In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we know that success requires a lot of individual student effort and study. Unfortunately, this kind of self-motivated study does not come easily. This is so because it is the opposite of what has been established as the norm in schools for a hundred years. Homeschools are no different. Children are taught to sit and wait for the teacher or parent to direct (which in some cases means limit) the activity of the students. This recent talk discusses why modern education has distorted the role of the teacher. This other talk shows demonstrably that what is called modern education today is really just entertainment for kids where real study never actually takes place. The receptive/passive posture of students lends itself to a need for constant entertainment in the form of videos, story-telling “lectures”, and presentations. I remember in college our favorite “professors” were those who simply told great stories. Those courses were “easy As” as we would say, and they were very entertaining. This kind of entertainment-based knowledge is not bad, but it is not true learning.
Making the Shift to Real Study
In our homeschool, it has taken a decade, and I mean that sincerely, to help our children make the first step towards becoming independent students. The problem has been us, not the kids. The challenge is that as parents we desire to help our children so much that we often try to be the public classroom teacher, walking them through every individual step and turning to entertainment-like options. We reinforce the passive-student educational style. When they say, “I don’t know what this means” we tell them what it means or give a presentation as if we were in a classroom and that the source of the knowledge is in us. Or when the younger ones ask “Can you read this to me?” we do so. We have learned the hard way that this results in a great loss of time because Mom (usually) is divided between many children and many household tasks. If she responds to each individual request for entertainment-based learning, there will be very little progress, though all the kids are smiling.
Rather, our children need to learn to become good students and true learners. This is most important in the early years when it is the hardest to resist being the modern “teacher”. They need to be students who seek knowledge actively, not passively. This is a primary task of educators, and it is sorely lacking in the modern age. When you make this shift with your younger children, it will cause tears, because they will feel the challenge of actual study and naturally shrink away from it. Be patient, and motivate them to continue. If they are not able to learn to study on their own, it doesn’t mean they are disabled or useless. It just means they are not students. Students study.
At the beginning of our current school year at home, I have given the same pep-talk about two or three times now. My children roll their eyes when they know it is coming. I ask them, “Who is responsible for your progress in education?” (Hint, it’s not Mama). They know they are to respond, “We are” or “I am”. “If you don’t know what to do next,” I ask, “do you go ask Mama what to do?” “No, we look on our student planner/task lists.” There is no one who is responsible for you taking your next step other than yourself. The Classical Liberal Arts Academy makes this easy for parents. The next task is listed and they can click to it in their study center. There is no need to wait for Mom, or a teacher.
Inevitably even after these pep-talks, my children will ask my wife seven times a minute what to do next. But that’s OK. We are like the Apostles who are tasked with forgiveness seventy-seven times. They may need a decade to make the shift. But, it is one that needs to be made if they are to make any progress in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, and indeed, in making any progress in true study. It is a skill that will serve them immensely in life, as they become the kind of men and women who are actively directing the world around them, rather than being passive, or disposed to entertainment-based living.
My children are not there yet, we are just making the shift. Just today, my eight year old daughter was getting started with school work. She asked, “What should I work on?” I tilted my head and raised my eyebrows. She smiled, “Oh yeah.” She found her task list, and clicked on the next lesson of Aesop’s Fables. Next, she asked, “Can you read this to me?” I said, “No.” She reluctantly sat at her desk and read it. She came to me about ten minutes later and said, “I don’t know what this means.” So, I asked, “Well, are there any words in the fable that you do not know the meaning of?” She said, “Ummm, yeah.” I told her to use a dictionary, write down every word that she did not know, and write down the meaning. Needless to say, after a few minutes she was in tears, because….work.
Lest you think I am a wicked father, I comforted her and consoled her. But I did not relent. I told her that she needed to do that in order to move forward and that I would not simply tell her the meaning of the fable. After a long break, she came back dry-eyed and said to me, “Papa, I am going to try and find the meaning of the words with the dictionary.” That a girl! It’s a start.
We need to keep challenging our children and each other to shift to self-motivated learning. We can’t simply make school time story-telling time. We need to stop being teachers and give children the opportunity to become real students.
