Learning to Learn

One of the single most important lessons I want Casia to gain in the course of her education is the skill of learning to learn. I think so often we are focused on what material our kids need to know, which subjects they should study and which skills they need to acquire. But I can tell you that I personally have forgotten so much of what I once learned (although, thanks to homeschooling Casia, I'm getting a refresher course). Historical facts have been lost, technical scientific terms confused and I don't even want to talk about my inability to do integrations and derivatives anymore! But the one accomplishment that I did gain through schooling was the ability to teach myself new skills, implement new knowledge and gain further understanding of topics that interest me as an adult.

I went to a private university in Upstate New York starting out majoring in science and then adding a very interesting course of study called Health and Society. Basically it was an amalgam of history, philosophy and sociology with some anthropology and political science thrown in, all related to health and allied fields. It was a topic that interested me, but short of attending Public Health School, I'm not sure what I can do with that degree. So do I regret spending a small fortune and four years of my life studying a subject that I'm not likely to ever use? Nope. Not a whit. Why? Because I learned more in college than I did in the whole rest of my educational experience combined. I learned that if I want to know something, I have to read about it, ask questions, share opinions and get feedback. I don't know why it took me so long to learn this life lesson, but I never truly learned it, even during my four years at a decent suburban high school. 

As I look back over my own educational experiences, I see a lot of spoon feeding and regurgitation. The teacher stood in the front of the classroom. I heard the teacher talk about a subject. After several days of the teacher repeating said information a few times, I was given a test and I answered based on the information given to me by the teacher. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with this system if the ultimate goal is to have students leave school with a certain amount of knowledge (knowledge I've already admitted to losing after years of non usage), but I want my children to become adept at garnering information that is pertinent to their life and work. I want them to see learning as something they do in their life, not just a something they do in school.

I think that I learned how to learn in college, not because it was 'higher education' or because I was paying big bucks for it, but because the attitude of the professors was different than the attitude my teachers had held before. There's a reason they call them professors and not teachers. They aren't actually there to teach. Oh, they give you a bunch of reading material and they have lecture and office hours for questions, but mostly, they point you in the right direction and they leave it to you to either learn the material or not. I could show up to class without having read the assigned pages, but you know what? I wouldn't have understood most of the discussion. They did not reiterate the reading, they built on it. They clarified it, but they did not simply stand in the front of the room and recite the information I'd just read (well, most of them didn't). They didn't even care *gasp* if I showed up for class or not. There was no pulling me aside and asking me why I didn't attend Tuesday's lecture or why I hadn't put in my best effort on my last paper. If I didn't do the work, it was reflected in my grade. And you know what? It was an extremely good motivator for me. I realized there wasn't anybody holding my hand through the material anymore. I was now the one teaching myself what it is I wanted to learn. It was a truly eye-opening experience and extremely rewarding. 

Since graduating from college I have continued to educate myself on a variety of topics. When I was an administrative assistant at a hospital working under a federal grant program, we were faced with the need to collect a lot of data on our patients, but we didn't have any database with which to do it. The people before me would simply manually flip through paper folders looking for the records they needed and write their reports by hand. I knew there had to be a better way, but I was not very computer savvy myself. None the less, I got myself a book on Microsoft Access Database programming and with some help from Jacob, I built them a database. It worked well and they continued to use it even after I left their employ.  

Later, after Casia was born, I wanted to do some volunteer work and get out of the house for a while every week. I joined my local fire department and became an EMT. I loved going to my EMT class and loved working on an ambulance. I had to quit when I was pregnant with Garrett because I just didn't have the time any more, but I don't regret the experience.

And about five years ago, I became interested in photography. First, I mostly just wanted to take better pictures of my kids. But soon, I was interested in taking pictures of nature and architecture. I didn't know anything about photography, so I started reading about it. I got books out of the library, I read blogs and articles online, and I got out there and started practicing the techniques I was reading about. Within a year, I was brave enough to enter my work into an amateur photography contest (thanks to some prodding by Jacob) and I won! It gave me such a boost of self-confidence, I started to daydream about becoming a photographer some day. Jacob, ever so much more confident than I, started nudging me in that direction. He bought me a digital SLR camera and encouraged me to start my own business. I did zounds of research, spent a lot of time practicing and building a portfolio and less than two years after discovering an interest in photography, I had started my own fine art photography business. I am mostly part-time, selling at art shows and galleries, but it's still a job that I love and I continue to put work into learning how to be a better photographer and also a better business owner.

When we started having trouble finding an academic fit for Casia, I started exploring the world of gifted education. I read dozens of books on the issue, looked into all the alternatives available to us and in the end, began to focus on homeschooling. This led to another round of investigative work. I knew absolutely nothing about it! I went from zero to homeschooling in a few months and I felt confident in our decision and my ability to teach Casia primarily because of all the time I put into learning about homeschooling. I read books about it, talked to people who were doing it, and look at all the research that had been done on the subject. Again, I used my skills in learning to learn to aid me in yet another endeavor. And when I think about my goals for Casia and her education, I keep coming back to this idea that education is less about teaching and more about guiding; guiding her to the resources that she needs to teach herself.

With four years of public school under Casia's belt, she was heartily entrenched in the spoon feeding- regurgitation method of learning. I had all these lofty ideas of how we were going to cover certain topics, and how it would all play out, but when I asked her to select a book on Ancient Egypt, read it and then write down what she learned, she wasn't able to do it. She didn't know what I wanted, even with many explanations. She wanted me to tell her which book to read and then read it with her. She wanted me to ask the question so she could answer and show she understood it. She wanted me to tell her exactly what I expected her to write. I realized then that I would essentially have to start at the beginning with Casia. And the sad part about this is that when Casia was little, before she started school, Casia was already learning to learn. She did it naturally and I instinctively knew how to help her through it. She would show an interest in a topic. She would ask me questions until she exhausted my knowledge and then we would make a trip to the computer and/or the library and she would get her fill of information from other sources. Later that day, or a few days later, after processing all her new found knowledge, she would tell us what she learned. We would discuss it. We would bring up points that she hadn't thought of yet and she would also surprise us with her own unique perspective. This was never something I thought about while we were doing it. It all seemed so natural. Casia was curious and we went from there. She learned lots of information that would be considered educational and lots of skills she would later need in school, like reading, writing and math. But all the while, she was an active participate, nay! the propelling force, and I was just a compass, making sure she didn't lose her way. 

So how do I regain that drive to learn for knowledge's sake? How do I fan that flame that was beginning to extinguish? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I know I need to encourage her to take baby steps back in the right direction. I know I need to have higher expectations than those placed on her previously. And I know that I need to hold her accountable for her own education in order for her to feel that she has a stake in it. I also need to boost her pride and self-confidence in abilities as she gains them to encourage her own personal growth. With all this in mind, and knowing that I don't have all the answers and that I'm learning as I go as well, I decided to start her re-education with one subject, with one step, and to take it from there.

Enter biology. Casia's previous science education was haphazard. The water cycle in first grade, butterflies in second  and magnets in fourth grade. Little snippets of information, in short little bursts, to get the kids interested but no real connection to anything else they were studying. I picked biology, in part because I had the textbook already, but mostly because Casia showed a lot of interest in animals and the human body. I thought a complete course in it would help fills the gaps of what she'd picked up from various readings and give her the depth that she really craves and the structure that she lacks.

When I first started using the biology text book with her, we read it together. I would read aloud and have her read some of it aloud as well. I gave her typed up notes on what we'd just read, we talked about it and I answered her questions, helped her study and then she took a test. We did that for a few chapters, until I was sure she was getting the hang of it. Then we switched to, Casia read a chapter independently and I gave her notes on the chapter. We talked about it and I answered all her questions. Again, I followed up by helping her study and giving her a test. When she became quite competent with that, she then learned to take her own notes on the chapter. Now she reads the chapter, takes her own notes, we discuss it and I answer questions and then she studies the material with my help and takes a test. My goal is that by the end of the year, she will read the chapter, take her own notes, we will discuss it together and I will answer her questions, she will study independently and then take the test. She is getting there! 

She has shown so much growth and has learned so much. And I don't mean about biology, but yes, she has learned that too. I mean that she has learned how to read a text book. She now knows how to extract the key information from pages of detailed descriptions. She has been getting better at asking questions, figuring out what she understands and what needs clarifying. Casia has also learned how to take a test without a single multiple choice question. She has learned how to write short essay answers on her tests. And she is well on her way to being able to study material independently without having to have my reassurance that she has mastered the topic. She has shown great progress and I am so proud of her. I do believe she is once again heading down the road of learning to learn.