| Forcing a junior high child to sit chained to a desk | | | | Valuable to life is critical. When I was in school, I |
| eight hours a day, doing inane and pointless busy | | | | hated the "projects" we were given in the |
| work, dribbling stuff they don't care about onto a | | | | classroom. Why? They were fake. It's not the |
| piece of paper, is, in my mind, child abuse. | | | | same for all kids, but for me, a fake project was |
| What a 12-year-old child wants to do, with all of | | | | worse then listening to a dull lecture. |
| his or her heart, is to explore the world in which | | | | For example, a small garden plot could serve as |
| they live. A child wants to make things, to work | | | | an educational project, worked for the value of |
| with his hands, to experience things. A child wants | | | | the family eating good homegrown food. All of |
| to fix a car, build a go-cart, cut mommy's hair, | | | | the academic elements can be woven into that |
| make a dress, build a dog house, grow some | | | | project, botany, soil science, business planning, |
| funny looking gourds, plant some flowers, ride a | | | | even marketing the extra tomatoes, writing a |
| horse, spend a day deep-sea fishing, work a | | | | journal, design and layout, math, the list goes on. |
| sail-boat, build a canoe, go fishing with Grandpa, | | | | Don't overdo the academic stuff, though, or else |
| show a steer at the fair. | | | | it all becomes "fake." But when the work has |
| In today's ridiculous mentality, a boy helping his | | | | value and purpose, especially that twenty bucks |
| dad build a go-cart is not "in school," but a child, | | | | from selling the extra tomatoes, the learning is |
| dribbling pointless C-grade work onto a piece of | | | | real and it stays. |
| paper is "getting an education." | | | | But there should always be a variety of projects, |
| Go figure! | | | | especially at the junior high level. A project that is |
| Yes, disciplined academic learning is important to | | | | too large can consume all a child's time with the |
| education. But academic learning separated from | | | | repetition - of weeding, or sanding, or whatever. |
| purpose does not really exist. Sure, the kid | | | | A child needs to experience the world, intimately, |
| scrawled something on the paper. But the next | | | | with purpose and value, and with constant variety. |
| day he forgot all of it. | | | | That is education. The stuff in the desk? Sad to |
| Project-led learning is weaving the disciplined | | | | say, a large part of it is simply a waste of a |
| academic stuff around projects valuable to life. | | | | child's life. |