organic learning

When you really think about learning differences and the myriad of challenges that fall into learning differences, you soon realize that um…. most of us have one!  Educational institutions, college, for example, have a number of tier classes. They are based on the mastery of a given subject and you enroll in the respective class based on how well you have mastered the subject. For any given subject, there are two to five tiers, especially in the “Gen Ed” offerings during the first two years.

Would this ladder system become more of an educational journey if there was instead, a system based on learning styles, or learning differences, or personal experience?  What if a tactile learner could enroll in a geology class that met exclusively in the greenbelt that surrounds the college campus?  What if an oral learner could enroll in classes where there was purely discussion and no books, and the prof and class read literature to each other aloud? Or, what if there were testing rooms on every campus for students who perform better on tests when they are able to take tests in solitude, with just a proctor in the room? What if students could choose the type of test they take: essay, MC, T/F, project, performance? Or what if, in middle and high school, biology classes were prompted with the National Geographic “World Family Tree” documentary where every student contributes to the Genographic Project and discovers where her original lineage begins? What if the civil war unit was always preceded by family interviews and online research to discover which of your ancestors have original civil war documents available to present as a project to the class? What if after each test, the teacher actually went over tests with the class prior to moving on to new material?

What an amazing classroom this would be, and what motivating, intriguing educational system the country would have. Less students would repeat classes, less students would fail classes, more students would earn A’s and B’s, and there would be less test anxiety. We would be more tolerant of differences, more understanding; there would be fewer tests and more intimate, individualized measures of mastery.

What ever happened to high school field trips, phonics and mastery of grammar in elementary school? What happened to spelling tests and Latin requirements?  Poetry? Dictionaries we actually use? Cursive? Now I’m off topic, but we have basically taken many elements away that are organic systems of learning, replaced them with an assembly line approach to education. The shortcoming has resulted in a mass of students labeled as  learning difference students. Truly, we each learn differently and we always have.  Learning differences are less challenging when the classroom approach and curriculum is innovative.  In the spirit of keeping your children engaged and prepared for life, demand curriculum and classroom styles that you would find engaging...seek out these schools, and place your children there.