This post will look at those children that thrive in one-on-one learning situations and self-study situations. I actually think this may be the next big thing in education outside of the established educational world. People already go to college online and study on their own to earn everything from bachelors degrees to doctorates. I do believe this will filter down into the high school, middle school, and elementary years very soon. To some degree, this trend is already here. Many online schools now exist for even elementary students to study from home.
My Forte - Solitary Learning
This particular learning style represents my forte as both a student and a teacher. I homeschooled my own children for 13 years. My childcare is set up for one-one-one instruction for every child every day. I also graduated with my masters degree having completed the entire degree through online courses. To be honest, if online education had existed when I was growing up, I would have thrived on such a proposition. My peers in public school were so far behind me that I basically taught myself and them throughout my entire school career, and that includes my secondary education as well. If I had been allowed to progress at my own pace, I might have gone a great deal further than I actually did. That represents a large percentage of my reasoning for homeschooling my own children. I wanted to give them the opportunity to go as far as they could without having to be held back by their peers. Did it work? I believe it truly did for my middle child. She hit high school able to go the honor courses route and was able to be surrounded by peers that were her equal. My son, however, went into public school in middle school in the 7th grade so he could play football. That was nearly disastrous. When he hit high school, he had to make up massive ground in order to follow his sister in the honor course route. Those two years that his sister received at home made a huge difference for her, and he will readily admit that. I credit his solid foundation before he hit public school for being able to pull up and hang with the honor course route, but he had to work for it. In case you do not know this, a great divide exists in the public school between general courses and honor courses. This reality holds true for most of the country. Unless your child can hang with the honor courses in public school, the quality of the education that your child receives will not be anywhere near the caliber of the education of those that do. If the school your child attends does not have honor courses, most of the time it falls into the general course reality.
The Ugly Trend in Education
I am about to really dive into the ugly reality of education in America today. When I homeschooled in the 1990s, we were the fringe of society. The homeschool movement was in its infancy. Now, the homeschool movement has grown considerably thanks to the internet. One of the fastest growing sectors of the educational world is online academies. Many, many parents choose the path of homeschooling now to pull their children out of failing schools. This also explains the exponential rise of charter schools. I did not realize how much this particular trend has grown until recently. I have been going into schools to read my book, Lily's Feather Kite. I recently went into a town that when I was going to school was a really nice school system. I was shocked at what I found. I visited every kindergarten class in the public school system that served this particular town and found that 80-90% of the children were minorities. I could not help but ask myself where all the white children had gone. This particular town did not have a population that was 80-90% minorities. After asking some people with relatives in this town, I found out that everyone that can sends their children to private schools in a nearby larger town. Those that cannot afford private schools, homeschool. Only the poorest white children attend the public school. Affluent minority families do the same as the affluent white families. Only the poor attend public school. Turns out, this a growing trend in metropolitan areas all over the country.
Is Solitary Learning Superior?
Since solitary learning situations are very much on the rise, are they better for children than our present educational systems? The answer to that question is mostly yes especially in the early grades. I have been preaching for post after post about the importance of children being able to proceed down their education path at their own pace and ability. Only in the solitary learning situations can this reality be fully met. When children receive their instruction in a one-one-one setting whether it involves face to face teachers or internet courses, they have the freedom to work on their weaknesses until they are conquered and delve into their strengths with a passion. Public school education may never be able to really go here. Charter schools thrive because they have smaller class sizes and some have the freedom to group children according to ability rather than age. This gives the teachers more time to devote to individual instruction, which will always produce greater results. We are individuals. Education should be an individual endeavor.
Some Problems with Solitary Learning
What are some problems that arise in the solitary learning situation? Not every child can handle self-study situations. Many children can learn from an online venue. However, children with slight to severe developmental delays really need a human teacher in which to interact. The subtleties of teaching this population requires the intuition of a human teacher. A machine just cannot do the same. Some children actually do better in a social setting because they are pushed by their peers. If these children are left to go at their own pace, the pace will be way too slow. It does not take a large class to motivate these types of children, but they do need some peers to give them the extra push they need. In order to handle a self-study situation, a child or adult needs to be self-motivated. However, I have not seen a child that did not benefit from a teacher/student one-on-one relationship unless the teacher was incompetent. There are some parents that have no business homeschooling. It takes consistency and discipline that some parents do not possess. When a competent teacher enters into a one-on-one situation with a child, that child flourishes whether that child is advanced or severely developmentally delayed. I am speaking purely from an academic standpoint. Learning social/relationship lessons does require peers. In past centuries, the affluent understood that academic lessons and social lessons did not have to come from the same source. Parents provided tutors for academics and other means for gaining social competencies. This is how homeschool parents function. They understand that the two types of learning do not have to be married. One day the rest of the educational world will figure this out.
Solitary Learning in the Preschool World
What does this learning style look like in a preschool setting? I will tell you that it does require smaller class sizes. Providers that care for less than 10 children will be in a better position to use this style of teaching. Basically, it involves having individual lesson plans for each child. At some point in the day, each child will receive a one-on-one session that covers those lesson plans. These lessons do not have to exceed five minutes for two year olds or 20 minutes for children nearly at the kindergarten level. However, the consistent building of concepts one upon another that this style accomplishes cannot be equaled. Those five minute sessions with two year olds will produce three year olds that know their colors, shapes, and maybe even numbers and some letters depending on the individual child. I have seen this system produce results that completely baffle those unfamiliar with it. For the rest of the day, the children play and interact in a couple of group times. This is what a true academic preschool looks like from a homeschooling mom's perspective. When I speak of an academic preschool, this is what I mean.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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