One size fits all education...

.....What if I had insisted that they all learn the same thing at the same time, and the more they struggled, the more I doubled down on the academics? Would they have learned faster? Or would they have come to see learning as something to avoid at all cost, something that sucked all the joy out of life? How do we help children become “life-long learners” when they experience learning as drudgery at such an early age?

I’ll tell you what we did with our son who was a classic late-bloomer. Unlike the schools, we backed off of academics. We did a little phonics instruction each day, read a lot of books, played, built things, spent lots of time outdoors and made sure he had plenty of action. We did hands on math activities and shopped together. We lived life and incorporated learning into our daily activities. As he matured, we gradually added in academic activities that were appropriate for his personality and developmental level.

If my four kids developed so differently, imagine the disparities among kids with much broader differences in genetics, home environment, natural inclinations, and early experiences.....



Read the rest of this PolitiChicks.tv article here: http://politichicks.tv/column/public-education-hurting-helping-kids/#OQosuDItFtct2BYx.99