Distinguo

This is exploration. This is learning in the experiential. We can use all of our senses to collect information about a place. I taught my children the tools of learning: reading, writing, and calculation when they were young. Education in my opinion is an adventure. A great education takes time, relationship building, and energy. We must care about the future of our students and be invested in their education enough to do what it takes to help them master the tools of learning, engage their curiosity, and let them explore the world. My kids might not share my same interests, but in sharing my interests, they are learning hoe to explore their own.

The inspiration for this page was my children, grandchildren, and students.
This is my son on vacation in the mountains of New Mexico. He isn't playing video games. He is reading and writing. The main picture for my page shows him running down a path on Chaco Canyon years ago. That is how long it has taken me to have the time and energy to really create this.
My ultimate goal was to create lifetime, autonomous learners, and this is what I did.
After visiting sites all day, he prefers to read and write instead of watching TV or playing video games. I'm not saying he doesn't do that. I'm saying this is what he chose to do with his evenings on a seven day vacation.
I love it!!!

Education is a reflection of society. It is a transmitter of culture.

Have you seen the movie Wali?

Education is important, but what we think and feel about education is even more important.
There has been a major move to reform education since Dewey (1859-1952). The Lost Tools of Learning were written in 1947. The National Commision on Excellence in Education was created in 1981. The report was published in 1983 in a Nation at Risk.

The new perception is that children do not need to be educated. The internet can teach children to read. Anything they want to know is at their fingertips. The jobs are children will have are not even known to us. Kids are under so much pressure and stress today. A child's ability to read, write, and calculate is less important than their ability to socialize. Our educational system is the same as it use to be and it was created for factory workers. I could go on and on.

The facts are that we have changed our methods multiple times. Factory workers could read, write and calculate. They had more tools in 1947 than we have now. We have less excellence today than we did in 1983. No generation before us knew the jobs that it's children would work. There has never been a time when people lived without stress and pressure. Children are not learning to read nor are they using the internet to obtain an education on their own, without prompting or force. Reading and math scores have consistently dropped, and writing is almost a lost art form. We are beginning to see the fruits of the perception that children do not need a good education.

It's not good. So, what is the solution?
I hope to answer that on this page.

As I teacher I hear first hand all of the excuses for why education is not working. The truth is that it's a spectrum of problems that create a multitude of holes in our boat (system).
1. The belief that newer is better
2. The belief that technology is better
3. The belief that we are evolving and that is why it's not working or that it's changing
4. The idea that their is more change today than a generation ago
5. The idea that children do not need adults to teach them
6. The idea that discipline is not foundational to growth and maturity
I could go on to say...
7. Pesticides and fertilizer contain chemicals that can destroy brain development or slow it down
8. Technology changes the pathways in our brains
9. Technology overstimulates the brain and affects attention span
10. Technology creates isolation and social anxiety

I could go on and on...all of these things and more affect education