I think" or "It's my opinion that..." or "When I was growing up...", the harvest people in our lives, spoke with an uncommon and mostly humble authority. In essence they said, "We did this, and this is what we harvested. We didn't to this and this is what we harvested." There were times when the harvest people would look you right in the eye and with a more special earnestness say "Whatever you do, don't do this..." or "Be sure that you do this...". The eyes and earnestness of their expression was riveting. I am thankful that more often than not, Cyndy and I measured the theories of the "spring and summer" people we knew by the "results" experienced and shared by the "harvest people" in our lives. Their ideas and experience helped us make our personal decisions about which seeds to plant back in the "spring and summer" days, how often to water or weed and when to leave the garden alone or when to start over.

Now we find ourselves in a most peculiar situation. Cyndy and I are "harvest people" ourselves, but because of the size of our family (11 kids) we are still cultivating our garden just like "spring and summer" people. Most acquaintances our age have long since left the fields around their own homes, to watch the far flung fields being cultivated by their children. To be sure, we are watching our older children work their own fields, make their own planting choices, weeding choices and nurturing choices. We observe the seeds they are planting with interest and sometimes concern. Because of a lifetime of sowing seeds of our own, we know for ourselves that some seeds will bear wonderful, pleasing and satisfying fruit. We also know that some seeds will most likely turn into unpleasant fruit and it concerns us.

Isn't it odd, but predictable, that many of the seeds we choose to plant, almost without thinking or considering, are the seeds handed to us by our own parents as we grew up. Sometimes the seeds bearing bitter fruit in our own lives, find themselves in our gardens and we can't figure out why or what to do about it? Likewise, how odd but predictable it is, that those around us, who are "spring and summer" people, look often to themselves and unearned wisdom, instead of the harvest people in their lives whose results and wisdom bought at a price could encourage a more pleasing harvest? Natural I guess. But sometimes unnecessary.

However, make no mistake about it. It is just as Cyndy said as we finished our walk this morning,"Honey, we are harvesting now, the seeds we have planted over a lifetime." Choices we made under the guidance of the harvest people in our lives, seeds we planted and cultivated over a lifetime of choices, eventually bear fruit. Others can talk, but the harvest people can look at the seeds and know the fruit even before the planting happens. The fruit IS the evidence of the seed. For good and for bad, the fruit is the evidence of the seeds chosen. And with this comes a warning: seeds are very small things, in comparison to the fruit they become. We were told that back then, but now I get it. A lifetime of small choices, small seeds, and the next thing you know, there are these large plants, even trees and sometimes weeds in your garden and you wonder where it all came from and what to do now? Hopefully, what you do is enjoy. And you will, by choosing over a lifetime, the right, small seeds throughout the planting and nurturing season.

We have always been thankful for the harvest people in our lives. When we were younger and only had a few plants to care for, and now even more that we are older harvest people ourselves, with many more plants to nurture, I thank God for sending to us harvest people. Reaching out and listening to them was another good, small choice we are going to continue to make.

I Can't Resist

We all worry, more or less and from time to time, about what others think about our efforts as home schoolers. For the most part I think we put our blinders on, and move forward in faith. Very few of us have enough children or have been doing this for long enough, to know for certain that our efforts at home will result in our children being productive, intelligent contributors to the world as they know it. Why is being the 'perfect' home schooling family such an illusive goal?"

It's late. I'm tired. But David sent me a link to read and given how little he has a chance to read internet stuff these days, I knew it must be good. Seth Godin again is where he found the quote. Click here to find the entire article. Here you go:

"The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is to waste it all." I know of nothing more true for a home schooling parent, especially a home schooling mom, than this quote.

The quote also goes along with Jim Ferrell's "Students learn more watching other people learn, than from watching other people teach." There is a lot to gain from pondering this one.


http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/is-it-worthy.html)

Great Read!

My son David sent me link for a wonderful article entitled Is Google Making Us Stupid?. In general, the article makes the point, that with every advance in technology, whether we know it or not, as human beings, we run the risk of losing something. To get the point I suggest you read it and decide for yourself.

I mention it because in a walk this morning with Cyndy and a few friends, the topic of "technology addiction" (or something like that) came up. I have noticed that boys who are glued to the tube, especially video games, have a very low attention span and seem to require major stimulation in order to maintain interest in almost anything other than video games. That isn't good, especially for your children.

IN the past, the person who found the unique piece of information, had an edge in any academic pursuit. Today, information itself is becoming less and less of an advantage, because everyone has access to it. In addition, there always seems to be someone who says things better, writes things better, or draws things better. So what is left? What is there then that gives each of us something to differentiate ourselves with? What is there that will give our children visibility and a strategic advantage?

David said, "it's YOU Dad. Your own way of looking at the world. Your own way of seeing that same things that others see. Your own way of saying what others are thinking. Being YOU is your competitive advantage. Being true to your inner self and expressing things after your own fashion. That is your advantage."

If he is right, and I feel he is, how can we as parents help our children find their own voice? How can we encourage them to remain true to that which is unique about them? Do we as parents, have eyes to see that which is unique about each of our children? If we see that uniqueness, how do we go about encouraging it and nurturing it? And further, what elements or activities in their lives encourage or discourage their unique personalities, perspectives and approaches?

These are good questions to consider and even discuss with others in your home schooling support group. Each day ticks by and as parents and home schoolers, it is another day to decide and encourage, what WE want to emphasize instead of leaving that influence up to someone else. We have that wonderful freedom, that came with the responsibility we assumed when we decided to home school, to be purposeful and thoughtful about shaping and forming our children intellectually as well as spiritually. With a little thought and a lot of inspiration, it is a most rewarding work!

Agency Means Nothing Until There Is A Clear Choice

Many discussions about home schooling our children cross over into discussions about child rearing. And child rearing discussions seem to lead to a discussion about interacting with and/or leading youth generally.

Building strong youth, is all about building into them the ability to make good choices. Our children are going to be faced with all kinds of them, when we aren't around to "coach" them. So practice with choosing, early in life and experiencing consequences for good and ill significantly and early in life, is necessary.

Parents, leaders of youth, especially leaders of adults, seem to reluctant to ask someone to step it up. One fear seems to be that by asking someone to do something, where a "yes" or "no" answer is required, interpersonal relationships run the risk of being damaged if the answer is not what we hope for.

However, until we give someone a choice, a clear choice, they have no opportunity to exercise their right to choose. Therefore they have little opportunity to strengthen their ability to make good and wise choices when no one is around to watch them.

I am not sure why leaders of youth and/or parents are so often reluctant to offer clear choices and administer or allow obvious consequences. I don't understand the motivation behind allowing them skate day after day, without clear choices? Yet, the results of weak youth are everywhere to be seen.

We have a unique opportunity as parents to interact with our children each and every day. By applying the principle of choice and accountability regularly, consistently and daily, we can build into our children a respect for the power of choice they have and a joy in making good choices. Teaching our children to use the power they have to choose, wisely, may be some of the best teaching we ever do in the home, even if a few wrds end up mis-spelled.

What Are YOU Learning Today?

I read recently in "The Choice in Teaching and Education" offered by the Arbinger Institute that students learn more from watching other people learn, than from watching other people teach. I have rolled this around in my mind over and over again. I see evidence of the power of this idea that makes we want to study it more and promote it more.

1) In their books "The Anatomy of Peace", "Leadership and Self-Deception", "The Peacegiver", one theme that threads itself from book to book, is that influencing others to change begins most successfully, when we change ourselves first.

2) Covey says that private victory precedes public victory, and in his book "Succeeding With People" states that the first step in creating influence with others is what? YOu guessed it, "Example".

3) The Savior told us to first take the beam out of our own eye before trying to take it out of others.

4) Then in a recent post on David Weiss' Blog, he quotes noted business leader, Dee Hock, founder and CEO of VISA who indicates that, "The first and paramount responsibility of anyone who purports to manage is to manage self."

5) My personal observation of my wife and I would support this as well. Cyndy always has a place she wants to go, things she wants to learn, books she wants to read and field trips she wants to take. Yes she keep the boys moving forward on their home school projects and internet learning classes, but on top of it all, she has here own life to live as a learner. I think I am the same way.

Maybe the primary qualification for being an "at home instructor/facilitator" is that you have your own personal "curriculum" that the kids watch you do, and get excited about?

I'd say that is about it on that topic.

Some Wisdom From Alice at Harvard

"I'm quite content to stay here-only I am so hot and thirsty!"

'I know what you'd like!" the Queen said good naturedly, taking a little box out of her pocket. "Have a biscuit?"

Alice thought it would not be civil to say "No" though it wasn't at all what she wanted. So she took it, and ate it as well as she could. And it was very dry and she thought she had never been so nearly choked in her life.

While you're refreshing yourself," said the Queen. I'll just take the measurements. Have another biscuit?"

"No, thank you," said Alice. "One's quite enough!"

"Thirst quenched, I hope?" said the Queen.

Alice did not know what to say to this, but luckily the Queen did not wait for an answer, but went on.

("Teaching and the Case Method" p. 18.)


What are the implications of the following description of teaching, to the quoted narative above?

"How we teach is what we teach."

Further...

"The job of the teacher, as I see it, is to teach students, not how to draw but how to learn to draw. They must acquire some real method of finding out facts for themselves lest they be limited for the rest of their lives to facts the instructor relates. Thev discover something of the true nature of artistic creation - of the hidden processes bv which inspiration works."

( K. Nicolaides, Introduction to the Natural Way to Draw (Boston:Houghton Mifflin, 1941)

Again,

One does not learn to play golf by reading a book, but by taking club in hand and actually hitting a golf ball, preferably under a pro's watchful eye.


To give the map to others (as a teacher might) is to give the results of an experience, not the experience itself by which the map was produced.

The point again is, to trust that you are giving your children a wonderful gift, when you allow them the time and opportunity to follow their own curiosity and discover for themselves the depth and breadth of their interests. They not only learn, but in a very natural way, learn HOW to learn. They learn to trust in their own ability to make sense of the world on their own terms. They become strong in conviction. They get to more of the why of things than just the what. Again, this is a great gift to give to them, The more your you remove your own ego and need to be affirmed by your "students" the more room you make for their personalities to fill up the space you now make available to them. Cyndy would say there is a balance here. I agree. One thing we both value, though, is the tendency our children have, to be very comfortable teaching themselves many things, when they want to learn something. It is just amazing to watch, day in and day out.

Try it for a few weeks and watch the bud blossom. Try if for longer and the plant is truly beautiful, the fruit truly pleasing. At least that has been our experience. Trust them to learn, especially from your example of being curious and learning yourself.

The mind of a home schooling parent

Reading success literature, like "Think and Grow Rich" or "The Secret" or "As A Man Thinketh" I am left to consider the common thread that weaves itself through all of them. It is the idea that somehow the mind is like a heat seeking missile. Once you program the computer in the missile for the target, no matter what winds blow it off it's path, it self corrects, keeps moving toward the acquired target until it finally arrives. Such a missile is constantly seeking to solve the problem, "Now that I have acquired the goal, how to I keep myself moving toward the target?" The minds of home schooling parents are like the computer in the missile. As home educators, we are made acquire targets and to solve problems.

I received a quote from Allison today that represents a target or goal for us as home educators.

"good college teaching is the kind that promises to make the teacher
finally superfluous, the kind that will lead students to want to
continue work in the given subject and to be able to have the
necessary intellectual equipment to continue work at a more advanced
level." Wayne Booth

Link to Wayne Booth Article

For me, this idea is a large part of what I would call, "My Target" as a home schooling parent.

So today's mission, should you choose to accept it.... put this idea in your mind as the target. The idea that good teaching instills in the learner both a) motivation to learn and b) develops tools that our "students" can use for a lifetime so they can learn on their own, without us. This is the target. Now, what can you do at home to see that happen in your life and the lives of your children?

I would be very complimented if you would share your ideas on this topic with all 100+ of us that read this blog.

Story Musgrave

Shuttle Astronaut Story Musgrave

Six (6) Shuttle Missions
Seven (7) college Degrees.

Medical Degree (Columbia University)
MBA - UCLA
Masters in Biophysics
Masters in Literature
Bachelors in Math
Bachelors in Chemistry
Masters in Psychology

Masters in History coming

With all those degrees, there is one diploma that Musgrave missed:
He never finished High School.

www.spacestory.com

What Is Instructional Design?

I have had a few people ask me about our new venture to strive for an advanced degree. The most common question is "What is instructional Technology?"

Here are a few thoughts to describe it:

Instructional theory describes a variety of methods of instruction (different ways of facilitating human learning and development) and when to use--and not use--each of those methods. It is about how to help people learn better." Charles M. Reigeluth, University of Indiana, Bloomington. It is about how to help people learn better.

That is what strikes me to the core. This is what drives me to many of my observations and conclusions. I believe people can learn better than they currently do. At it's core, one of the reasons we home school is that I became convinced that educating our children at home, especially in the early years, "helped them learn better."

Whether it was moral values, math, english, history or shop skills, the environment we have at home has helped our children learn better. It seems lately, the evidence of this is all around me. Allison at the University of Chicago continues to pour links and resources my way, to help me prepare for this academic pursuit. She is a life long learner, and it shows. David and I have regular conversations about his experience "back in school", his professors, good and bad, and his victories and near misses, all of which is very helpful to me. Tam just had her third child, Zoe and is an example of a grounded learner. Christine just finished her masters and is in El Salvador as co-country director for a health organization. Jenn and Deb are experiencing a semester abroad in Jerusalem. Jon, working to save money for school in the fall is a self directed music aficionado, with the emphasis on self-directed. And then of course the boys at home continue down the same path, their older siblings have already benefitted from.

Like Robert K. Greenleaf says of servant-leadership, our home schooling experience has by and large successfully answsered his questions: " "The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"

It would appear that in all of our children, the Greenleaf standard is being realized. This is very encouraging at this point in our family history. The seeds of faith in the early years continue to bear fruit in observable ways in our later years, in part, because we had the vision of believing that there was a better way of learning.

Do You Give Your Children Time to Reflect?

The news is, I am headed back to extend my formal schooling. After some months of pondering and searching, I applied to several schools for graduate work in a Instructional Design and Technology. I was accepted at Utah State University in Logan Utah. So our current home schooling activity is packing, dejunking, painting, refurbishing and praying our house will sell to a wonderful family. It's all good.

While I was researching "Instructional Design" I purchased a book of case studies in Instructional Design. I began reading, with the idea that the presentation of problems and challenges in this field would broaden my vision for future opportunities after schooling is complete. it has and I am more excited than ever.

I read this about learning, 'As Weil and Frame (1992) stated, "experience and action do not themselves guarantee learning. We learn by doing and through reflection on doing. (p. 63)" '

I found several interesting ideas in this small quote, that are sympathetic with my own feelings.

1) Experience and action are central to effective learning.

This paradigm runs counter to much of the formal school experience where amassing an inventory of facts and effectively remembering them long enough for a test, is the accepted model for "learning". Increasing an inventory of facts in and of itself, is great for computers, but not for people who have to make decisions and judgments about things. I have decided that one learns more about decision making, value judgments and wisdom from playing and exploring than from memorizing and regurgitating. Playing and exploring for a child ages 1-12 is like building in their mind a huge sheet of velcro. The little hooks are waiting to "catch" something and through play and exploration, you create a lot of "hooks" in their heads. Later when cognitive learning is introduced more regularly such children have a huge sheet of velcro (experience) in their minds to "hook" learning to. Take away experience and action and replace it with facts and dates, and you have a much smaller sheet of velcro (actual experience living) in the mind and therefore a much smaller capability of hooking stuff together in a meaningful way.

2) Experience and action are not enough.

A child needs time to reflect and think about experience, action and new facts as they are presented. This pondering and thinking time allows them to hook ideas to experience in a meaningful way. Such relation building between facts and experience is the harbinger of "wisdom". When I see children who have been given a large dose of experience and action along with time to daydream and thinking, I almost always see eyes that are lit up and a comfortable maturity with adults and others.

It goes without saying, that home schooling can be as ineffective as formal schooling if action, experience and time for reflection are not provided in an appropriate way. Hence parents who feel the need to keep children forever busy at home miss the point. They often make "education at home" more complicated than it needs to be, busy-ness trumping trusting children.

However, how much easier is it for parents at home, with only a few to "supervise", to foster this process by trusting that children at play are forming a foundation for much more effective learning? Build more velcro in their brains and you are giving children a valuable gift. Keep them "busy" with homework and exercises and you limit the building of velcro in the mind. The gift of being able to associate cognitive learning (aka facts) with experience grows our children and empowers them in marvelous ways. But only IF WE CAN TRUST THE CHILDREN and the PROCESS of building lots of velcro in their brains. Isn't this a valuable gift to give our children? It is!

Now enjoy this and imagine your children playing:

What Is Teaching? What Is Learning?

I read the quote above recently. It is attributed to a past president of the American Federation of Teachers, Albert Shanker. ¹ It crystalized something that has been running around in my mind for some time.

Have you read, "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"? Have you seen the movie, "Happy Feet"? There are others of a similar theme. The masses make assumptions. An individual risks his reputation because he sees life a little differently from the masses. The individual is cast out of the group for the vision in his head, but persists. In the end, whether generally accepted or not, the truth of the new vision prevails.

Don't most people make assumptions about what education is and how it should be done? All of us do. Aren't most of those assumptions based on a subjective view of our own past experience, and not an objective view of what education should or could be? I think so. Sir Kenneth Robinson in his TED lecture on creativity points this out. He says that for most people education is a topic of passion, and not just another headline in todays paper.

Take a moment, if you will, and read this statement and think about it for a while... "Teaching is telling, knowledge is facts, and learning is recall." ¹ Isn't this statement the generally accepted idea about eduction? Isn't it what we did, for the most part, when in school ourselves. We were sure it was education. We were sure it was learning. Isn't this what we believe constitutes "education"? But, what if it isn't?

What if true "education" is something different entirely? What about students being able to apply knowledge instead of just build an inventory of it? What about students being able "manipulate facts within some general framework"² instead of just possess a passing knowledge of the "facts"? What if "teaching is enabling, knowledge is understanding and learning is the active construction of subject matter"³?

Organizing information, presenting it well, answering the questions of an enquiring mind and testing for ability to recall information, is what teaching is about. OK, I get that. But what is learning about? You mean teaching and learning might be two completely separate things? Yes!

Research is bringing to the fore, more about what a learner is doing when actual learning is taking place. While this may be an over simplification, 1) learners are extending and revising prior knowledge, 2) learners are connecting meaning from something they already know, to this new thing they are considering and 3) learners are making their learning concrete when they apply it to actual problem solving situations. ⁴

Notice that learning is something that takes place inside the learner and NOT in the chasm between the mouth of the teacher and ears of the learner. It happens inside our children. If this is true, it has profound implications about what it means to educate our children.

One is summarized by Pat Montgomery, educator and founder of Clonlara Schools, "The work of a child is play." Play, from 0 to 12 or so, allows our children the time they need to draw conclusions, make connections and practice applying what they are learning, all the while preserving natural curiosity. Needless busy work in the lives of our children, often precludes this, as they are so totally engaged in the "Teaching is telling, knowledge is facts, and learning is recall" process. (I think this is why I have shied away from home schooling curriculum for the most part, especially in the younger years. They seem so much to me a replication of the busy work in the system, making the home no different than the school when it comes to having time for "learning".)

One of my favorites is taught by the Arbinger Institute, "Children learn more from watching other people learn, than from watching other people teach." ⁵This again, supports the idea that we are well served when we assume that learning takes place inside a learner, and quite often independent of the direct "teaching" of the teacher. As a father of eleven, my children have each earned a "doctorate in Life Lessons" observing the mistakes and successes of their Dad. This is been a lively classroom for them, in real time, living technicolor and often surround sound.

When active learning is taking place, it is often the result of a "teacher" creating an environment where personal discovery can take place. Our children may need facilitators and enablers more than "teachers" in much of what they do as they learn. Even more encouraging for average parents like most of us, is that people who know a lot, don't necessarily make the best facilitators or enablers.

If we as parents can empty our bowls of the cold, old soup of our past, we make room for a new hot delicious soup to warm us on a winter day. Pouring the inviting warm new soup over the old, only gives us luke warm, diluted soup. However, an all new bowl of soup consists of the assumption that learning and teaching are independent of one another, that teaching may not be telling and that learning may not be lecturing, something I feel we really knew all along, but were afraid to taste.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1- Education for Judgment, C. Roland Christensen, xii
2- (David Cohen, "Teaching Practice: Plus ca Change" Ibid, p xii)
3- Ibid, p. xii
4- Ibid, p. xiv
5- Arbinger Institute, The Choice in Teaching and Education, p. 8, www.arbinger.com

The Reinforcements Are Coming!

Have you ever watched the movie "Gettysburg"? On a whirlwind trip of 9000+ miles in 27 days, we found ourselves traveling north from Washington DC, into Pennsylvania toward Gettysburg. We had purchased the VHS tapes of this movie and were watching it in the motorhome as we were driving. (Actually I was doing the driving and watching it in my mind as the kids watched it on the two TV's we had in the motor home) A scene I have watched over and over again is about day one.

The Union Calvary has advanced to the town of Gettysburg. The main body of the Union army is too far behind them. In the meantime the Confederate armies are also converging there and must be stopped. The army that arrives first obtains the "high ground" giving them strategic superiority over the battlefield. Union Brigadier General John Buford risks deploying his meager force of 2000+ mounted calvary along two major roads, in an attempt to lure 9000+ confederate soldiers into battle. If they fall for the trap, it would divert them from the primary objective of gaining the high ground. It is a calculated risk made by Buford that if he can create enough confusion and rile up the Confederates they will chase his troops back through the city. If the Union Army shows up soon enough, they have the chance to get to the high ground, for the battle advantage. Buford has no way of knowing how soon they will arrive, so the risk is great. It may be an effort that is all for naught.

As the battle ensues, in the movie, Buford positions himself on the high tower of a church in Gettysburg. On one side of the tower, he observes the battle, then moving to the other side of the tower he searches frantically with his binoculars for the Union Army Reinforcements who are still not in sight. At one point when the battle is turning very very badly for the Union and the overwhelming forces of the Confederate armies are chasing his forces as they retreat, he sees the first column of the Union Army coming online. It means that reinforcements have arrived and that the Union can immediately position themselves on Big and Little Round Top, and other high places with complete command of the main battlefield. This left the Confederates only one good option and that was to try and flank the Union forces, since a move up the middle would now be very difficult if not impossible. And the rest, is as they say, "is history". The Union won the battle of Gettysburg.

I remember as we drove into Gettysburg proper and I played out in my mind, the battle that had just played on the TV.Tears ran down my cheeks in empathy for Buford and his calvary. Brave men, risking everything, with impossible odds, hoping to buy enough time for reinforcements to come. They did come. The Union won the Battle of Gettysburg because of the courage of a few.

The home schooling battle is in many ways not as dire as this battle was. Yet often the months of January and February can feel as bleak as war for home schooling parents. Sometimes we need a "pick-me-up". A reminder of why we do this. Well, we got a pick-me-up" today. Our oldest daughter, the Fulbright Scholar, who is finishing her second masters at the University of Chicago, felt the need to blog about her experience as a home schooled child which led to her experience as "not a home schooled child" which then led to her returning to finish her "High School experience" as a home school child again. Her written memories of that time, reflect the learning curve we were going through as parents in the home school process.

I am so grateful that Allison on her own, finally landed home where the high ground is, instead of in the system where for some kids, the battle is often much like "Picketts Charge" on day three at Gettysburg, a disaster.

Here is the link, take a look for yourself. Public School teachers often encourage one another when their job gets bleak. This is our attempt to encourage you. Enjoy!

Context Can Create More Meaning

I had a great teaching experience a few weeks ago. It reminded me again how powerful teaching can be when we are able to create context for what we are teaching. What do I mean "creating context"?

I was asked to train a bunch of scouts about knots and ropes. For anyone familiar with scouting, nothing gets a yawn and "do I hafta?" more than this topic. They have done it a million times. For boys whose dexterity is still developing, the challenge of making their fingers twist the rope just right isn't often confidence inducing. What came to my mind was a movie clip from the beginning of the movie "Vertical Limit" where 4 climbers lose their lives when safety knots, equipment and ropes proved insufficient to protect them. As the boys watched this "intense" scene, and witnessed bodies falling and people dying, a new found appreciation developed within them. After a few seconds of silence at the conclusion of the clip, I asked a question, "So how important are knots and ropes?" One scout looked up and said simply, "Life and death, that's how important."

With that, I said, "Then lets get into our groups and begin practicing the six knots you need to know for this course." Over the next 20 minutes, you have never seen more intensity, commitment and focus on knots. What had been mundane and boring, had now taken on more life and meaning. The difference? Context. They now saw knots and ropes in context of what can happen when they fail, when knots are not sufficiently or correctly tied. With that as a backdrop, they not only wanted to master knots for themselves, but also master them so they could adequately teach them to others. They began to realize that the lives of others might literally hang in the balance, if something as simple and plain as a bowline wasn't tied correctly.

Since this experience I have given much more attention to asking myself the question, "How can I could help students learn better identifying what truly might hang in the balance when considering this topic."

As I ask myself this question more frequently in my teaching, I am finding more answers. My excitement for "impact" teaching is increasing.

As in many other elements of teaching, the home schooling environment has as much opportunity, if not more than the public environment, for fashioning learning experiences of this kind. It might also be, that in the home, there is more freedom to ponder and quietly consider the deeper meaning of a learning experience. Consider for a moment how context can create more meaning.

When My Lectures Don't Equal Your Learning

I was in the US Post Office yesterday. I had an experience I suppose many of you have had. There were two stations open and a line of about 15 people. The line was moving slowly and people were patiently aggravated. You know, the kind of smile where the lips are tight and there is little, if any, light in their eyes. Suddenly, from behind the desk a third person came out. "Good", I thought, three lines now. Yet, as soon as she set up shop, one of the original two closed down her station. Over the next 45 minutes as I stood in line, it happened again, only now the line was 20+ long. Another came out, only to have another shut their station down. The bottom line was that these people were committed to 2 stations open, no matter how many people were waiting in line. This is not customer focus.

Customer focus is when you are in a store, the lines are getting long and you hear over the PA system, "Checkers needed up front. Checkers needed up front!" The next thing you see is two new stations open up, people in line moving to the new stations and you are through the lines and on your way pretty darn quick! Doesn't that always feel good when you are the object of someone being customer focused instead of "train and plane schedule" focused?

This same thing can happen in education, at home or at school. It is called by C. Roland Christensen of Harvard, teacher focus instead of student focus. He said in the book, "Education for Judgment" that some teachers become so focused on the excellent presentation of their material, what happens to the student is of little or no concern.(Those are his words, not mine.) "I presented the material, it's their job to get something from it" is the attitude. In other words, a focus on the instructor and not on the student. Or as in the example at the post office, a focus on the needs and schedule of the Post Office staff, irrespective of needs, desires or preferences of the customers.

I believe there may be at least two questionable assumptions going on here. The first is that transfer of information is the same as learning and the second is that learning takes place between the teachers mouth and the learners ears.

TRANSFER OF INFORMATION IS NOT LEARNING
The boys and I decided we wanted to build a workshop. They were resourceful and with the help of a kind neighbor who was tearing down some outbuildings, we obtained a large majority of the material we needed. This material still needed to be fabricated into trusses and perlins and other parts of the building. Saturday morning, we would sit down after breakfast and make a list of what needed to be done today. Part of making the list would be my drawing out for them in pictures, how certain things needed to be done so that the building would be built right. Often, they would nod as if they understood. I learned later, that each Saturday I observed that nod, it really meant, I have the information, but I still don't understand. We went to work. They would build the components as we pictured and discussed. However, at some point during these Saturdays, I would hear one of them say, "Oh, I get it now. I see why we needed to do it this way." After weeks of this experience, we all agreed, we had discovered the difference between "transfer of information" and "learning".

Which brings me to the second point. Where does true learning take place? Arbinger Institute in their book, "The Choice - in Teaching and Education" says it about as well as I have ever read it. "Students learn best by watching others learn, not watching others teach". Learning takes place inside the student, between their mind and their heart. Learning takes place within.

If students have information transfered to them, and are tested in their ability to recall that information we think that "learning" has taken place, when all we have tested is their ability to "recall" the inventory of facts. Learning is when the facts come alive for them and become useful and meaningful to them, usually by applying them. Learning is when something lights up inside of the student. The teacher who can do this, is a student centered teacher. The teacher who can create an environment where students not only acquire information, either from an instructor or preferably through their own efforts and apply it and/or use it, does more than teach. He enables learning where learning always happens, between the mind and heart of the learner.

I see this in the teaching of youth all the time. Adults who are focused on their teaching, and thump their chest with the wonderful job they have done talking or expounding or explaining or running a youth program. Such adult advisors give little or no thought as to what has happened or not happened in the minds and hearts of the youth themselves. What conclusions have the youth actually drawn for themselves because of the experience? They rarely think to ask learners at the end of a class what has been learned or what the possible "take-aways" are. Absent such feedback how can teachers "evaluate" whether or not the learning experience they just created was "edifying" or not. And week after week goes on, until the youth need to be congratulated more for the stubborn faithfulness and obedience for attending, than for the increased resolve they now have, to move themselves to new and higher plateaus of living. The youth of the future are often fettered to the past through teacher centered instructors.

Centering instruction on students and what they experience is harder teaching, but I have found it to be more effective. We have freedom in the home, without "administrative" shackles and the benefit of smaller teacher to student ratios, to effect real learning in the lives of those we love most. How? Stay tuned?

Christmas Season 2007

10 December 2007

Dear Family and Friends,
“Time flies on wings of lightning.” Here we are, a year older and wiser. This is the year that Cyndy was granted senior citizen discount at her favorite store: Goodwill! We put a lot of miles on our bodies this year with outdoor adventures, a trip to Ecuador and another to Germany. We have 4 at home, 3 in college, 1 away working full time, 1 on a mission, 2 away married, 6 grandchildren and another soon to arrive.

Elder Samuel C. Weiss (19) entered the MTC in Sao Paulo, Brazil mid-November. He is District Leader and a well prepared servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will study language for 8 weeks and then go to Cuiaba, a city due west of Brasilia near Bolivia. Average temperature there is about 119 degrees with 100% humidity! This past year when Sam wasn’t climbing on the rock wall of the community center, he worked hard earning his money for his mission and even saved enough to come with us to Quito, Ecuador to pick up Hermana Weiss the 5th (Deborah) in June. It was a grand adventure and good preparation for Samuel to see the cities where his sister labored and meeting those whose lives Deb touched as a sister missionary. Samuel was privileged to baptize his good friend, Alex, prior to leaving for Brazil.

Then in September Allison was able to join us as we made a similar trip to pick up Jonathan from his LDS missionary service in Berlin, Germany. Again, “what joy!” to see the work of the Lord going forward in places that we had been reading about in Jon’s letters for two years. Jon served as Zone Leader for over a year in three zones of the mission and was in a car for about a year, so he knew the roads and took us safely on the autoban into Switzerland where we saw the cities and met 2 of the families that Mark saw join the church 33 years earlier! (Autobahns are cool, going 220 kph or over 140 mph. Yikes!)

Cyndy and Mark spoke at the LDS National Homeschooling Association Convention in SLC, Utah this summer which meant Cyndy was able to attend BYU Education Week for the first time in 10 years. It was great to run into old friends and spend time with her sisters. She continues to attend baptisms of all the 8 year olds in her Primary class and enjoys helping out at bi-monthly Activity Days.

Mark was recently released as Young Men’s President. Last B-Ball Season, “Coach Weiss” watched his super star Sam and the team of church members and neighbors as well, take the Young Men’s Basketball team to win regional championships! He continues to teach 19-21 year olds in a Mission preparation class Tuesday nights and loves working the early morning shift at the Portland Temple Fridays. He is volunteering as adult leader (6th year) for SOGUS (BSA Jr. Leader Training) in June. Mission Prep, Leadership Training and the Temple are "home" for him.

Benjamin will be Senior Patrol Leader this coming year at Sogus and William is on staff again as Asst. Sr. Patrol Ldr. over Facilities, with Joseph attending as a learner this summer. Jonathan, Sam, Ben, Will and Joe will all now have had the benefit of advanced group dynamics training that this course provides. It is a huge commitment with over 60 hours of graduate level training each year. Benjamin is soon to achieve his Eagle Scout Rank (his project was completed 2 years ago!) and will finally have his driver’s license!

Jonathan (21) is working in the electronics department of Fred Meyer saving money to get back into college. He is making a great transition from mission life to normal life. Being an excellent "returned missionary" is not something you are automatically because you returned home, but something you learn to become in the weeks after you arrive home again. It takes effort. Deborah (23) is at BYU-Provo, teaching Spanish in the Mission Training Center. Jennifer (25) is finishing her senior year at BYU and continues teaching Mandarin Chinese there at the MTC. She was working in Seattle this summer as part of the Flourishing Families Project. Christine (27) had an internship is Washington DC this summer working with the Pan American Health Organization and able to use her Spanish. She will complete her masters in Public Health this spring. She lives in the same apartment complex in Provo, UT as Jenn and Deb. Allison (31) is at University of Chicago Lab School working as Language Lab Technology Coordinator. She serves in the Stake Primary (Music) and works at the Chicago Temple once a month.

Tamarah (29) and Jeff tried to sell their house in California, but the market downturn convinced them to stay put for the present and Jeff is working in LA District for Franklin Covey. In March, their little Spencer Mark was born pre-maturely and is now “safely home” with Jesus. Another little spirit will come to their home in April. Tam was called to serve as Relief Society President in May.

David (30) in the Elders Quorum Presidency and Launna, working with the Young Women, had their #4 “David Abraham” join their family in July. David made the tough choice and is leaving Microsoft to attend college at BYU-Idaho in January. Selling the house and moving and starting school is all part of a grand adventure for his family. We will so miss their frequent visits to Vancouver.

Homeschooling is not too tough this year. Ben and William do internet courses and this year are amazingly disciplined at staying on top of the course work. Their personal discipline in this area, is really gratifying to Mom and Dad, as well as the learning. William (15) also attends band, choir and takes biology and Spanish at our new Union High School Joseph (13) gets more of Mom’s personal time. We’ve read some great books this year. Joseph keeps adding to his fine collection of skateboard ramps. Benjamin (17) started his own indoor Soccer Team. He has Joseph and Jon and even William playing soccer with him in the back yard or at nearby parks. Ben worked at a cycle shop during the summer and has the fanciest bike around.

Some of the highlights of 2007 have to do with hiking-camping-and youth super-activities: Camp Cooper (Wilamina, OR); Camp Pioneer (Sisters, OR); Cape Lookout and Ft. Stevens (Oregon Coast); rafting on the Deschutes; Leavenworth, WA; Silver Falls (Silverton, OR); hiking to waterfalls (Columbia River Gorge); and a week at Port Townsend, WA have made for some great memories this year. We have more "high adventure" in our family than they have in the scouts. Ultimate Frisbee, air pressured backyard rocket launching, and shotgun shooting are the new sports that the boys have experimented with in 2007. Mark has been doing a lot of reading, trying to decide what to do after leaving his company. If any of you need a good trainer, teacher, consultant, don't hesitate to call.

This year we’ve had some big events in our home. In March, my sister came to live with us while looking for work. In June we hosted a welcome home from Iraq party (100) for friends. In July we had a funeral gathering for a nephew who passed away (60). Also this summer, the aging paint on our home was covered with a fresh coat by our very own “College Painters”, Christine and Deborah. Then we had our big Thanksgiving celebration (42-indoors!) before Samuel left. Our home is always open to anyone who wants to come sleep on the hide-a-bed. Soon we will actually have a guest room!

We are thankful for your friendship and love hearing your family news. Keep in touch. “We proclaim that The Lord Jesus Christ truly is the Savior of all. He whose birth the Christian world celebrates is indeed the Son of God, the Redeemer, the promised Messiah. No message is more significant than the one He brought. No event is of greater importance than His atoning sacrifice and subsequent resurrection. And no mortal tongue can express sufficient thanks for all that Jesus has done for us.” (First Pres. Christmas Message, 1985) Check out the great website at www.mormon.org.

Mark and Cyndy Weiss 360 882-7995
weissmom@comcast.net dadweiss@mac.com

Character - Two Quotes And An Observation

Quote 1
The skipper of the Albatross teaches his "attitude" endowed crew, "You know what's out there? Wind and rain and some damn big waves. Reefs and rocks and sandbars and enough fog at night to hide it all." Dean Preston, teenage crew member and "king hubris" asks, "So why the hell do it then?" to which the skipper responds,"It builds character Mr. Preston, of which you are in desperately short supply. The kind you only find on mountain tops, or deserts, on battle fields and across oceans."


Quote 2
"One other very interesting thing we've just found out about these wonderful kids [home schoolers] is that they tend to be active in political affairs. They tend to be joiners. They tend to be people who are engaged in civic activities - just the opposite of what people have said. ... I think these kids are so filled with mother love-You know, so much affection and devotion from their moms and dads (Dads do occasionally play a role in homeschooling; let's get in a word for dads) - that they are just supremely confident. ...It is interesting to watch them. (Homeschool kids) They are very confident, as you said. they look adults in the eye and respond to them respectfully. There is something different about homeschool boys and girls, and that difference is good." (Dr. James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys, p 192)

More often than not, something happens at home, in the home schooling home, that builds and nurtures strength of character in our children. This, instead filling their minds with doubt, while their eyes seek the approval of others. Dobson observes it first hand, though his own children were not homeschooled. He later says if he were to do it over again, he would home school.

My observation is that the best meaning public school teachers often find their finest aspirations to build character in students, throttled back by laws and rules and influence of the educational trends of our day. All too often, character, or the strength to decide and live based on an inner compass more than values outside of ones self, is in "desperately short supply". While these dynamics often exist in the public setting, a home based education benefits from the ability to choose otherwise. It can be an advantage for the kids, when capitalized on. How does one build character in a child at home?

Examples of Meeting Legitimate Needs

Children are arguing. They have a legitimate need to understand how arguing impacts the home. They want to argue. That is their want, But they need to understand the impact of arguing in the home. They also need to understand that arguing is not acceptable in the home. Conflicts happen, but in our home the expectation is that we work things out in a certain way and that way precludes contentious arguing.

So the next step is to ask, what can be done as parents to stive to meet their needs? They NEED to understand that this behavior is unacceptable. They also have a legitimate need to understand the better way to solve conflicts. So you as a parent come up with a strategy that helps meet their legitimate need.,They need to understand that this behavior isn't acceptable and that there are alternative ways of dealing with 1) the conflict itself and 2) the emotions associated with the conflict. (John Gottman, Emotion Coaching)

As I read the scriptures, I see that God loves his children. At the same time, the children of Israel, whom he loved, got the the point where they had legitimate need to learn some important lessons. So as the parent, God came up with a strategy. It was... send them on a camp-out for 40 years. For Moses it was the summer camp from hell. (The Book of Numbers in the Bible.) He taught the older ones what he could before they died, and in the process educated the young as they grew up. As a people, (family) they were finally ready to receive the blessing of entering into the "promised" land. I suppose if they hadn't "gotten it" after 40 years, Heavenly Father would have sent them out for another dose of the medicine.

There are so many examples in the scriptures where we can see God doing so much more than gently persevering mis-behavior and passively waiting. He does a bunch of that to be sure. However, after a series of warnings, He takes steps to meet the "legitimate" need his child/children have at that time. His, is leadership that eventually builds influence. The kids say, after enduring the "lesson", "You know what? God was right. We had it wrong. We are happier this way. We need to trust His advice more in other things." So Service, Sacrifice and Meeting Legitimate Needs works together to build influence.

Another interesting side note is this. People under stress very often, respond to the stress by isolating themselves from others. In the process, they cease serving, sacrificing and meeting legitimate needs. The result? Dwindling influence with others. Example. Parents divorcing creates stress. The parent who ends up with the kids, often has a much harder time meeting the legitimate needs of the kids because stress encourages the parent to isolate themselves from others. The parent resorts to other less effective tactics. As if the kids aren't already experiencing stress themselves, the one parent, who they must entirely depend on, doesn't deliver the fences, boundaries, and methods that meet legitimate needs. You have a spiral downward that is very serious.

Parents who home school, have such a huge opportunity to meet legitimate needs in powerful ways. Ways in which the public system could never practically consider, except in the most extreme cases of impudence. The custom tailored instructions in meeting the legitimate needs of your children are within your grasp so much more than others so buried by the demands of a roomful of kids. Because of this, your children can be much more capable socially and confident as well.

Do You Want More Influence With Your Children?

Teaching Leadership in the Home Series - #1

(NOTE: When I talk about leadership, I am talking about the art of getting
things done through other people, who help because they want to.
This is leadership through influence, which gets things done
AND builds people up simultaneously, as opposed to leadership through power
which gets things done, often at the sacrifice of interpersonal relationships.)

I don't know why or how we came upon it. I know it was early in our marriage, but after we had our first few of eleven children. It may have been after a family visit, as we were driving home. We were discussing the difference between my father's approach to being a dad and my mom's approach to being a mom. In any case, Cyndy and I both decided that in our home, we wanted to raise leaders. I am sure we didn't understand leadership as I have defined it above. I think we meant that we wanted them to be independent deciders, independent thinkers, independent doers and be able to communicate well. I don't think we visualized them having winning personalities or powerful speakers. We both kind of felt we would know leadership in our children when we saw it, and also know it, when they were followers of the crowd instead. As our children have grown up, we still all have a long way to go in becoming leaders.

This is one reason why we decided to home school. If for no other reason, deciding to home school sent a message to our children that for their parents at least,  the world is OUR oyster and we as a family would always feel comfortable using what was good and discarding the rest, with little or no concern for the thoughts of others around us. This is still true. We have always tried to follow an inner compass, instead of making decisions based on what others thought or valued or what we had personally experienced growing up. The fact that my parents gave us such a hassle for choosing home schooling as well as most of our married siblings, meant little to us, because we were so sure of our inner compass. We heeded them not.

I have always felt that our children are influenced far more from who we are and how we act vis-a vis our values, than what we say or preach to them. So this independent attitude, and our living true to it, has imprinted on our children, that they are free to stand up for the right and expect us to support them. And we do!

Yet there is more. Again, in "The Servant" by James Hunter, he forwards the idea that building influence with others, or authority, as he calls it, is the result of three elements. They are service, sacrifice and meeting the legitimate needs of others. Most responsible parents, serve their children. Most sacrifice for them. But meeting legitimate needs instead of wants, is often a problem. Not doing this well, can erode our influence with those we love the most. 

In order to meet the  legitimate needs of our children,  we must have a clear vision in our minds, of the kind of skills and attributes we feel our children need to possess. Have you ever taken the time to actually write down what skills you want your children to have and what attributes you want them to develop while in your home? Try it. Right now. Take a minute and write down some thoughts regarding these two topics, skills and attributes. Then for each one, write down why each of these skills and attributes is truly important for your child to possess. This can get a bit sticky, in that often a dad,  for instance, often wants desperately for a son to be a jock like him. Or a mother "needs" her daughter to love music, or cooking because she does. Of course, this isn't always fair. So try to be as objective as you can in making the list. Objective and honest. 

Finally once you have decided on a few things, ask yourself, what kind of experiences does my son or daughter need to have, in order to gain this skill or develop this attribute. Write those down as well. This exercise should help you crystalize your intentions toward your children, and help you be more consistent in your interactions with them. 

One quick story. Sorry, it's a personal one. I lettered in three high school sports my junior and senior year. There were only two in our class to do that. After playing basketball my  junior year and being one of three to make the team as a junior, I really learned to love the game and wanted badly to do well my senior year. I told my dad that I didn't want to risk injury to my legs by playing football my senior year and preferred to use the time to improve my basketball skills. My dad said that when I   accepted the letter as a football player, my junior year, I obligated myself at that time, to play my senior year. I had no option. He expected me to play football. 

Well, I did play football, I did injure my knees (plural) and at the end of the season, I came down with mononucleosis. So much for Senior Basketball. But you know things still worked out. I did get a basketball scholarship to play in college. I had a good experience, and I learned a powerful lesson. Commitment. I learned that true commitment is not something given lightly and comes with responsibility. When you commit, you accept the good and the bad at the same time. It all comes together. All for good too. Just like building an enduring marriage and family. 

My dad was right. I had a legitimate need to learn about commitment and taking the good with the bad. He saw to it that I learned something important, because he knew I needed to learn this tough lesson even if I didn't want to learn it. This kind of example in leadership  has served our family so well. I look at my children and endure the complaining and arguing and attitude that sometimes occurs, and I endure it well, because I am meeting their legitimate needs, not wants. 

Over time, serving them, sacrificing for them, and meeting their legitimate needs time and time again, I build a powerful influence in their lives. When it comes down to it, if I asked them to walk through walls because our family really needed them to, they would. Or at least they would try. 

So what can you begin doing right now, to build more influence with your children? Why not share some examples of how this has worked or not worked in your life on the blog? 

Authority with our Children

In his book, "The Servant" author and lecturer Jim Hunter makes this observation, "With the proper will, we can chose to love, the verb, which is about identifying and meeting the legitimate needs, not wants, of those we lead. When we meet the needs of others we will , by definition, be called upon to serve and even sacrifice. When we serve and sacrifice for others, we build authority or influence, the "Law of the Harvest," as Theresa said. And when we build authority with people, then we have earned the right to be called leader."

Love, the verb, is all about behaving well toward others, even when we disagree with them or are irritated or frustrated with them. Love, the feeling, as we all know, comes and goes. So it can't be the kind of trustable love spoken of by the prophets. Charity never faileth. Yet, with love the verb active in our lives, we can always choose to behave well toward others, or never fail them in how we treat them.

In many cases, this is naturally a part of the home schooling environment, because of a form of natural selection. Parents who are willing to take the responsibility upon them of nurturing at home, offer a model of service and sacrifice for their children that is invaluable. Invaluable, because children learn so much more from what they see modeled than from what they are told.

A family name, at the very least, is the legacy we leave behind for future generations to view and judge. Choosing to model and impress in the lives of our children, lasting values such as true leadership, has the potential to extend into the lives of those in our current version of human kind, but also in lives beyond. It is so worth it.

Why Pre-School May Hurt Our Children

Read this:

Family Research Abstract of the Week: Is Preschool Really Necessary?
Is Preschool Really Necessary?

Even as the enrollment of children in kindergarten remains optional in most states, the daycare lobby and "early learning" advocates would like to make preschool universal or mandatory on the presumption that pre-K programs promote the "school readiness" of children. Yet a study by Lisa N. Hickman at the Ohio State University challenges their agenda, finding that children who attend daycare or preschool the year prior to kindergarten do not gain greater social or cognitive skills and in some measures end up lagging behind their peers who enjoy the attention of their parents exclusively.

Hickman looked at data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort, which began tracking more than 21,000 children who started kindergarten in the fall of 1998. Improving upon the methodology of existing early childhood studies, she conducted both cross-sectional as well as longitudinal tests, the latter of which more accurately isolate effects of various preschool experiences over time.

Her cross-sectional tests confirm some existing research that finds that children who are enrolled in daycare or preschool start kindergarten with significantly higher cognitive skills, although that advantage is cut in half in tests that control for family background characteristics. At the same time, her cross-sectional analysis also confirms that children who follow the more traditional pattern of parental care start kindergarten with significantly better social skills in three of four different measures in tests with and without controls. (But Read on!!!)

To test whether these patterns persist as the children move into higher grades, Hickman's longitudinal tests control for fall test scores in kindergarten and first grade. During kindergarten, whatever advantages daycare or preschool children enjoy in math and reading become statistically insignificant in tests with and without background controls. During the first grade, the daycare/ preschool children have significantly lower math scores (p<.05). In both grades, these children scored significantly lower in the "approaches to learning" measure, which measured teacher perception of student attentiveness and persistence, a reversal of what was found in the cross-sectional test.

The longitudinal model also reveals even more so than the cross-sectional analysis that daycare/ preschool children exhibit poorer social skills throughout kindergarten. Such children have worse self-control, have worse interpersonal skills, and externalize problems more than their peers under parental care (p<.001 for each coefficient in tests with and without background controls). The only social measure (internalizing problem behaviors) where these children outperformed their parental-care peers in the first model is now insignificant.

While these findings will not endear Hickman to the "early learning" crowd, they nonetheless suggest that something other than the welfare of children may be driving the current pre-K craze.

(Source: Lisa N. Hickman, "Who Should Care for Our Children? The Effects of Home Versus Center Care on Child Cognition and Social Adjustment," Journal of Family Issues 27 [May 2006]: 652-684.)

How Do You Do It All? My Top Ten

I read frequently another home schooling list. In last few days, someone asked, "HOW DO YOU DO IT ALL?". I offer her plea anonymously:

I am having a very hard time right now. I feel like no matter what I do I can't do it fast enough or well enough. It took me the entire day just to fix my husband's scout shirt today (We just moved). I feel like I can't give my kids all the attention they need. I can't teach them the things they want to learn. I never get enough sleep. i have an 8 yo boy who needs help with writing and math and my 5 yo girl wants to learn to read. my 2 yo and 8mo baby girls want to be held and swung and call for my attention all the time. I know I am supposed to home school every time I pray about it. I know it. I just want to know how do you do it all? How do you feel like your brain is not turning to goo? And how do you keep from feeling like you have failed every day?

What has followed is a long long series of posts entitled "Re: HOW DO YOU DO IT ALL?" Half of one days digest and all of today's digest. It appears a lot of people on this list understand and can empathize.

I had a list of ideas come to me.

1) I hurt for you
2) Upper level class in values and priorities going on.
3) Hitting the wall is sometimes the only way we come to God.
4) There has to be a bright side in all of this. Find it, hang on to it.
5) Is hubby aware?
6) Kids are resilient.
7) Can someone else help with the 2 clingons?
8) Are you a list person?
9) Go to sleep, it will be better in the morning.

and finally....

10) Frustration is a mild form of insanity. It is the inability to adjust expectations to reality. (Author/Leader/Entrepreneur Grant Sharp)

If someone else would mind sharing their thoughts I will certainly pass them on. If you have a link to a blog or two where you have written about this before, I will pass them on too.

I remember those days. So many children. All wanting something. Cyndy wanting to quit. Dad holding fast to the tiller as the great ship Weiss weathered the storm. We always came out the other side of the squall. Having now 30 years of sailing under our belt, we know the truth of the line from "White Squall", "You can't run from the wind. You face the music. You trim your sails and you go on." Cyndy would be the first to tell you, that what she became and what I became and what our children became when the squares were up, in the middle of the ocean, with no land in site, and God was our only lifeline, has been worth it. I look forward to meeting together with all you old salts as we trade tales of the open sea and all of our journeys and adventures.

I Also Got Tagged for a Meme

I actually got two tags. One from Tammy at Just Enough, and Nothing More and also from Pinehurst in my Dreams, the author unknown to me. I have no idea what this is. Or why?

So I put this off for a while. Busy and I guess just male. Quirky things about me? Seven of them. For me, its like an Iraqi walking into an american grocery store. Too many choices creating anxiety and emotional overload. ;-) But Tammy has been a good blogging friend, and I admire her writing skills and thinking willingness. So... here goes:


1) I love books, but unfortunately more than reading them. We have a huge library in our home. But even though I read a lot, I have far more books than I will ever in this life have time to read. And I am still buying more. Go figure. Maybe being surrounded by knowledge makes me think I am full off it. Come to think of it maybe I am.

2) When I really want to relax, I go to my closet and bring out the slaps that I used to wear when I was went to school in Hawaii for two years. Not the actual ones, of course. These are newer, but the same style. Black mock velvet straps, cane insole, cork bottoms with rubber on the bottom. I can't walk fast in them unless they get wet, because they are slippery on the soles of my feet. But they take me back to wonderful days. After basketball practice was over, we would shower, put on our gym shorts and our lava lava over that, a t-shirt and slaps and go to dinner. Even now as I think of it, the warmth of the sunset on the north shore, a breeze most of the time and friends to eat with and laugh with and talk with, lots' of food, and lots of Hawaiian fruit. Time that seemed to move way way way slooooooow. A taste of heaven for me.

3) My wife and I have been blessed with 11 children. One at a time. Oldest is 31, youngest is 13. How about that? People say that is different. Being with Cyndy and the kids, now and in the life beyond, is the most humbling and amazing blessing I ever remind myself of. As each one of the kids develops, as we observe each one doing amazing things, making amazing decisions, and living amazing lives, it gets all the more humbling.

4) I have been in life or death situations 7 times so far. By that I mean, one inch, one second different and I would have checked out of here. One time, I said to myself, "So, this is how I am going to die. How interesting" as it was happening. Then I worked my way out of that one too. I found out through all of this, that I have the courage to make very very hard choices when life and death is on the line, and I found out that under that kind of stress, I was very peaceful and calm, all about the task at hand. I don't know what I do with that knowledge yet, but somehow it is nice to know.

5) Until recently, I didn't fully realize how big a 6'4" and over 300 lb person I am. When I look at people, I look them in the eye, so seeing eye to eye, I have always thought of myself as their size and height. Then the other day, I was walking out the front door and noticed two things. One, my head was very close the the light in the entry and also that I filled the entire space that makes up the front door. I thought to myself. Man, you are a big guy. Then I began noticing that other people, most other people came up to my chin or even lower and that many women were also really short. Like I don't look at the top part of their head, I look down on it. I see the thinning hair, etc. Even Cyndy became short suddenly. No wonder people can be afraid of me. I had no idea that I was a landmark instead of a person.

6) When in college, I decided to get a degree in english. Why? You won't believe this. My logic went like this. If I can learn to master symbolic language and representation, then when I read the scriptures, I will understand more how God thinks and why He does what he does. I will understand more of the message of Jesus Christ. And IF I can come to understand that, anything else in my life will work out. Now 30 years later, I understand symbolic language less than ever, and I am still wondering how things are going to work out in certain areas in my life. I used to love picking apart a short story or a great poem or other great literature. Today, I don't have the same energy and desire to attack those kinds of challenges and figure all that out. (Note: Cyndy proof read everything I ever wrote in college, which saved my bacon. She does not proof read my blog entries now, which usually ends up frying it.)

7) We have never owned a new car in our lives, and we have never sold a car that I can remember. However, we have had several hauled away for salvage and one time, the guy was walking along the side of the car after he pulled it up on top of his truck bed, and grabbed the door for balance and as I remember it, it came off in his hand. We all laughed so hard.

So there you have it. My stream of consciousness attempt at this Meme thing. By the way, how do you pronounce that word?