Natural Learning?

Re: Natural Learning?

by Deirdre Bonnycastle -
Number of replies: 4

My daughter is severely dyslexic/dysgraphic with an above average IQ. The schools imposed reading requirement was a nightmare of humiliation. For example in Grade 7, the class was reading the Hobbit and the teacher wanted to remove her because she "couldn't read it". I knew she would love the story, so I finally convinced the teacher to let her access it thru books on tape. She loved the book.

I pulled her out of school that year and home schooled her until Grade Eleven and she blossomed. She learned to make movies and would arrange performances with the neighbourhood kids, she learned to thoroughly research what interested her and developed a love of science.

Today as a young adult she has a successful photography business and reads regularly even if she is still slower than the norm.

I never doubted that she would be a reader because she grew up surrounded by books and was a story teller from a young age. She taught me to question the purpose of curriculum and our assumptions about learning.

In reply to Deirdre Bonnycastle

Re: Natural Learning?

by Jenny Mackness -

Absolutely Deidre. I can completely relate to this. My eldest son was very very slow to read - He struggled right through school - but now at the age of 36 he is an avid reader. For him school, just like for your daughter, but for different reasons, was not the right environment. I never thought of schooling him at home, probably because I had a full time job.

I think these experiences speak volumes about what we mean by learning environment and the influence that the environment has on learning.

I wonder if you would be able to draw a footprint of your home schooling learning environment. That would be fascinating.

In reply to Jenny Mackness

Re: Natural Learning?

by DR. ILA ALLEN -

Jenny,

My GF daughter struggled with reading and it drove her up the wall and her daughter felt the tension.  I told her she needs to be patient and find something that she likes to do and then find a book for it.  Now, I do not have children but I know that if something is hard one needs to ease that person into it.  So many children take time to develop in areas that others excel  (girls faster than boys). Also, the learning space such as school is not always the right place for other kids are cruel (teasing, bullying) and the teacher may not want to take the time when there are a zillion other kids in the classroom.

In reply to Jenny Mackness

Re: Natural Learning?

by Deirdre Bonnycastle -

I was working full time as a teacher when I homeschooled my daughter.

In the evening we would go over what she was going to work on and what resources she would use, then I left her to it. One time I came home and she had wired the house with a rudimentry alarm system because she was interested in learning about electricity, another time she did an exstensive pictoral representation about the history of rascism. Sometimes she was just mundanely working on a computerized math course. She wrote and directed two Fringe plays, created a video that won national awards and worked as a stage manager for a professional company during this time something she would not have done otherwise.

I didn't monitor her closely because I was more interested in her pursuing what interested her so she could regain the love of learning I saw her loosing in the reqular school. Luckily she is a deeply curious person so I didn't worry about lack of initiative. I just worried about getting the resources she needed.

In reply to Deirdre Bonnycastle

Re: Natural Learning?

by Jenny Mackness -

Goodness Deidre - homeschooling and working full time - that's quite something! I can see why the school system didn't work for your daughter. She must have been far too much of her own person for them to cope with - but paradoxically this is what we want from education, isn't it?