by Daniel Yordy, M.Ed.
Learning should be real. Deep down, most of us know this to be true. I have taught and worked with teenagers for many years; I know for a fact that any young person would leap at the chance of doing something personal and real in place of “school.”
But sadly, so much of the curriculum available to families follows the same group learning - simulated (read fake) exercises that fill the pages of modern education. And too many people believe that modern education is about “learning.” It is not.
Real learning comes from doing something real and important, something that adds value to the life of the child and to the life of the family. Weaving the objectives of learning around doing real projects like building a tree house or raising a flock of chickens or taking photographs for fun and profit is what makes Project-Led Learning a better way to learn.
I just completed a Project Guide for a 12-year-old boy in Australia. Now, granted, this is an ambitious and energetic boy. The project he is tackling (one of several) is to create both a native Australian garden and a water garden in his backyard. Combining a native and water garden is his choice, something he is fascinated with. He will dig the soil and plant the shrubs and flowers, but to make them grow well, he will have to learn a fair bit. He will use a tape measure and learn about soil science and botany, about earthworms and composting. He will go on field trips with his parents to explore native and water gardens already flourishing. He will connect with other gardeners who share his interest.
But the point is that all of his learning is for one purpose and that is to accomplish something real, something important to him.
I also recently completed a project guide for a 14 year old girl who just moved to Houston. For her social studies project, she wanted to learn this new city that had become her home. We met her and her mother at their first outing, a native plant and animal presentation at a local state park. This young lady had never considered honeybees, probably in her life. Yet she found the honey bee display fascinating and spent nearly an hour listening to the man sharing about his bees.
Somehow, we know without anyone telling us that learning should happen that way, discovering joys and interests by engaging with people who do that activity for real.
My heart goes out to the middle school child. In the primary years, schooling is new and exciting, in the later high school years, the end is in sight and college is beckoning. But that middle school age is stuck in the middle, chained to a desk, endlessly repeating the same things, none of which are needed right now, and with no end in view.
So I get excited when a mother of a middle school boy in Georgia tells me that her son has forgotten all of his other fun projects because now he gets to build his own computer. And when a mother in Washington tells me that she is as excited as her son while they get ready to go camping and backpacking - for their school.|
Certainly, the modern curriculum presents a wider breadth of learning to a child than a focus on a series of projects. But I know for a fact that very little of “covering all the bases” ever stays in a child’s mind. I know I learned things in the classroom, I just don’t remember what. But I remember every detail of the go-carts I built when I was in those middle years, which mechanical designs worked and which did not.
And I have never done a job in my life where “head” knowledge was needed instead of practical knowledge.
Practical knowledge comes from doing real things, from planting a garden, raising an animal, building a computer, exploring a city, reading great books, drawing a story in manga, operating a greenhouse, selling and then making a bookshelf. These are the things that turn the lights on in a young person’s eyes, especially in those important middle years when discovering the world is so very exciting.
Over the next few months, I hope to share more with you about Project-Led Learning, what it is and how you can make it work for your own children.
Daniel Yordy has worked with teenagers for over thirty years, both on the job, doing a wide range of activities with young men and women from construction to woodworking to gardening to milking cows, and in school, public, private, and home school. While obtaining his Masters Degree, he pondered the difference between the dictates of “modern education” and the practical reality he already knew produced far superior learning results than anything contrived in the modern (pretend) classroom. The result is Project-Led Learning, a weaving of the objectives of education into the actions of real-life, personal projects that contribute to a young person’s life and family.
Out of the philosophy of Project-Led Learning, Mr. Yordy has devised a series of Project Guides in ten different categories of learning. You can find out more about these exciting Guides at http://www.yguideacademy.com/ProjectLedLearning.html
Learning should be real. Deep down, most of us know this to be true. I have taught and worked with teenagers for many years; I know for a fact that any young person would leap at the chance of doing something personal and real in place of “school.”
But sadly, so much of the curriculum available to families follows the same group learning - simulated (read fake) exercises that fill the pages of modern education. And too many people believe that modern education is about “learning.” It is not.
Real learning comes from doing something real and important, something that adds value to the life of the child and to the life of the family. Weaving the objectives of learning around doing real projects like building a tree house or raising a flock of chickens or taking photographs for fun and profit is what makes Project-Led Learning a better way to learn.
I just completed a Project Guide for a 12-year-old boy in Australia. Now, granted, this is an ambitious and energetic boy. The project he is tackling (one of several) is to create both a native Australian garden and a water garden in his backyard. Combining a native and water garden is his choice, something he is fascinated with. He will dig the soil and plant the shrubs and flowers, but to make them grow well, he will have to learn a fair bit. He will use a tape measure and learn about soil science and botany, about earthworms and composting. He will go on field trips with his parents to explore native and water gardens already flourishing. He will connect with other gardeners who share his interest.
But the point is that all of his learning is for one purpose and that is to accomplish something real, something important to him.
I also recently completed a project guide for a 14 year old girl who just moved to Houston. For her social studies project, she wanted to learn this new city that had become her home. We met her and her mother at their first outing, a native plant and animal presentation at a local state park. This young lady had never considered honeybees, probably in her life. Yet she found the honey bee display fascinating and spent nearly an hour listening to the man sharing about his bees.
Somehow, we know without anyone telling us that learning should happen that way, discovering joys and interests by engaging with people who do that activity for real.
My heart goes out to the middle school child. In the primary years, schooling is new and exciting, in the later high school years, the end is in sight and college is beckoning. But that middle school age is stuck in the middle, chained to a desk, endlessly repeating the same things, none of which are needed right now, and with no end in view.
So I get excited when a mother of a middle school boy in Georgia tells me that her son has forgotten all of his other fun projects because now he gets to build his own computer. And when a mother in Washington tells me that she is as excited as her son while they get ready to go camping and backpacking - for their school.|
Certainly, the modern curriculum presents a wider breadth of learning to a child than a focus on a series of projects. But I know for a fact that very little of “covering all the bases” ever stays in a child’s mind. I know I learned things in the classroom, I just don’t remember what. But I remember every detail of the go-carts I built when I was in those middle years, which mechanical designs worked and which did not.
And I have never done a job in my life where “head” knowledge was needed instead of practical knowledge.
Practical knowledge comes from doing real things, from planting a garden, raising an animal, building a computer, exploring a city, reading great books, drawing a story in manga, operating a greenhouse, selling and then making a bookshelf. These are the things that turn the lights on in a young person’s eyes, especially in those important middle years when discovering the world is so very exciting.
Over the next few months, I hope to share more with you about Project-Led Learning, what it is and how you can make it work for your own children.
Daniel Yordy has worked with teenagers for over thirty years, both on the job, doing a wide range of activities with young men and women from construction to woodworking to gardening to milking cows, and in school, public, private, and home school. While obtaining his Masters Degree, he pondered the difference between the dictates of “modern education” and the practical reality he already knew produced far superior learning results than anything contrived in the modern (pretend) classroom. The result is Project-Led Learning, a weaving of the objectives of education into the actions of real-life, personal projects that contribute to a young person’s life and family.
Out of the philosophy of Project-Led Learning, Mr. Yordy has devised a series of Project Guides in ten different categories of learning. You can find out more about these exciting Guides at http://www.yguideacademy.com/ProjectLedLearning.html
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