Alternative Education: Learning by Discovery
By Carmela D'Amico
Imagine teen-agers who are not
only excited about their learning experiences at school, but also
confident and eager to pursue their calling as they graduate.
In hopes of providing their children with the best learning experience
possible, more parents than ever are choosing alternative forms
of education.
Many teaching philosophies fall under the burgeoning umbrella
of alternative education. They all have in common a conscious
awareness and respect for the child as an individual, rejecting
to varying degrees what they see as the enforced conformity of
conventional schooling. A few students do thrive in the ultra-controlled
and structured environment of traditional public schools. However,
for the majority of students whose ability to learn is stifled
by such an atmosphere, public school can literally become a deterrent
to attaining a good education.
What is a good education? It is over this very fundamental question
that the separate philosophies of public and alternative education
begin to diverge. How do you know if a child has successfully
learned what he/she needs to learn? Furthermore, how do you determine
for other human beings what they need to learn?
In public schools, the large number of students per classroom
necessitates incorporating a one-size-fits-all attitude-the needs
of the many outweigh needs of the few. A grading system which
tracks a student's progress is the main measure of a student's
learning success; unfortunately though, that system often doesn't
take into account the variability and depth of each student's
special interests and talents. Similarly, the curriculum rarely
proactively cultivates each student's unique abilities. Instead
of exploring and nurturing those latent talents, they use a cookie-cutter
curriculum that allows those precious gifts (or potential contributions
to society) to remain dormant. Thus, a diploma in hand does not
necessarily a good education make. As a result, and whether or
not students decide to pursue higher education, chances are they
will not have a clear idea what they want to do with their lives
until much later. Advocates for alternative education claim that
this does not have to be the case.
"Public education has never gotten deeply involved in the
question of 'what do you want to be when you grow up'?" says
Michael Ulrich, founder and director of the Above and Beyond School
in Kirkland.
Public schools, he says-because they're primarily left-brain oriented
(linear, analytical vs. right brain spherical, creative and intuitive)-tend
to employ the teaching tactic of "listen, write, memorize
and give it back to us, proving that you know it."
"Drill and kill," is what Cyndie Moi, Ulrich's partner,
calls this method. Moi, a successful home-schooling parent and
long-time advocate of alternative education, insists this is a
sure-fire way to kill a student's love of learning. Together,
she and Ulrich formed the Above and Beyond School's philosophy
on the notion that "the child can tell you what he/she wants
to learn. The child has passions. The child has interests. Why
not just empower children to follow those passions and interests
and let them learn what they want to learn how they want to learn
it?" She pauses for a moment and thoughtfully adds, "Rather
than stand before them and teach, you facilitate [the child's]
investigation."
Revolutionary? Perhaps. But history has proven that revolution
is what is required when numerous attempts at reform fail to correct
the problem. While addressing certain societal necessities, public
schools, on principle, tend to negate individuality in the interest
of conformity, which, Moi says, is simply "not respectful
to the human spirit."
Being a mother myself, I understand the importance of respecting
the spirit of the child. What if you have a student who simply
does not want to learn to read, who shows no interest whatsoever
in books? Knowing that it is in the child's best interest, academically,
to develop a love of reading, how do you go about prompting that
child to want to learn to read?
You don't, according to Moi. "When that child finds the need
to read he/she will learn, virtually overnight. Not just reading,
but whatever the traditional academic skill is that they need
to learn in order to facilitate their learning quest. And not
only will they pick the skill up, they'll pick it up with much
more ease and a more avid foundational interest level than if
an adult were to sit them down and say, 'You're 8 years old now.
It's time for you to learn this.'"
I remember back to my public high school years when I couldn't
seem to pass algebra to save my life, not understanding why on
earth I should need to know that stuff. It wasn't until, inadvertently,
while in college I developed an interest in physics that I felt
a need to "learn the basics," took an algebra class
and whizzed it, wondering why it had been so difficult for me
before. According to Moi and Ulrich's philosophy, algebra had
been difficult for me when it played no meaningful role in what
I was interested in learning. Once I needed algebra as a tool
to understanding what I was truly interested in, algebra became
a snap, and I picked it up virtually over night.
The Above and Beyond philosophy is rooted in basic home-schooling
principles, namely in what Ulrich and Moi refer to as "The
Discovery Approach." It is up to students to work with Ulrich
to develop their learning plans and then become immersed in their
chosen fields of interest. However, like most alternative educational
systems, Above and Beyond offers a basic core curriculum, encompassing
five areas: humanities, math/science, art/creative expression,
communication and real world experience. This encourages students
to analyze their current educational interests from varying perspectives,
and in so doing enrich the overall learning experience.
It's the freedom of the student to explore individualized interests
in a safe, non-conformist environment that is attracting more
and more parents to either home school their children or send
them to a school that employs comparable principles. As more statistics
emerge showing that home-schooled and alternative-schooled children
consistently score higher on state assessment exams than their
public-schooled peers, even parents who never felt reason to question
the methods of public schools may begin to do so.
That every American child has access to public schooling is a
fundamental right that should not be taken for granted. It's a
definite part of what makes our country great. But due to the
socialistic nature of public schools, individual needs and learning
styles often take a back seat to the uniform curriculum distributed
grade to grade. In many cases, the only problem "problem
kids" have is an individualistic learning style that cannot
be properly addressed by the current public school system. It's
imperative for the health of our future society that these children's
needs not be squandered in systems that label them falsely and
fail to successfully address their particular learning styles.
Many alternative options, like the Above and Beyond School, base
their teaching principle on addressing the strengths and interests
of the individual child. This way, the child can become very skilled
and knowledgeable about their unique interests while simultaneously
picking up what he/she needs to know from other key areas along
the way.
Interestingly, mid-life crises were virtually unheard of before
the advent of what we refer to as public schooling. "Why-and
this happens a lot-should a person have to suffer a mid-life crisis
before they finally find the courage to follow their calling?"
Michael asks. If, over time, more adults and more educational
institutions embrace a philosophy similar to Ulrich and Moi's,
such crises may become unheard of.