This course addresses several problems with the way many of us think about and experience education. The following are a few we would work together to solve:
– Many young people pursue academic goals without regard for their interests or talents. They lack a sense of personal direction that would give meaning, durability, and motivation to their academic work.
– As young people much of our learning is passive, serving goals we’ve accepted reluctantly (if at all). We do what we must to get by, and long for freedom from education (as we know it). Lacking a personal idea of what our education ought to be, we’re “finished” with it too soon, leaving important needs for knowledge and experience unmet.
– As we mature, few of us come to see our education—our growth and development—as something for which we are personally responsible. We’re content to delegate responsibility for education, as individuals and as a society, to a small group of professionals; therefore most of us don’t address the important questions that inform the many ways we learn from and teach one another.
– Few of us have a plan, and purpose, for our continuing education. As adolescents we aren’t well prepared to take charge of our learning, or assume the authority (and humanity) of a teacher.
The following principles will guide our efforts as we address these problems:
1. Defining and administering our education is one of the most formative and rewarding processes of our lives. It’s also one of the most important, all-encompassing responsibilities of adulthood.
2. The lifelong, self-sufficient learner—one who doesn’t need to be constantly overseen or bribed (and one who isn’t repulsed by learning because of these experiences)—is the ideal. Short-term methods shouldn’t undermine this long-term goal.
3. As students we should strive to be active and independent. We all have compelling needs and desires to learn, but they can’t give meaning to our lives if we don’t acknowledge and act on them. Most of the important knowledge we need in life must be sought personally. Our sense of purpose and identity is often found in self-directed explorations.
4. Mature learning and teaching benefit from critical thought about educational issues. We should be exposed to important thinkers who can inform our educational perspectives and practices. Discussing these fundamental issues will help us consider our personal obligation to education, develop our powers of critical thought, and become more wise, exemplary teachers and learners.
5. The responsibility of education belongs to everyone. We all have great potential that can be realized only through continual growth and learning. We all have an inescapable influence on our environment and the growth of others. Facilitating human flourishing shouldn’t be the responsibility of only a few professions and institutions. We all have a duty to cultivate ourselves and promote the healthy development of others.
6. It’s important that our educational goals are our own, that they provide us with a sense of authentic accomplishment and genuine self-worth. Achieving these goals, and making a lasting place for education in our lives, is a matter of developing the necessary habits, of shaping our environment, mindsets, and identities as learners.
7. There is great potential for joy, pride, solidarity, and self-discovery in learning for ourselves. We miss out on much of the beauty of life if we neglect our intellectual development.
This course has two (concurrent) parts. In the first, we’ll discuss the important questions that inform the way we learn and teach. For each question, there is a document (5 pages, on average) offering the answers of notable thinkers. This material is meant to be read and discussed the following week. It’s recommended that the initial sessions address the following topics:
1. Why should we take more responsibility for our education?
2. Why do the questions of education, and a purposeful life, demand individual attention?
3. What is education for? What should the goals of education be?
For later sessions, the student and tutor will choose from the list of additional Discussion Material, or the student may propose his or her own topics.
In the second part of the course we’ll explore subjects for self-directed study based on the student’s interests, talents, and educational goals (informed by discussion topic #3 above). The aim here is to cultivate authentic, purposeful work and leisure, as well as to construct a vision for the student’s continuing education. This includes assignments for developing the resources and habits that will help the student make learning a way of life.
As part of the course, students are encouraged to:
… keep a journal to: collect thoughts as we discuss educational issues, keep track of their goals and habits, and organize their curriculum as it develops.
… write about the ideas we cover (and other topics that matter to them), and to work with the tutor to improve their writing.
… create a knowledge management system (digital and analog) to document and organize their learning—a personal database to collect and develop important ideas.
… outline a personal educational curriculum, based on questions like: What should the goals of my education be? What intellectual capabilities do I want for myself? What qualities should I develop as a citizen? etc.
… consider topics for in-depth study, based on questions like: What interests me? What are my authentic talents? What problems are most worthy of my attention? What kind of creative, ambitious, long-term projects appeal to me? etc.
… use their free time more deliberately. To seek activities (educational or otherwise) that further their goals, interests, and general well-being. To keep lists of worthwhile pursuits, books and other resources, and to chip away at these lists.
… develop a practice of mindfulness. To cultivate awareness, self-control, and peace of mind.
… take care of their physical well-being, as it is essential to their intellectual development. To practice healthy habits of sleep, diet, exercise, and relaxation.
… regularly discuss their work in this course with their parents, involve them as much as possible, and work with them to build a supportive intellectual environment at home.
… interact with other students in the tutoring program who are exploring similar topics, create their own learning circles, and find teachers/mentors who can further their goals.
As part of the course, parents are encouraged to:
… complete the initial questionnaire to improve the tutor’s effectiveness.
… be as involved in the student’s experience of the course as possible. Some options are: following the reading their son/daughter does; discussing the reading, as well as the student’s interests and thoughts on education; participating in lessons the tutor has designed for parents; pursuing their own education-based reading list or self-directed curriculum.
… help the student in their independent studies if the student is willing (but not to attempt to “motivate” the student in ways that undermine their autonomy).
… interact with other parents in the tutoring program who are exploring similar topics.
… contact the tutor to stay informed of the student’s progress and the work being done. (It is also one of the responsibilities of students to “debrief” parents after tutoring sessions, and regularly keep parents informed.)
The following are some important tenets of the course:
1. All work to be done will be mutually agreed upon. It’s important that students develop the habit of working for themselves, and considering how their efforts contribute to goals they have chosen. To this end, the tutor will explain the purpose of the work he proposes, and students are encouraged to ask, “Why?” whenever they think such justification is lacking.
2. If students decide they have no use for the course, they shouldn’t be forced into it. Students should come to appreciate their personal needs and desires for learning, without coercion. That being said, I highly recommend that reluctant students attend the first three sessions which address the significance and necessity of self-directed learning.