Recently I have been talking a lot about unschooling with the international students I teach English to in the evenings. They have lots of questions and are honestly, quite interested in the whole concept. At first they have the regular questions, "So, do you use the same books as the schools?" "How do you make sure they know everything?" "Aren't you afraid they won't be ready for life?" You know the questions. What I love is the more I share, the more excited they get. All the sudden I see the light turn on and they get it.
One student shared that he was not a good student as a child. When he was 20 years old, his mom sent him back to school. He started with freshman classes. He said he was ready to learn at that point and within a year, he learned everything presented in all four years of high school. He said he went home and studied and came to class with lots of questions. He went on to college and then came to the US and received a degree here also. A mom with a two year old said this gave her a sense of relief. She said everyday she tries to teach her daughter something new but feels guilty some days when she feels she hasn't achieved her goal. My students have really good questions and I appreciate that they are open minded to learn about a concept that is unfamiliar to them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment