Mastery vs. Perfection

May 14, 2004 by Leave a Comment

There is a difference. Mastery focuses on the big picture and ignores insignificant details. Perfection gets sidetracked on minute details, while often missing the bigger picture entirely.

In our homeschool we strive for mastery by trying to learn the concepts offered. I only give one grade, it is 100%, and you get to keep trying until you have achieved it. The point of going over a lesson more than once is to ensure that the concepts have been grasped. This does not mean that the student is force-fed the same lesson over and over in the same way until the skull gives way and accepts the information. Instead, I try to explain and illustrate the lesson in as many different ways as possible, until the little light bulb above the student’s head finally comes on. This also means that I, as the teacher, fully have to understand the concept being taught, so that I can effectively pass it on to my students. Sometimes that has meant that I studied the math book ahead of time and taught myself the lesson first, before I was capable of passing on the information. (Saxon‘s Advanced Math was a continual race as I hurried to keep problem sets done ahead of my son, knowing that if he ever hit a snag, I did not want him to have to wait while I learned the past 30 lessons in order to understand this one.)

Perfection would recopy math problems until each digit was perfectly identical to all others of its type. Perfection would wear holes into the paper erasing seemingly minor imperfections, and then desire to recopy the entire paper because the holes were unacceptable. Perfection would never finish a single assignment, because true perfection can never be attained this side of heaven.

Please, Parents, in all your efforts to raise well-behaved, highly motivated, excellent children, please do not inflict them with the curse of perfectionism. Allow your children to leave a project “as is” rather than stressing out over unimportant details. Help them to notice things in real life that are not perfect, but function just as well in spite of their imperfections. Encourage your children to do their best, while at the same time reinforcing the concept that their best is what is desired, not someone else’s best. If we are each doing our own best, we can be pleased with our efforts and have no reason to feel disappointed or ashamed of our achievements.

Filed Under: Doing Your "Best", Encouraging Your Student, Homeschool How-To's

I Give One Grade: 100% — But You Get to Keep Trying Until You Get It

May 12, 2004 by Leave a Comment

A lesson learned is a lesson learned. We will not move on until you know it, but also we will move on as soon as you have learned it. If you know to start a sentence with a capital letter and put a period at the end, you probably do not need to do that for all 6 pages in the workbook!

If the child has learned the lesson, does it really matter how he/she learned it? It is the final results we are after: learning is learning no matter how long it takes. Did you read The Chronicles of Narnia or C.S. Lewis’ rough drafts of them? Did you wear the dress with the collar put on backwards, or did you fix it first? Did you give away batches of burned cookies for Christmas gifts or bake new ones? I give only one “grade” in our homeschool: it’s 100%, and you get to keep trying until you have made it. That does not always mean re-writing the math problems until they are perfect; it means we go over the concept until you have understanding. (Some kids need to write it, others just need to understand it.)

A public middle-school teacher (acting as the supervising teacher) recommended that a homeschool family not list any grade lower than an “A” on their transcripts or other official records. Her reasons: “The work your children are doing is far above the level of what their counterparts are doing in public school. Also, you are finishing every book — we never finish a book. Therefore, your children would be considered ‘A’ students in public school.”

In Mary Pride’s book Schoolproof, she relates a story of how her father (who taught philosophy) asked her what grade she would give to a student who had earned an “F” on his first test, a “D” on the second, a “C” on the next, then a “B”, and an “A” on the final exam. Young Mary thought carefully, and then replied that she would average a “C” for the course. She tells that her father shook his head and told her that she was wrong. The student had earned an “A” for the course, because he finally had mastered the material.

Filed Under: Doing Your "Best", Encouraging Your Student, Homeschool How-To's, Transcripts

Name This Figure, or Are There Really Any Wrong Answers?

May 8, 2004 by Leave a Comment

Math book shows a hexagon and says: Name this figure. Student’s answer reads: Bob.

Mom gives the following illustration to show “3 lefts make a right”: Picture in your mind that you are going out the front door. Go down the steps to the front sidewalk and turn left. Now walk three paces and turn left again. Walk four more steps and turn left again. Now, which direction are you facing? Student answers: Forward!

Does the sun rise in the east? No, the earth turns to reveal the sun.

These are a few real-life examples from our homeschool of how there are really no wrong answers. It may not be what is listed in the answer key, and it may not be the answer you were expecting, but it may not be wrong either! Two plus two is still four, not six, but with less-concrete subjects we may need to take those answers with a grain of salt. Government schools were originally formed with the intent of producing a “working class” of compliant non-thinkers who would obey without question. I prefer to encourage creative minds to think for themselves and look at things in new ways.

Filed Under: Encouraging Your Student, Homeschool How-To's, Homeschool v. Public School

Knowing How to Find the Answer Is the Same as Knowing the Answer

May 7, 2004 by Leave a Comment

Where in real life are you required to have the answer to every problem or question on the tip of your tongue at a moment’s notice? Even doctors and lawyers must do research and use reference materials: they are not required to know everything at all times. Contrariwise, a worker (at any kind of job/career) who has no idea where to begin looking for an answer to his problem will not have a very promising future. Therefore, teaching our children how to use reference materials and how to do problem solving are the greatest skills we can impart.

I taught some history/geography classes in our homeschool co-op group that were run game show-style. The students were given lists of facts ahead of time that they would need to know in order to answer random questions, but they were also told that they would be allowed to refer to those lists during the game. I gave them brief instructions on how to read through the material and highlight keywords. It was fascinating to see how these middle-school-age scholars took to the concept! When they showed up two weeks later to play the game, their notes were appropriately marked up, they dived into the stack of papers with enthusiasm when a question was put to their team, and they knew exactly where to find a remarkable amount of facts in a surprisingly short period of time.

Filed Under: Encouraging Your Student, Homeschool How-To's

If You Can Present Your Case with Facts and Logic and Without Whining, I Will Listen with an Open Mind

April 30, 2004 by Leave a Comment

Teach your students that facts and logic are the only way to plead a case. Whining is never allowed.

My students have made the case for eliminating tests in our school, even in math. In fact, when my students want to present a case to me, I know to be fully attentive so that I do not get caught by surprise. They are very good arguers, able to make their position fully understood. (However, I cannot remember them just arguing with each other or with us as parents.)

“Will my answer change?” was my standard reply to my children when they repeated a request. For them, that meant “end of discussion” — Mom never changes her mind, unless you can come up with enough facts and logic to present your issue. When the request had nothing to do with facts or logic, the issue passed peacefully away — they did not whine, and I did not have to scold. My daughter later used that same line successfully on college friends, who did not understand how to ask for anything without whining.

Many times my children have convinced me of the wisdom of changing our plans. Why do we need to answer the questions at the end of the chapter? If they have already told me about the book they just read, do they really need to get frustrated trying to write it all down into a stuffy book report (that I do not want to read anyway)? If they get truly grossed-out even thinking about dissecting, is it really necessary to do it? (I have lived my entire life without anyone asking me if I have dissected anything.)

Filed Under: Attitudes, Discipline, Homeschool How-To's, Parenting

Reminding Myself of My Ultimate Goal

April 15, 2004 by Leave a Comment

As a homeschooling Mom, I struggle with self-doubt. Are we doing enough? Are my children absorbing the right things? Yes, we have a very close family relationship, but are they learning what they need to be learning?

I have known many government-schooled students who never cracked a book, aced every test, and were involved in absolutely every school-sponsored extra-curricular activity available. However, those same students skulked through mixed-age groups, never looked anyone in the eye, and communicated with adults (if at all) only in monosyllabic grunts. (And people think my children will be lacking in social skills?)

I frequently need to remind myself that my goal is to produce functional human beings, not predictable test-takers. With the appropriate coaching, anyone can regurgitate answers onto a test paper, but what guarantee is there that those facts are relevant to real life? And how often do adults take tests? More desirable are the abilities to recognize a problem and determine its solution, do a satisfactory job on time in cooperation with those around you, and stand up as a productive, admirable citizen with an unshakable faith in God.

I often try to observe my own children as though I have never met them before. There I see young people who walk around with their heads held high, looking adults directly in the eye, and listening attentively while conversing in complete, articulate sentences. They recognize their surroundings and take responsibility for them — emptying the garbage when it is full instead of walking away as their banana peel slides off to the floor. I have received countless compliments from other adults who are astounded at minors who can communicate in a mature, intelligent manner.

My students may not be learning the same things as the students in government schools, but then again, I do not want them to learn the same things.

Filed Under: Encouragement for Parents, Encouraging Your Student, Homeschool v. Public School

Tests, Book Reports, and Other Un-necessities

April 15, 2004 by Leave a Comment

Tests are valuable only if you do not know what your student has learned. If Johnny spends 45 minutes telling me about something that only took him 20 minutes to read, he is ready to tackle the next thing. He does not need to waste time (his or mine) taking a test or writing a book report. Tests are great for a classroom of 30 kids and a teacher who has no idea who knows what. Unless you have an extremely large homeschool family, you probably have a pretty good idea of what is being learned.

It is my personal opinion that book reports should be banned. Reading books should be encouraged, but I do not want to ruin a budding love of reading by enforcing reports. Reading well-written books teaches by example: sentence structure, grammar (formal/descriptive and informal/conversational), spelling, punctuation, etc. A student who reads often and reads from a variety of sources will pick up a surprising amount by observation. Then, and only then, should they be expected to write.

My students participated in a co-op class in novel-writing (meeting twice a month for a semester). My daughter, a voracious reader, had little difficulty with descriptions, character development, etc. My son, who had read very little on his own at that point, struggled tremendously. He had great difficulty trying to put his thoughts on paper. His scene descriptions were awkward, and he felt every scene should be done with only dialogue. I eventually realized that he was not writing a book, he was writing a screenplay — he was more familiar with movies than with books and therefore wanted to use that format. I changed plans and rearranged my son’s assignments to include more time for reading and a greater variety of reading materials, emphasizing things of special interest to him. Sometimes I allowed him to watch a video, then read the book afterward, reasoning that knowing the plot ahead of time would help to keep his interest as the story slowly developed through the pages of the book. It worked. His reading speed increased dramatically, his comprehension level increased, and his understanding of grammatical rules increased.

After a couple of years of heavy-on-the-reading-time-but-no-writing lessons, I again brought in a serious writing assignment. Wow! What a difference! I actually had to (tactfully) ask him where the idea had come from for the paper, because I suspected he might have plagiarized it from a magazine article. Not the case. He had used a magazine article as his resource material, but it was an article he had read months before at the library and just used the facts from memory. (Several weeks into his first semester of college English composition, the instructor pulled my son aside and remarked, “You know you don’t really belong in this class — you already know how to write very well!”)

Filed Under: Homeschool How-To's, Reading, Testing, Visual Learning, Writing
« Previous Page
Next Page »
Verified by MonsterInsights