Published with Permission
\nWritten by Diana Waring
\nwww.TOSMagazine.Com<\/p>\n
When it comes to education in our culture, there is a deep trench between the unpleasant, dentist-filling-cavity experience of school, which one endures by necessity, and the passion-driven endeavor of hobbies, which one anticipates with delight. For many of us who began homeschooling in the 1980s, this was a chasm we sought to cross. Our learners, no longer dreading school, could actually thrive in their studies since they were in the nurturing environment of our homes.<\/p>\n
Rather than conformity to the standard model of education\u2014a lecturing teacher, subservient students and rigid class periods\u2014we tried new approaches: a tuned-in observer, interactive students, and freedom to conduct experiments or write stories or fashion clay figures, heedless of the clock. In this laboratory of learning, many of us discovered that our unique children could each find something that motivated them deeply. Amazingly, we saw that when our children are motivated they have a self-imposed zest for ferreting out information, a zest that extends beyond Legos and bikes to academic subjects such as science, history, and literature.<\/p>\n
This discovery of the power of self-motivation, or \u201chunger to learn,\u201d was like a new invention or a magic wand. Eventually, we discovered that as homeschoolers we were actually on the cutting edge of education\u2014traveling a path of learning that educational researchers and scientists were also studying. What we had stumbled upon in searching for the best approaches for our children was being legitimized through academic studies on how the brain works and how people learn best.<\/p>\n
Here are six general points from the researchers on increasing learning through environment and relationship. Read the list and consider how your home is the best<\/em> place for this to happen:<\/p>\n \u2022 Create an environment where it is safe to explore and make mistakes, with a positive expectation of success (as opposed to an anticipation of failure).<\/p>\n \u2022 Emphasize the relevance of what is being studied, answering, \u201cHow is this important to my life?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Provide an emotionally positive experience for students by being with others, utilizing laughter, taking regular breaks, and giving wholehearted encouragement.<\/p>\n \u2022 Involve the five senses\u2014touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell\u2014as often as possible in what is being studied; consider the \u201cbig picture,\u201d asking, \u201cWhat does this really mean?\u201d and \u201cHow does it affect the world?\u201d (as opposed to mere memorization).<\/p>\n \u2022 Teach it to someone else, since this requires real understanding rather than a mere acquaintance with a subject.1<\/sup><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/sup>Any teacher who implements these six principles will immediately open the door for students to actively involve themselves in the process of learning\u2014a key to self-motivation. And, significantly, students will have the opportunity to actually enjoy the experience.<\/p>\n If you plodded uninterestedly through school, perhaps this is an unsettling thought. You may be asking at this point, \u201cIs it appropriate, necessary, or Godly for students to actually enjoy learning, or is this just a new fad in educational psychology?\u201d I understand the question! To answer it, let us look to the Scriptures.<\/p>\n Psalm 111:2 gives us a profound glimpse into God\u2019s heart, His wise and loving ways in education: \u201cThe works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them\u201d (NKJV).<\/em> Wow! The implication here is that God intends for us to have pleasure in studying His works! So what exactly is included in \u201cthe works of the Lord\u201d? Is it knowledge of theology, doctrine, evangelism, and eschatology alone? I don\u2019t believe so. If we read our Bibles from the beginning of Genesis, we\u2019ll discover that everything academic\u2014from biology and botany to linguistics and artistry\u2014comes rightly under the category of \u201cthe works of the Lord.\u201d Being made in the image of our Creator places our creative efforts particularly under this category as well.<\/p>\n Secondly, let us consider the wisdom of Christian educators. That students should enjoy learning, even in school, was described in the seventeenth century by John Comenius, the Father of Modern Education. This Godly man spent his life studying the Scriptures and observing nature, along with teaching and interacting with students, in order to improve education in his day.2<\/sup> As part of this lifelong work, Comenius wrote a transformational book on learning, The Great Didactic<\/em><\/strong>. In the preface, he described his goal: \u201cTo seek and to find a method of instruction, by which teachers may teach less, but learners may learn more; by which schools may be the scene of less noise, aversion, and useless labour, but of more leisure, enjoyment and solid progress; and through which the Christian community may have less darkness, perplexity, and dissension, but on the other hand, more light, orderliness, peace, and rest.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n What a worthy goal for education and by what an unusual process: teachers teaching less, but learners learning more. How is that possible? It is through the power of enjoyment, of self-motivation, of discovering zest for learning.<\/p>\n Rosalie Pedder was a brilliant Christian educator from New Zealand and my mentor for several years, prior to her death. She wrote: \u201cAll learning is not<\/em> fun. Most of it is very hard work, but it does not also have to be unpleasant. Gardening in spring is delightful\u2014it\u2019s hard work, but pleasant. Only a fool would try to carry out the same activities in winter. Why add unpleasantness to something already difficult? But we do that in learning all the time. Something hard but satisfying often unnecessarily becomes something both hard and<\/em> unpleasant.\u201d4<\/sup><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/sup>I encourage you to carefully consider the children in your home school, observe what gives them zest, and find ways to work with it so you can harness the power of enjoyment in homeschooling!<\/p>\n Endnotes:<\/p>\n 1. Rose, Colin, and Malcolm J. Nicholl, Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century<\/em>,New York: Dell Publishing, 1997.<\/p>\n 2. LeBar, Lois, Education That Is Christian<\/em>,Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1989.<\/p>\n 3. The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius<\/em>, translated by M. W. Keating, B.A.,London, 1896, page 468.<\/p>\n 4. Pedder, Rosalie A., Starting Well: Preparing the Environment<\/em>,Auckland, NZ: RAP, 2000.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Diana Waring, author of Beyond Survival, Reaping the Harvest, <\/strong>and History Revealed<\/strong> curriculum, discovered years ago that \u201cthe key to education is relationship.\u201d\u00a0 Beginning in the 80s, Diana homeschooled her children through high school–providing the real-life opportunities to learn how kids learn.\u00a0 Mentored by educators whose focus was to honor Him who created all learners, and with an international background (born in <\/em>Germany<\/em>, B.A. in French), Diana has been enthusiastically received by audiences on four continents. <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in the February 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse\u00ae Magazine<\/em>, the family education magazine. Read the magazine free atwww<\/a>.<\/a>TOSMagazine<\/a>.<\/a>com<\/a>\u00a0 or read it on the go and download the free TOS<\/a>apps<\/a> to read the magazine on your Kindle Fire or Apple or Android devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published with Permission Written by Diana Waring www.TOSMagazine.Com When it comes to education in our culture, there is a deep trench between the unpleasant, dentist-filling-cavity experience of school, which one endures by necessity, and the passion-driven endeavor of hobbies, which one anticipates with delight. 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