by Daniel Yordy, M.Ed.
In a normal and healthy society, a child grows up interacting regularly with all different kinds of people throughout all age groups. A young person spends time most days with infants, old folks, and everyone in-between. Most people in human history lived their lives in some sort of community, both with extended family and in a village context. When those relationships are healthy and right, the child draws a wholesome and balanced outlook on life, seeing a variety of people’s needs and concerns, joys and sorrows, skills and callings.
More than any other factor, modern education has shattered that entire way of life. One of the worst elements in modern education is to isolate the child from normal healthy relationships and place him or her in a social laboratory surrounded only by kids the exact same age. My purpose is not to explore the terrible impact this experiment has on children, but to show how the opposite, the normal human way of life is integrated all through Project-Led Learning.
Connecting with other people is woven into every project. The student interviews and visits with farmers and vets, with coaches and hobbyists, with technicians and mechanics. He or she connects with business people and artists, with craftsmen and professionals. And in each project, the child shares the results with a gathering of extended family, neighbors, and friends.
But more than that, I have just changed the names of the last two categories of learning to more closely express this part of education in the lives of our children. The ninth category is now “Cultural” instead of “Social” and includes history, geography, and even Bible. The tenth category is now “Social” instead of “Spiritual.” By this I mean strong interaction with other people, not cultural studies. Because of the way we live, children don’t have enough opportunities to interact with others in a meaningful and helpful way. My real motive for what was originally the “Spiritual” category is to engage the child in involved giving rather than just doing more reading.
The Visiting the Elderly Project Guide is a wonderful example of connecting with other people as part of a wholesome education for our children. Here is a description of the project:
“This project begins with learning the importance of relationships with older people in our lives. The student will enjoy the stories of older people and the wisdom they have to share. By joining with a program that assists the elderly, the student will build friendships and connections with elderly people.
The student will learn how to interview and write down the life stories and wisdom that elderly people have to share. He or she will polish and edit those stories and publish them on the Internet. The student has the opportunity to enter the best piece into a national contest.
Finally, the student will study the needs of the elderly in today’s world, gaining compassion in the process. He or she will meet the needs of individual people, pray for them, and bring blessing and cheer into their lives.”
Typically, these types of activities are presented to children as “extra-curricular” activities that a few people do, but that are not central or necessary for “schooling.” How bizarre is that? A society and culture that operates on the profound belief that children creating relationships with elderly people is of very little consequence and certainly not integral to education?
Could the opposite be true? Could providing meaningful relationships with a broad variety of people in church and in the community, people of all ages, trades, and professions, be of critical importance to the core of every child’s education?
I certainly believe so.
And there are many other “Social” projects that can be added to “Visiting the Elderly.” A week-long missions trip to another country could be one. Helping to build a “habitat for humanity” dwelling could be another. Distributing food to the poor, working at a food bank, helping in a homeless shelter, any of these could be included in the home school curriculum. But healthy relationships include more than helping those in need. What a radical notion! That “school” should include building friendships with business people and shop owners, with tradesmen and homemakers – outside the immediate family.
Babysitting for neighbors could easily be a “school” project.
Watching my daughter teach piano to a series of bright and happy little kids is a joy to me. That experience is of greater value to her education than many days and months sitting in a classroom with her same-aged peers. We have been attending activities at a local state park. Our children joining and interacting with the park staff and with volunteers of all ages to put on “heritage” presentations to the public IS a key part of my curriculum for them.
“It takes a village to raise a child,” when spoken by politicians means that “the village” pays for the education, the state controls it, and that “education” is then provided only in the context of kids the child’s own age. But when taxes and state are removed from the equation, then interacting with all types of people of all ages inside the “village” of church and local community is, indeed, a valuable part of our children’s education. I would encourage you to add interaction with other people outside the home as a central component of your curriculum. Your children will thank you for it when they are adults functioning in that society.
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
In a normal and healthy society, a child grows up interacting regularly with all different kinds of people throughout all age groups. A young person spends time most days with infants, old folks, and everyone in-between. Most people in human history lived their lives in some sort of community, both with extended family and in a village context. When those relationships are healthy and right, the child draws a wholesome and balanced outlook on life, seeing a variety of people’s needs and concerns, joys and sorrows, skills and callings.
More than any other factor, modern education has shattered that entire way of life. One of the worst elements in modern education is to isolate the child from normal healthy relationships and place him or her in a social laboratory surrounded only by kids the exact same age. My purpose is not to explore the terrible impact this experiment has on children, but to show how the opposite, the normal human way of life is integrated all through Project-Led Learning.
Connecting with other people is woven into every project. The student interviews and visits with farmers and vets, with coaches and hobbyists, with technicians and mechanics. He or she connects with business people and artists, with craftsmen and professionals. And in each project, the child shares the results with a gathering of extended family, neighbors, and friends.
But more than that, I have just changed the names of the last two categories of learning to more closely express this part of education in the lives of our children. The ninth category is now “Cultural” instead of “Social” and includes history, geography, and even Bible. The tenth category is now “Social” instead of “Spiritual.” By this I mean strong interaction with other people, not cultural studies. Because of the way we live, children don’t have enough opportunities to interact with others in a meaningful and helpful way. My real motive for what was originally the “Spiritual” category is to engage the child in involved giving rather than just doing more reading.
The Visiting the Elderly Project Guide is a wonderful example of connecting with other people as part of a wholesome education for our children. Here is a description of the project:
“This project begins with learning the importance of relationships with older people in our lives. The student will enjoy the stories of older people and the wisdom they have to share. By joining with a program that assists the elderly, the student will build friendships and connections with elderly people.
The student will learn how to interview and write down the life stories and wisdom that elderly people have to share. He or she will polish and edit those stories and publish them on the Internet. The student has the opportunity to enter the best piece into a national contest.
Finally, the student will study the needs of the elderly in today’s world, gaining compassion in the process. He or she will meet the needs of individual people, pray for them, and bring blessing and cheer into their lives.”
Typically, these types of activities are presented to children as “extra-curricular” activities that a few people do, but that are not central or necessary for “schooling.” How bizarre is that? A society and culture that operates on the profound belief that children creating relationships with elderly people is of very little consequence and certainly not integral to education?
Could the opposite be true? Could providing meaningful relationships with a broad variety of people in church and in the community, people of all ages, trades, and professions, be of critical importance to the core of every child’s education?
I certainly believe so.
And there are many other “Social” projects that can be added to “Visiting the Elderly.” A week-long missions trip to another country could be one. Helping to build a “habitat for humanity” dwelling could be another. Distributing food to the poor, working at a food bank, helping in a homeless shelter, any of these could be included in the home school curriculum. But healthy relationships include more than helping those in need. What a radical notion! That “school” should include building friendships with business people and shop owners, with tradesmen and homemakers – outside the immediate family.
Babysitting for neighbors could easily be a “school” project.
Watching my daughter teach piano to a series of bright and happy little kids is a joy to me. That experience is of greater value to her education than many days and months sitting in a classroom with her same-aged peers. We have been attending activities at a local state park. Our children joining and interacting with the park staff and with volunteers of all ages to put on “heritage” presentations to the public IS a key part of my curriculum for them.
“It takes a village to raise a child,” when spoken by politicians means that “the village” pays for the education, the state controls it, and that “education” is then provided only in the context of kids the child’s own age. But when taxes and state are removed from the equation, then interacting with all types of people of all ages inside the “village” of church and local community is, indeed, a valuable part of our children’s education. I would encourage you to add interaction with other people outside the home as a central component of your curriculum. Your children will thank you for it when they are adults functioning in that society.
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
