Growing the Resource Center

I have been reading a blog lately called How to Change the World, A Practical blog for impractical people, by Guy Kawasaki. He just posted this summary he wrote about the book by Lois Kelly. I used his examples as a writing exercise because so far word of mouth is the only advertising we have used for our business. I am looking into others, but this was a great exercise for me.

“Lois Kelly is the author of Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. This is her explanation of the top nine types of stories that people like to talk about. If you’re pitching your company to investors, customers, partners, journalists, vendors, or employees and you don’t use at least one of these types of stories, you probably have a problem.”

Aspirations and beliefs. We believe all young people are capable of reaching their goals. We aspirer to create an environment that encourages dreams and passions to grow. We believe that all people are part of a global community. We aspire to teach students and parents ways to enrich and care for that community, small daily choices have long term global impacts.

David vs. Goliath. In the story of David and Goliath, the young Hebrew David took on the Philistine giant Goliath and beat him. Homeschooling continues to take on Traditional Schooling, it continues to prove itself. An education based on the principles set forth in Thomas Jefferson Education continues to successfully challenge the educational conveyor belt mindset that even many home schoolers have fallen into.

Avalanche about to roll. Many students today are not equipped with an education that will see them into the new century. The material they are being taught is out of date often before the textbook is even printed. If a student isn't given the skills they need to solve problems, do research, think logically, be creative, and lead others they will be left behind.

Contrary to popular belief, mentoring is a more successful way to educate than teaching. Mentoring involves many years of dedicated work on the part of the mentor and the student. The mentor's job is to inspire, the student's job is to educate themselves.

Counterintuitive, giving students more control of their studies may seem counterintuitive. In reality a student who is interested in their studies, studies much more. A student who is given control over what they study chooses to study subjects that are relevant to their lives and interests. When given a choice between two or three classics they feel their opinions matter. They find the motivation within themselves to learn. It is that skill, the ability to learn, that will see them through life.

Challenging widely-held assumptions that say “children are buckets to be filled”, here we say “children are tiny sparks of flame waiting to be fanned”. Children are learning all the time. Are you teaching them that they are capable and in control of their destinies, or are you teaching them that they need others to validate them and lead them to the 'right' answers?

Anxieties. Are your children learning how to learn? Are they self-motivated? Do they help around the house just because they feel needed and necessary? Do they show respect to other people? Do they show kindness to those in need? These are the things we think are much more important than reading scores and math scores. Reading and math are important, but being a self-reliant, self motivated, and kind person is more important.

Personalities and personal stories. I was one of those kids who was smarter than everyone else in class, but got the worst grades. I failed more often than I succeeded. I would start every year with “this year will be different” attitude. It never was, by Thanksgiving I was failing again. Usually it was because I didn't see things the same way the teachers did. I also refused to do busy work, why do 100 of the exact same thing when I understood it after 5 times. I scored A's on all my tests, was there for most classes, passed all my quizzes, I tutored the other students, but because I didn't turn in homework I usually received averages lower than 65%. A few of my teachers fudged the scores and gave me D's just so I could pass. I wouldn't play the system. Then after avoiding it, I finally got talked into going to college by my husband and I blossomed! Teachers didn't give busy work because they left it up to us how to learn the material. They respected my different way of seeing the world, they respected an opinion that challenged theirs and they made me feel smart for the first time in my life. I was allowed to choose what I want to study! And unlike most people who continue to change majors, I kept adding majors. When I finished I ended up with degrees in Geography with concentrations in Earth Science, Ecology, and Cartography, in Fine Arts with concentrations in Photography and Design, in Humanities with concentrations in Literature, Theater and Speech.

Over the last 25 years I have been an educator of some kind. For the last 13 years I have been successfully helping home schoolers and their parents chart a new course, try a 'new' way to learn that is based on the 'oldest' ways. This Resource Center was started because I believe every child deserves the chance to be all they were created to be.

How-to stories and advice. An example of how our teaching methods differ would be how we take a simple recipe or food item and use it to teach culture, art, geography, history, science, math, life skills, cooking, health, ecology and even global responsibility. With a bag of oranges and group of middle schoolers, we would look at a map and see where oranges grow, we would notice they grow around the equator, we would introduce the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. This would lead us to a discussion about how the sun travels and why we have seasons. We would also talk about tropical zones and how we can help protect them. Then we would talk about recipes that use oranges, what kinds of people first used oranges. Why did sailors need oranges on long trips? How did oranges spread all over the world? What properties does an orange have? When is a mild acid needed in a recipe? What is special about an orange that it keeps other fruits from turning brown? How many varieties of oranges are there? How many have we tasted? How could a late frost, strong storms, hurricanes, gas prices, or fires change the price of our orange? How many stops does the orange make before it ends up in our kitchen? Then before we cut it up, how would we find the surface area of an orange? Can we draw a map of the world on it then cut it to make a flat map from the globe? What does it mean to quarter an orange? After we cut it, what decorative ways can we put it on the plate? What other foods would you serve with it? What is a quarter of something? How many quarters in 3 oranges? All of this learning and much more from a 'simple' orange.

Glitz and glam. We are not very glamorous. We have no glitz either. However, we are standing on the shoulders of lots of famous educators: George Wythe, Maria Montessori, John Holt, John Gotto, Grace Llewellyn, Charlotte Mason, Charles L. Shedd, and even Socrates himself. It is on these and other giants of education we base our very successful methods.

Seasonal/event-related. We are not seasonally related. Education is something that happens 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It is not something that can be put in a box and checked off. Education is a way of life, it is based on habits instilled early and modeled by parents and mentors.