| My wife, Bobbie, and I have been teachers all of our | | | | child learns and we support and guide. |
| adult lives. We have spent many years in both public | | | | The Ultimate Goal is for each of our children to |
| and private institutions and, having survived a few | | | | become an independent learner. This is kind of scary |
| years, we have seen almost every teaching | | | | for some of us parents but it is the necessary goal. |
| innovation and/or gimmick the world has experienced. | | | | We are to give our kids Roots and Wings -- and |
| Bobbie is an accomplished musician and music teacher | | | | eventually, the Wings must take over. |
| in elementary grades and college. I have taught in the | | | | The Natural Path to Learning is based on the idea |
| fields of reading, spelling, math, and history at the | | | | that each of us learns in our own unique way, at our |
| elementary, junior/senior high and college levels. We | | | | own special pace. One Size Does Not Fit All Children. |
| have both done a lot of work with learning theory -- | | | | Many school and home school programs are set out |
| on how people learn. | | | | in a sequential, rigid pattern and the child must learn in |
| We have gathered together all of the ideas that we | | | | that pattern and at the rate required to be on grade |
| believe can be called Natural -- as opposed to | | | | level or to not "get behind." NPL requires that the |
| Artificial. For example, it is Natural for a parent to | | | | program be fitted to the child not the child fitted to |
| take Andy for a walk in the stroller and while walking | | | | the program. Our child will be learning the skills and |
| and talking, the parent can say, "Look at the beautiful | | | | information at his own pace and in his own best |
| flowers. These red flowers smell nice, don't they? | | | | learning pattern. |
| These blue flowers are pretty, too, and they are | | | | Your child, and not the program, is at the center of |
| bigger than the red flowers." In context and in a | | | | the learning process. Fortunately, and very happily, |
| natural, real way, the child has learned about 'flowers,' | | | | we have real experiences to share with you. Two |
| 'red,' 'blue,' 'big.' This has given the child a meaningful | | | | years ago we were presented a gift in the form of |
| experience for the words and concepts. Later, we'll | | | | our great grandson, Reese. We, again fortunately, |
| go shopping and say, "Andy, shall we buy some of | | | | live in the same city as Reese and his Mom and Dad |
| these green apples or those red ones." | | | | so we get to spend a lot of time with him. We will |
| Contrast this with the more often techniques used in | | | | be sharing with you many of the living, learning |
| "teaching the Kids their colors." Out comes the blocks | | | | experiences we enjoy in our relationship with Reese. |
| or color strips or worksheets and the kids are | | | | In the meantime, we will be submitting articles taken |
| supposed to differentiate among the colors. This is | | | | from our book, The Natural Path to Learning. |
| Artificial or at least Contrived -- It is not Real | | | | By the way, we will be using a lot of critical thinking |
| Experience. | | | | and creativity experiences which sadly have been |
| Learning, rather than Teaching, is the process. | | | | disappearing from our school lessons -- it is almost |
| Learning is as natural as breathing. We learn from the | | | | impossible to write achievement test items that |
| environment around us and from the people who | | | | include this kind of right brain activity. So, if you want |
| exist with us. We can't keep our kids from learning. | | | | to raise your test scores stay with that left brain |
| So what are we as parents to do with our kids? We | | | | only memorization and fact recall. However, if you |
| take advantage of all of those real life learning | | | | want to broaden and deepen the learning, let's get to |
| opportunities and channel them into the things we call | | | | the right brain stuff, too. |
| reading, writing, arithmetic, science, history, and | | | | We'll have more commentary on testing in future |
| whatever else exists -- from birth (and before). The | | | | articles. |