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rosen
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Joined: 28 October 2004
Location: United Kingdom
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Posts: 1
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| Posted: 28 October 2004 at 4:13pm | IP Logged
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Hi my name is Nicola Rose and i am a 21-year-old young girl who has bags of determination, knowledge and charisma too change the educational system. I have only just started, as a teacher for the past 6 weeks and I know in my heart change is needed for the present and future children. Teen pregnancies, smoking, drinking physical and emotional problems are just some of the issues that dominate adolescence lives, therefore interferes with their educational progression. The reason children carry out these activities is because of their low self-esteem, and lack of knowledge. Schools do not educate youngsters about everyday life issues.
Teachers want easy lives, they don�t take the time out to really get to know each personality in their classrooms, children are suppressed and made to conform. Teachers concentrate too much on criticism and weaknesses rather then give praise and acknowledge strengths. No wonder children and young adults find it very hard to express them-selves physically and most importantly emotionally. Students in schools i have observed have no direction into their futures, therefore lack any kind of motivation to want to achieve. Students in secondary schools struggle to think independently, and want constant spoon-feeding -hence learning will not take place. The educational system needs to recognise this problem within schools, therefore to encourage independent learning and thinking within students. They also need to encourage teachers to have a more humanistic and spiritual approach. I also feel teachers should not only teach there specialist subjects but counsel, motivate, encourage, communicate, laugh with their students, differentiation needs to be more dominated within the classroom, and most importantly LISTEN to their students! To many young students expect failure, and have low standards and expectations, they only reason is because the media, families and society as a whole has failed them.
Pls send any views on this subject: Like I said I am a young women determined to reach high, but i need support from the right people. [email protected]
I would love to come too London May 2005, and express my views and/or come as a new idea/project.
Edited by rosen on 28 October 2004 at 4:15pm
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Sacredstar
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Joined: 10 October 2004
Location: United Kingdom
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Posts: 24
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| Posted: 31 October 2004 at 1:14pm | IP Logged
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Dear Nicola
Fantastic one of the problems is that many teachers
did not learn this themselves, so they do not know
how to put this into practice.
The government are looking at open learning and is
mentioned on their website.
A colleague has invested �250,000 of her own
money developing a whole new holistic blueprint for
education. In hand with 14 other people like yourself.
You may be interested in speaking with her and
getting her magazine. I hope that she will also come
to the conference next year. An education where
health and education is combined.
Susan Wilmot-Josife - Editor
01707 879983/879985
International health and education
Also recommend that you get a video by Bruce Lipton
www.brucelipton.com on the latest scientific
breakthroughs in cellular biology that proves all that
you are saying. These facts will springboard the
educators of the educators to energise people to
innovate change in health and education. And can be
viewed by other teachers and parents in your
school.
The Video is called
Conscious Parenting
The Power of Love
One of the problems is that children trigger teachers
issues that they have not healed within. So my view
is that self development should be included in all
teacher training courses.
Love beyond measure for being the change
Kim xx
Edited by Sacredstar on 31 October 2004 at 1:53pm
__________________
Heath and Education must change and catch up with new science and new biology. Solutions to the root causes. .
www.loveunion.org under construction.
www.academysounds.com www.angelshealing.co
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Sacredstar
20+ Contributor
Joined: 10 October 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 24
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| Posted: 31 October 2004 at 1:50pm | IP Logged
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I found this email in my inbox that you might find
interesting.
*************************************
RELEASE (EDUCATION)
THE CRITICAL THINKING & THE LIFE-LONG
SELF-LEARNING MOVEMENT(S)
There is a "Critical Thinking Movement" in American
universities that
closely parallels a recent White Paper, "Life-Long
Self-Learning Movement,"
on K-12 innovations. They seem to be saying the
same thing, abandon the
current school systems and create a radically
different universal learning
system.
Universities across the country are recognizing that
"Americans can expect
to change jobs as many as half a dozen times in
their lives." No amount of
university education, as now given, can provide the
skills and knowledge
required for a long fullfiling and productive life.
Universities must
transform themselves to produce "critical thinkers."
They must cultivate
open minds, able to face any problem, economic,
political, scientific, or
social, with balanced, critical, reflective judgement.
This does not mean
abandoning the learning of,technical and scientific
knowledge, nor the arts
and humanities. It means aproaching all knowledge
with a more questioning,
wholistic, exploratory and less dogmatic mind. To
recognize that most
decisions are made in a field of uncertainty requiring
judgement and wisdom
as much as reason and facts.
The difficulty universities are having in producing
critical thinkers is, as
one professor puts it, "that even 4 years of college
only brings
traditional-age college students to a very low level of
critical thinking
and judgement."
It is hard to see how anyone could expect much
better. Young
people in K-12 schools are imbued with exactly the
opposite mindset.
Authoritarian, undemocratic, hierarchal schools
prepare
students for an authoritarian, undemocratic
hierarchal world. Students are
taught to obey orders, work on schedule, and accept
authority. Nothing
could be more contrary to critical thinking. It is clearly
not only
unreasonable, but also inefficient, to spend 12 years
teaching people to
accept order and control, and then 4 years
attempting to erase that order
and control mode from their minds.
These facts have been recognized in a White Paper
on "The Life-long
Self-learning Movement" drated by an ad hoc group
of citizens concerned with
the failure of the K-12 schools. It points out that
there are a host of
actions aimed an producing a radically different
learning system.
Homeschooling, Charter Schools, Folk Schools,
Vouchers, Democratics Schools,
Parent Directed Education, and many other learning
innovations are replacing
the schools of the past.
Together these two movements show the need for a
radically different
life-long learning system. We need to abolish the
barriers between higher
and lower education, as well as the barriers
between real life and school
life at all levels. This is the challenge facing all
elements of our
current cultures.
> --------------------
> Notes:
> For more on THE CRITICAL THINKING
MOVEMENT read "Rethinking Thinking" by Mark
> Clayton from the Oct. 14 issue of Christian Science
Monitor on:
>
>
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1014/p18s01-lehl.
html>
> For more on THE LIFE-LONG SELF-LEARNING
MOVEMENT see the White Paper on:
<http://www.creatinglearningcommunities.org/resour
ces/Life-longLearning.pdf>
********************END
RELEASE*********************************
THE WHITE PAPER
THE lIFE-LONG SELF-LEARNING
MOVEMENT
������ In the past three decades, there has been a
growing movement to
reinvent the way citizens learn and how young
people are introduced into
society. Homeschooling, charter schools,
cyberschools, unschooling,
life-long learning, Waldorf schools, and Sudbury
schools are just a few of
the elements of this movement. The movement has
been growing exponentially
each decade since 1980. It has become a challenge
to the traditional
school/teach/educate system. Life-long learning has
been promoted by
management guru Peter Drucker in "Post Capitalist
Society" on one end of the
spectrum and, on the other end, by Elise Boulding in
"Building Global Civic
Culture," and by many scholars in between.
������ The bottom line in this movement is to provide
the freedom,
opportunity and resources for self-learners of all
ages, with their families
and in community, to choose to learn what they want,
when they want and how
they want -- to self-learn.
RECOGNITION
������ In spite of the rapid growth of this movement, it
has drawn little
positive attention from governments. Professional
educators and their unions
have shown concern that the proliferation of
homeschooling will draw funds
away from the public school system. A few public
school systems have
accepted the challenge and established special
programs to provide would-be
homeschoolers and other self-learners more
autonomy within the public school
system. Some have established parent-teacher
programs that depend on
parental involvement and give parents greater
autonomy in the learning
process. But, as parents are increasingly
recognizing that personal liberty
and private protection from control by majority rule
applies to their
children's learning, none of the existing systems
have completely
incorporated that concept.�Nor do they fully meet the
needs of our
information society which requires a life-long
learning system to provide
for each individual's continual learning processes,
as detailed in the work
of writers and thinkers from John Holt and Alfie Kohn
to Daniel Pink and
Howard Gardner, among so many others.
������ Foundations, likewise, have been slow to rise to
the challenge and
opportunity that is unfolding. The millions of dollars
for public schools,
coming from all levels of government, is followed by
millions more coming
from private foundations. But little, if any, of this
private funding is
available for the many non-public school
experiments being undertaken. A
search of the philanthropy databases with words like
"democratic shools,"
"homeschooling," or "deschooling" comes up with
no program in any
foundation. Whereas a search under "schools" or
"education" comes up with
many thousands. Individual appeals to hundreds of
foundations by "homeschool
support groups," "learning co-ops" and other forms
of nonschool learning
communities are regularly returned with the words
"this proposal does not
fit into our current program of support."
MOTIVATION
������ Motivations for moving toward self-learning and
abandonment of
traditional public schooling are many.�Perhaps the
most prevalent is
parental concern about the loss of control of the
learning of young
children.�Many families want to take direct
responsibility for their
curriculum, approach to learning, and the principles
and values upon which
these are based. Some parents believe that the
public school system instills
values which run contrary to those of their family.
Some are explicitly
guided by their religious beliefs to direct the
education of their children.
Others have had disturbing experiences with
schoolyard bullies, unfeeling
teachers, or misdirected bureaucracies.�A few hold
that government support
is inherently controlling, and that their tax dollars are
binding families
to a failing system.
����� Self-learners are also influenced by education
critics, philosophers
and religious leaders. Some, like Ivan Illich, believe
our current life,
including school, is based on the principle of work
now for future rewards.
They urge that schooling, and life, be convivial and
vernacular. That is,
that learning and work should be carried out in joyful
collaboration with
family, friends and neighbors. And that it should be
embedded in the local
culture, ecology, and friendships.
������ With Paulo Friere, some see schools as
perpetuating the socioeconomic
rich/poor status quo and preventing the natural
social evolution that would
occur if future citizens were given more freedom to
self-learn in their own
families, communities, and nature.
������ Following John Holt and others, many believe
that every brain, that
is every student, is unique and no two are prepared
to learn the same thing
at the same time in the same way. They believe that
schooling is not an
efficient way to learn, nor for future citizens to be
introduced into
society.
������ Most great philosophical traditions, including
those embodied in
Gandhi, Tagore, Aurobindo and Krishnamurti,
recognize a spiritual component
to learning, teaching that knowledge is more than a
way to get a job or
score well on a standardized test; that it is the
purpose for living, it is
being human. Rabindrnath Tagore started his
learning community,
Santiniketan, to transform the human mindset from
self-interest, competition
and materialism to mutual aid, cooperation, and the
love of learning.
������ Growing out of a variety of personal,
philosophical, educational, or
religious motivations, the life-long self-learning
movement continues to
expand.
PROOFS OF EFFECTIVENESS
������ It is impossible to measure the success of
self-learning with tests,
grades, and scores. Perhaps the most interesting
successes are found among
those learners who do not flourish in a traditional
setting with standard
measurements of success. These individuals are
free to blossom in their own
ways and do -- anecdotal evidence abounds about
happy and successful
learners who have traveled a nontraditional path to
their own personal
success.
������ Self-learners are equally honored among our
greatest leaders. Thomas
Edison, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,
Abigail Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, the Wright Brothers, Helen Keller, Albert
Einstein, and Margaret
Mead are only a few of those who have learned
without school. The newspapers
are filled with stories of less well-known successes.
Ryan Abradi, of Maine,
showed an interest in numbers at an early age, so
his parents let him stay
home and self-learn; by age 10 he was working his
way through second-year
college calculus. Caitlin Stern of Haines, Alaska,
stayed out of school and
became a recognized expert by studying bald eagles
in the wild. Jedediah
Purdy, a self-learner from West Virginia, graduated
summa cum laude from
Harvard University; in 1996 he was selected as a
Truman Scholar and as West
Virginia's nominee for the Rhodes Scholarship. He
then went on to Yale Law
School and, in the meantime, wrote a best selling
book.
������ The growth rate of self-learning is a partial
measure of its success.
From a few scattered homeschoolers in 1980,
perhaps 20,000, the number has
grown, according to Newsweek Magazine, to over
200,000 in 1990, and into a
broad integrated network of an estimated 2,000,000
today.
������ Considerable research has shown that students
learn much more easily
when they self-learn. As long ago as 1930,� the "8
Year Study" of 30 special
schools demonstrated that: "The most effective
schools used a different
approach to learning.� Instead of organizing learning
by subjects, they
organized it around themes of significance to their
students." There seemed
to be an inverse relationship between success in
college and formalized
education as opposed to student selected learning.
������ A recent Cornell University study confirmed this
and showed that
schooled children become "peer dependent" while
those who learned with their
parents have more self-confidence, optimism, and
courage to explore. A Moore
Foundation study of children of parents who had
been arrested for truancy
found that their homeschooled children ranked 30
percent higher on standard
tests than the average classroom child.
������ Providing possible insight into the reasons
behind these successes, a
UCLA project showed that the average schooled
student receives 7 minutes of
personal attention a day but the self-learner receives
from 100 to 300
minutes of attention daily. Following this, a
Smithsonian Report on genius
concluded that high achievement was a result of
time with responsive
parents, little time with peers, and considerable time
for free exploration.
������ Standardized tests reflect self-learner success
as well. Time
Magazine reported that "the average home
schooler's SAT score is 1100, 80
points higher than the average score for the general
population."
������ Dr. Lawrence M. Rudner, conducted a study in
1998 that included
20,760 students in 11,930 families. He found that in
every subject and at
every grade level (K-12), homeschool students
scored significantly higher
than their public and private school counterparts.
Some 25 percent of all
homeschool students at that time were enrolled at a
grade level or more
beyond that indicated by their age. According to the
study, the average
eighth-grade homeschooler was performing four
grade levels above the
national average. The average ACT score was 21 out
of a possible 36 for
public schooled children. It averaged 23 for
self-learners. This qualifies
the average college-bound self-learner for the most
prestigious
universities.
VISION
������ This movement is not only addressing the why,
how, when and what all
citizens learn, but is also rebuilding the foundation
for the society in
which we all live. How we learn determines the kind
of society we build.
Authoritarian, hierarchal, undemocratic schools
prepare future citizens for
an authoritarian, hierarchal, undemocratic society. A
life-long learning
system based in family, community, society and
nature could be the
foundation for new democracies of freedom, equity
and justice.
������ The movement continues to promote the
concepts of life-long
self-learning, in all its complexities, to a wider
audience, to address
critics on the issues of accountability and credibility,
and to promote
support to help those working to bring their ideals to
fruition.
*************END OF WHITE
PAPER******************
Notes:�
"Resources and Further Reading" at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LearningCommunitie
s/files/Life-Long%20Learning
and
<http://www.CreatingLearningCommunities.org>
Discuss:�
<[email protected]
om>
Discussion, Comments, or suggestions to:
<LearningCommunities-subscribe
@yahoogroups.com> or
Nance Confer <[email protected]> or
Bill Ellis <[email protected]>
*********************************************************
********
__________________
Heath and Education must change and catch up with new science and new biology. Solutions to the root causes. .
www.loveunion.org under construction.
www.academysounds.com www.angelshealing.co
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Be The Change Forums : Ideas for 2005 Events
Topic: Education - change is needed!
