How Does Self Directed Learning Differ from Conventional Schools?

  Jenna shares a voicemail from the community. Sue calls in to share how her son “reverse engineered” his driving course to make it more efficient and relevant to him.  You can call in and leave your own message by going to www.roguelearner.com/podcast and click, “share message.” We’d love to add your stories to the show! Jenna’s husband will join the show today. If all goes well, it may become the new biweekly format. Jenna invited him on so she could: extract and discuss the key takeaways from each of the guest interviews on the show add a dad’s perspective to the conversation Demonstrate how parents can respectfully disagree yet still find a common ground Chris starts by sharing his first takeaway from episode 007, which is that in a school setting, we’re often limited to perspectives, ideas and views from people who live and think much the same as we do. With Galileo and homeschooling, you’re able to engage with learners from diverse backgrounds. Jenna talks about how the curriculum is set by the government and every government decides for their country/culture how and what should be taught.  Chris shares that unlike at schools, facilitators at Galileo don’t always need to be experts in their field, rather they need to have a passion for the topic and that is sufficient for teaching and learning from one another.  Curiosity is squelched by the curriculum because it’s set and inflexible. Students who want to learn more about a given topic aren’t able. And the reverse is true, students who perceive the topic as unimportant and irrelevant to their lives are still forced to sit through those classes.  In Kristen’s interview last week, she shared how her intense schedule at her IBE school was too stressful. Chris found it troubling that overscheduling and burnout are now affecting students as early as middle school. He wonders about the harm it is causing mentally and asks how early do we want kids to feel stressed?  Jenna and Chris talk about how asking kids what they want to be when they grow up is so common, but it’s a daunting question to answer for a child. Children have trouble answering this because they aren’t ready to make adult plans - their adult lives are so far removed from their current world. They are still in the process of developing skills and finding out about themselves.  Schools are slow to evolve. It costs money and takes time for them to acquire modern tools for students to use.  Cheating culture in schools is prolific and it comes from competition and a culture of comparison in schools, particularly in high school and middle school. Competition favors the winner and the losers can become demotivated. How does that affect how we treat others when we’re competing for the top? Because the subject and topics learned in school are so contextually removed from the real world, we miss the point of learning something other than to achieve a grade, status, or certification.  Jenna feels jaded that she never was exposed to alternative education and wishes she had learned about all the models of education in her elementary education studies. It’s no surprise though, because it would actually question the education system.  School teaches that rules are more important than independent thought.  Having other mentors/facilitators from Galileo has been really important during our transition to self directed learning because our kids are still learning to trust that we are not pushing them in any specific direction. It will likely take time for our kids to understand that our new lifestyle actually means that we are not directing them or their learning.  Mindshift change is important to unschooling. When we change our mindset from “My day is planned and it will go according to plan.” to, “Although I have a plan for the day, unpredictability will occur and I’m willing to adapt to it.”  Anxiety can creep in when we’re trying to control everything.  Jenna and Chris are working on this every single day. It’s a slow progression and they are not by any means perfect at this. Helpful Resources Mentioned in Today's Show Galileo Want to try Galileo? Use code, "Rogue Learner" to get $100 off one student's tuition. Episode 007 Leave a voicemail Ways to Connect Email me: [email protected] Facebook  Instagram Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rogue-learner/id1543224038 Google Play: https://podcasts.google.com/search/rogue%20learner Spotify: https://roguelearner.libsyn.com/spotify YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdCocbWsxxAMSbUObiCQXPg Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/rogue-learner