Our way of looking at school is informed by our experience as lifelong students and participants in education. From leading classes in grad school, working as tutors in college and highschool and as staff trainers in our roles as entrepreneurs and consultants we have always taken learning seriously.
“Once you stop learning, you start dying”- Albert Einstein
We have prepared for what seems like our whole lives to remedy what we both perceived as deficiencies in our own early educational experiences, in the early education of our children. In the early years of our relationship we would plan curriculums over breakfast at cafes long before our children were ever born. When we found out we were having twins one of the things we were most excited about was that we would have a class instead of a student. As they grew up we revisited some of the foundational texts of our education, my husband and English major graduating from Clark Atlanta University delved back into Paulo Frier and expanded into works on the Montesori method and unschooling. I as a newly minted graduate of a masters program in anthropology from Georgia State University reviewed all the curriculum planning training we received and expanded my study to age specific lesson planning and vetting work books and methods of teaching. We jointly gathered online resources from youtube, monster learning, hooked on phonics, bob books and dozens of other educational programs and shows. When the time finally came to start “officially homeschooling”, we found our small charges already reading, writing and doing math far ahead of their level.This gap forward in learning and comprehension is where our long research became even more useful.
As we began the 1st grade we were able to apply many of the tools used by “Unschoolers” and “Self directed learners”. The montessori and liberation methodologies we had implemented since they could crawl prepared them to be able to wake up and say “Today I want to learn about science” and respond when asked ‘what kind?’, “I want to learn about what makes clouds”. These kinds of primers allow us to set out for the day to lay out in the yard and draw pictures of clouds for art. To read in our earth science books about the precipitation cycle and the build precipitation cycle ziploc experiments for science. To watch a documentary about climate change, water scarcity and where it is most pointed for social studies and geography. To talk about what water density in clouds means to give examples of decimals and fractions for math. To do Yoga at sunset and talk about the colors of the sky and how seasonal sunset times affect our emotions for health and Physical Education. The next day the question may be about Cowboys or Halloween or Corn and with each we are able to combine the concept of controlled learning systems from Montesori and open world application from unschooling and self directed learning to make a daily adventure while still meeting OSSE requirements.
“Discourse leads to the truth”- Hermes Trismegistus
In our work we believe that everyone is responsible for the education of both the students and the teachers and that in fact we can all learn together. We use conversational methods along with lectures and activities to create that collaborative learning environment. It is important for us to involve our students in guiding the process of their own learning by not restricting their curiosity and often it leads us to learning new things ourselves. For example, during a history lecture on the conquest of Gaul by Julius Cesar my Husband mentioned that Gaul encompassed most of modern day France and Abigail asked “How did France become France ”.
The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is … taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. – Paulo Frier
While I for example am well versed in the cave paintings and artifacts of the Lascaux network and my husband in French philosophy, the French revolution neither of us had an answer to how France began. We racked our memory banks about the Plantagenets and the Wars of the Roses but we could only bracket French history leading up to Gaul and resuming with Louis XIII from our bedtime stories from ‘The Three Musketeers’. So we took a break from Caesar’s conquest to learn about Clovis I, Charlemagne and the Hundred Years War and how Franced morphed from a linguistically and culturally connected group of fiefdoms to the Kingdom of France. We use opportunities like this to model learning and ways of knowing as opposed to keeping the strict subject master relationship of teacher and student. In this way we help them see that learning is a lifelong pursuit and that no one knows everything.
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.- Socrates
A line I read in one of the Montessori books stuck with me, it was along the lines of ’some schools of thought hand a child a violin and when they use it to make a bridge across two chairs celebrate their creativity. Montessori on the other hand gives a child a violin and teaches them to read sheet music so that one day they might compose a piece of music to show their creativity.’
We try to find a happy middle ground of this thinking where while we encourage both types of creativity when our students make a bridge with a violin we then watch a documentary about bridges and learn the seven types and some of their components. It is a nuanced approach to encouraging creativity but also nurturing the discipline required to bring anything creative into the world. In our theoretical sciences we always try to include the art and beauty of the subject we are discussing so that subjects are not divorced from each other but rather work in the same kind of harmony we seek to highlight in each course. As an example when discussing geography we did the age-old project of drawing our house,neighborhood, city, region, country and so forth; however we did not stop them at the continent or hemisphere or world for that matter we allowed them to question as far away from home as they wished. Quite rapidly we arrived in the andromeda galaxy and the conversation of our size in the universe and the concept of time and space. Allowing their curiosity to drive our discussion to physics landed us squarely in math class and examining how letter variables in math were used because otherwise how could they grasp relativity. This loose subject matter with strict methods is our attempt to in our way soften Montessori while still adhering to its principal tenets. Through freedom within limits, our children are encouraged to explore their passions and take ownership of their learning.
Our pupils LOVE music! They sing and hum and make up instruments all the time. They also learn to play songs on the piano, use a beat machine to make beats, we have even recorded a few songs to learn studio software. While music from 1st graders is loud and sometimes not quite in key or on beat, it gives them an outlet for both energy and creativity. We intentionally expose them to music that also was once considered offbeat or out of key like jazz but also more classical genres like opera and classical music. We sometimes use music class to compare composers and describe what their music makes us feel to make a connection that music is more than just notes, tempo and pitch but rather an art that triggers emotion.
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”- Victor Hugo
It is often said in parenting and homeschooling books that the most difficult traits to parent or teach in your child are those ones most present in yourself. My husband and I are nothing if not strong willed and so are our children. Our method aims to guide that will towards achievement as opposed to trying to dampen it into compliance. This is where our philosophy sessions create interesting outcomes. We intend to nurture thinkers and not obeyers. On the question of authority for example in response to the inevitable “You’re not the boss of me” we discussed from where authority was derived and covered political and moral authority and consent arriving at an agreement that as parents and teachers we were indeed not their boss nor they our employees but rather a loving family who all deserved respect. Some of the family being older and with more experience has the moral authority to guide the young part of the family and this method coupled with proper diet and exercise has thus far produced excellent results.
