@Homeschool_Forum This was an interesting article on the latest trends in education. Many of the things that are now being prioritized by educators fit very nicely into a home school environment. Sometimes it’s nice to read something about an “ideal” education and think, “Hey, my kids are getting that aspect, at least!”
[quote] Purpose , the sense that what we do produces something transcendent or serves something meaningful beyond than ourselves. [/purpose]
I think this is easier to aim for as Christians, if you believe that everything done excellently can be for God’s glory, and anything that makes the world a better place is participating in God’s eternal kingdom. We can encourage kids with the perspective that our work is always something that goes beyond ourselves and whatever fleeting rewards or incentives we might have.
This is good to remember too. Sometimes I worry my kids aren’t truly mastering enough. It’s helpful to me to think about some things as having the goal of exposure and basic proficiency and only certain things as having the goal of getting really in depth and remembering what they have learned for a long time.
Any thoughts? Are there education buzzwords you find particularly inspiring? Or annoying and misguided? Any ideas you have about incorporating some of these features into your homeschool science study?
Interesting! (Also neat that the superintendent mentioned here is just a couple towns over from where I grew up.)
I am sometimes confused by terms like “mastery,” etc., but I do like how that quote talks about it, that mastery is not the goal for every subject. I do notice that sometimes I/we focus too much on what children aren’t good at. As in, being so dedicated to being “well rounded” (which isn’t a bad thing) that we focus too much on the negative, so in that sense the distinction between “mastery” and “proficiency” is helpful, plus those are more positive-sounding terms.
I think homeschooling has the potential to be very accommodating of “interest-driven” learning, which helps students develop motivation and helps prepare them for college and the choices that requires.
Hello! I was just cruising through the forums and wanted to respond here. An education buzzword (buzz phrase?) I’ve been hearing lately is “growth mindset”; the idea that even if something is tough to learn and doesn’t come naturally, we want our students to believe they can grow in their capacity to learn it. I think this combats the self-defeating thinking like “I’m just not good at math” or “I’m not creative”. I think a benefit to homeschooling is that kids may not develop these negative ideas as early because they aren’t constantly comparing themselves to their peers. Even as an adult I am still undoing some of those beliefs and developing my own “growth mindset” as I enjoy learning alongside my children as a homeschooler!
Yeah, that’s a good one – I like that point of view and I’m so glad you’re taking that into account as you homeschool your children! That’s a good point about comparison – I hadn’t thought of the negatives of that, since I was homeschooled myself and sometimes wished I could have had just a little bit of comparison to know what ballpark I was in. But I think the positives can outweigh the negatives there.
But I think the positives can outweigh the negatives there.