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    Theresa Lode or, simply “T”, had her world turned upside down and inside out when her son was diagnosed with ADHD and a few other goodies. Her choice- follow the doctor's orders....or trust her heart and delve into the world of Free Range Education. She chose the latter...

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Alternatives to public school

Posted on May 4, 2011 by therealmotherlode

Are you looking for alternatives to public school?  You are not alone.  As I mentioned yesterday, there is a groundswell of voices crying out for better options in education.  Here’s some you may wish to consider:

Public Charter Schools- Contrary to the shrill voices of opposition, these are NOT private schools funded by tax dollars.  They are PUBLIC schools and receive tax dollars just like any other public school.  The difference is they are governed by an independent board and may have a specific focus or mission statement.

Google”Arizona Charter Schools” to see the wonderful variety these schools bring to the table.  There are schools that focus on classical education and some that focus on the trades or technology or the arts! When we moved to AZ, we specifically chose Cottonwood, AZ because of American Heritage Academy and their focus on training leaders…we were THAT impressed with what we saw. 

Private schools- Yeah, I know.  You know this one already but it’s too costly for your budge.  I get that.  Really I do.  But it’s still an option.

Start a school- Yes, this IS an option. I turn this suggestion over to education expert Marty Nemko, here. 

Homeschool- Oh yawn, tell me something I don’t already know.  And I can hear the reasons why this is NOT an option for you.  I get that too.  It isn’t for everyone.  But here’s a hint…if you’re planning on recreating school in your home, it is NOT something I recommend.   (Unless you enjoy stress-related health problems.) 

Unschool- Before you scoff at this notion, check out some of the late John Holt’s material; you can find plenty of his books on Amazon, like this one my friend Chelsea told me about.  Go on.  I’m going to go fetch another cup of coffee while I wait for you. 

Online- This would fall under “homeschool” however; the explosive growth of online options makes this worth mentioning as an option.  Check out Kahn Academy on You Tube for absolutely free online classes.  Many universities offer free online classes too. The opportunities are endless and the barriers that once held us back….have crumbled.  I have a good friend whose teenaged kids have taken some pretty lofty college courses.

Free Range Education- Not quite “school” but not quite “unschool” either, this is the approach I’ve learned through many years of homeschooling.  This is the “There is No Map” approach to educating your children. (If you’re a Seth Godin fan like I am, you’ll recognize the language.)  This is new territory folks! 

It’s an unsettling and disorienting approach in a scope and sequence dominated society.  FREd uses a little of this and a little of that with the goal of finding what works for your child.

FREd is also based on the premise that your child is wired and gifted in certain areas and THAT is where you should focus your energy.  My good friend Chris Davis just wrote another brilliant piece on this very thing.   You may read it here.

Still finding these options don’t work for you?  May I make a radical suggestion? 

Move.

Yes, as in move.  I am not suggesting that flippantly.  We spent half of last year unemployed and know that in these times a family’s got to go where there’s work.  However, if school has become such an issue for your kid (ESPECIALLY if they have special needs,) this may be something you should consider. 

Crazy idea?  Yes.  But lately, I see this is precisely what some families are doing.  I know one family who recently left Montana because of the state of affairs here in the Helena school district.  Private school or homeschool wasn’t an option due to various circumstances.

American Heritage Academy in Cottonwood, AZ was a decisive factor in our move to that small city.  (We would still be there had we found employment in the area.) 

Indeed, I am hearing of more and more families who take this option.

Those are my suggestions.  And now a question for you:

What has worked for your kids?

Filed under: education, Free Range Education, homeschooling, Public schooling, The Mother Lode Project | Tagged: , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Even the rocks will cry out

Posted on June 20, 2010 by therealmotherlode

Our Arizona announcement has left more than one person scratching their head. You don’t have a job? What about a place to live? ( Like this is the first time we’ve bewildered people.  Ha!)

The concern in their eyes is clear.  And the bigger question, What? Are you nuts? politely remains unasked.  (Many times that is the very question tossing about in my head.)

Seth Godin echoed many of my recent musing in his brilliant post entitled Amplifying the Lizard Brain.  (Funny how often his blog is so timely in our lives.)

We humans are a fearful lot and we have to be intentional about quieting the voices of doubt and fear because they are many…..and they are everywhere.

“Nine out of ten times,” I opined to Jay, “People will have a negative reaction to any plans that are unconventional.”  I wasn’t bashing anyone…we have wonderful supportive friends and family.  But it is human nature to raise an eyebrow when you speak your crazy dreams aloud.

A few hours later, we were in a delightful shop, Birds and Beasleys in Helena.  Wandering about, I lingered over a bin of engraved stones.  And one caught my eye.  Between the rock that said “love” and the one that said “believe” there was one I’d never seen before.  Rather unconventional, I thought; I showed it to Jay.  It said:

Nine out of ten times

This rock may not have been crying out….but it did whisper strength to my soul.

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee,–are all with thee!

From The Building of the Ship by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Filed under: Goal Setting, parenting, Personal development, Personal notes, Stress and worry | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

The college racket and another invite

Posted on April 29, 2010 by therealmotherlode

This brilliant Seth Godin article made me want to shout.  I’ve cut and pasted here for your viewing pleasure.  I’ve studied the marketing tactics used by universities and colleges and this article is spot on.  Don’t be fooled for a minute- today, many higher ed institutes  are more driven by economy than the quest for knowledge and exploration.

And remember!  Tonight’s the night I participate in my very first “Teleseminar” with Deb Ingino of My Wired Style.  We’re going to have a great visit…only made better if YOU join us!  Details are in my right hand side bar.  There will be time for Q and A afterward so bring your questions!

The coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer)

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.

I’m afraid that’s about to crash and burn. Here’s how I’m looking at it.

1. Most colleges are organized to give an average education to average students.

Pick up any college brochure or catalog. Delete the brand names and the map. Can you tell which school it is? While there are outliers (like St. Johns, Deep Springs or Full Sail) most schools aren’t really outliers. They are mass marketers.

Stop for a second and consider the impact of that choice. By emphasizing mass and sameness and rankings, colleges have changed their mission.

This works great in an industrial economy where we can’t churn out standardized students fast enough and where the demand is huge because the premium earned by a college grad dwarfs the cost. But…

InflationTuitionMedicalGeneral1978to2008 2. College has gotten expensive far faster than wages have gone up.

As a result, there are millions of people in very serious debt, debt so big it might take decades to repay. Word gets around. Won’t get fooled again…

This leads to a crop of potential college students that can (and will) no longer just blindly go to the ‘best’ school they get in to.

3. The definition of ‘best’ is under siege.

Why do colleges send millions (!) of undifferentiated pieces of junk mail to high school students now? We will waive the admission fee! We have a one page application! Apply! This is some of the most amateur and bland direct mail I’ve ever seen. Why do it?

Biggest reason: So the schools can reject more applicants. The more applicants they reject, the higher they rank in US News and other rankings. And thus the rush to game the rankings continues, which is a sign that the marketers in question (the colleges) are getting desperate for more than their fair share. Why bother making your education more useful if you can more easily make it appear to be more useful?

4. The correlation between a typical college degree and success is suspect.

College wasn’t originally designed to merely be a continuation of high school (but with more binge drinking). In many places, though, that’s what it has become. The data I’m seeing shows that a degree (from one of those famous schools, with or without a football team) doesn’t translate into better career opportunities, a better job or more happiness.

5. Accreditation isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.

A lot of these ills are the result of uniform accreditation programs that have pushed high-cost, low-reward policies on institutions and rewarded schools that churn out young wanna-be professors instead of experiences that turn out leaders and problem-solvers.

Just as we’re watching the disintegration of old-school marketers with mass market products, I think we’re about to see significant cracks in old-school schools with mass market degrees.

Back before the digital revolution, access to information was an issue. The size of the library mattered. One reason to go to college was to get access. Today, that access is worth a lot less. The valuable things people take away from college are interactions with great minds (usually professors who actually teach and actually care) and non-class activities that shape them as people. The question I’d ask: is the money that mass-marketing colleges are spending on marketing themselves and scaling themselves well spent? Are they organizing for changing lives or for ranking high? Does NYU have to get so much bigger? Why?

The solutions are obvious… there are tons of ways to get a cheap, liberal education, one that exposes you to the world, permits you to have significant interactions with people who matter and to learn to make a difference. Most of these ways, though, aren’t heavily marketed nor do they involve going to a tradition-steeped two-hundred-year old institution with a wrestling team. Things like gap years, research internships and entrepreneurial or social ventures after high school are opening doors for students who are eager to discover the new.

The only people who haven’t gotten the memo are anxious helicopter parents, mass marketing colleges and traditional employers. And all three are waking up and facing new circumstances.

Filed under: College education, education, homeschooling, Labels are for Soup Cans, Personal development, Public schooling, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

The education factory

Posted on March 9, 2010 by therealmotherlode

Seth Godin’s been writing a lot on his blog about factories lately.  Today’s blog is entitled “The factory in the center” and talks once again about the changing workplace models.  Or perhaps I should use past tense: The CHANGED workplace model.

Our factory based approach to employment served us well for the last couple of centuries.  You got a good job at the widget factory, showed up on time and after so many years, retired with a gold watch.

You don’t need me to tell you things have changed.

My biggest concern over this shift in the workplace isn’t with the workplace though.   It’s with the educational system that was patterned after the factory model.

The “get good grades so you can get a good degree and then a good job” is as ineffective as looking for the widget factory job today.

There is a crisis of irrelevancy in the system now.  And from my little corner of the world my observations are this.

Instead of trying to address the changes, the system is responding with the same ole same ole….only faster and with more pressure.

It still takes my breath away when I think of Molly’s 9th grade orientation a few weeks ago.  You WILL get good grades!  You WILL excel in the classes!  And by the way, you need to declare what your educational focus will be.  It was the same ole get good grades, good job mantra only with many punitive measures in place.  (Ie, 3 hour “remediation” detentions for those not meeting 80% on classwork.)

Sure, those with academic bents will fare just fine.  And I know there are always exceptions.

But I an convinced that his approach is detrimental to many of the kids– and their parents who are buying into this dated advice.  (I talked to one mom not long ago who was ringing her hands over her son’s mounting student loan debt knowing the job situation is bleak.  Both the son AND the parents were taking loans out to finance a degree in foreign languages (?!))

We need to bring the trades back into schools; Carpentry and shop and home economics.  We need to have mentorships programs where kids can be partnered with real adults doing real work in the real world.  We need to have a focus on creativity and problem solving…not regurgitating pre-thought answers to pre-thought questions.

The factory is defunct. We need to have relevancy.

PS I bet the number of cases of diagnosed ADD/ADHD would plummet.

Filed under: Current events, education, homeschooling, Individuality, Public schooling | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

The heckler

Posted on March 1, 2010 by therealmotherlode

Sometimes I wish I was more of a feel good writer, a Chicken Soup for the Soul sort of gal.  But because the topics I write on can be quite emotional, (namely the educational system and learning differences,) I occasionally draw fire.

I see it happen with other writers I admire when I read flaming comments left on blogs, snarky replies, etc.  (The worst, IMHO are the religious critics.)

But still- I ask myself is there is validity to a criticism? I don’t know everything after all.  Or perhaps it helps me understand the need to speak with greater clarity.  A muddled thought leaves the reader drawing their own conclusions.

And sometimes….it’s just a heckler.  The nasty fellow at the back of the room.  And I am faced with a choice.  Seth Godin puts it well in Linchpin:

You can spend your time on stage pleasing the heckler in the back, or you can devote it to the audience that came to hear you perform.

That hit me between the eyes.  I can fret way too much over the rare heckler and forget about the moms I seek to encourage.

I do have one regular heckler….a vicious one is she.  I bet you’re acquainted with her too.

It’s the heckler within.

The voice that says, “That’s stupid.” Or “You’ll never amount to anything.”  Or “I’ve been burned before, why on earth would I want to try something new?”

The heckler is afraid of change, afraid of being different.

We’ve been listening to it for so long the passion for life has frittered away.  The heckler tells us we’d better be careful.  And we’re waiting, hoping someone will tell us what to do so we get it right.

So we wait and do nothing.  But there is no one coming and AAA is not sending out roadside assistance either.  In the meanwhile, the heckler will take his seat having accomplished his mission.  (Last one out turn out the lights, please.)

Life’s too short and too precious to try to please the heckler, either real or imagined.

Tell the heckler to take a hike.  There are people that need to hear what’s in your heart.

PS Sometimes the heckler comes dressed as a well meaning- but misguided- friend.  (And no I’m not writing this with someone in mind so quit thinking that. ;) )

Filed under: Goal Setting, Individuality, Personal development, Spirituality | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Another brilliant Seth Godin post

Posted on October 18, 2009 by therealmotherlode

Okay…here it comes….another Seth Godin commercial.  I love how he is able to look at something with such insight.  I wanted to post this one because it so speaks to my heart in regards to the foolishness behind many of the things our current educational models propagate.  (“Faux achievements” Ha!)

The Rule of High School

Any sufficiently overheated industry will eventually resemble high school. High school is filled with insecurity, social climbing, backbiting, false friends, faux achievements, high drama and not much content. Much of this insecurity comes from a market that doesn’t make good judgments, that doesn’t understand how to reliably choose between alternatives. So it turns into a popularity contest.

As Tom Hanks reportedly said, “Hollywood is like high school, but with money.”

Or the fashion magazine industry, which is high school but with more makeup.

Add to that the Internet, which is like high school but with a modem.

Or Twitter, which is high school but only 140 characters at a time.

As in high school, the winners are the ones who don’t take it too seriously and understand what they’re trying to accomplish. Get stuck in the never ending drama (worrying about what irrelevant people think) and you’ll never get anything done. The only thing worse than coming in second place in the race for student council president is… winning.

Filed under: education, Public schooling | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

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