Education vs. Regurgitation
By Jessica HulcyPrinted in PHS #19, 1997.
As a successful product of public school, I am often asked, "Why did you and your husband choose to homeschool your four boys?" True, I was a member of the National Honor Society, in honors science and honors English, and even voted Most Likely to Succeed - giving the appearance of being one smart kid. Then I took the SAT test. When the results arrived, my counselor called me into her office, showed me my low scores, and advised me not to attempt college.
Why this huge disparity between my poor standardized test scores and my stellar twelve-year academic performance? Two things were at play.
First, many people do not perform well on standardized tests. When I took my GRE to enter graduate school, I again scored poorly. A brilliant friend, who had taken the test with me, called to compare scores. When I told him my score, he said, "No, Jessica, add the verbal and the non-verbal scores together." I replied, "I already have." Standardized tests are not my cup of tea, and yet, in graduate school the bulk of my grades were A's, sprinkled with B's.
The second explanation is that I was well-trained in regurgitation. With a photographic memory, I could fill in blanks, receive A's, and promptly forget my regurgitated answers. Public school was product-, grade-, and results-oriented. There is still some of that thrust today. The emphasis is on passing the TAAS test, with weeks to months spent teaching the test! I was a shining example of one who could pass the test, graduate with honors, and not even be educated! If homeschooling parents and public school teachers want to break out of the product-oriented mold, unleashing children's creativity and thinking, what can they do differently?
Discovery Learning Fosters Creativity and Thinking
Discovery learning usually involves a hands-on approach.
This also naturally lends itself to problem solving. Children come up with solutions to problems without following prescribed step-by-step instructions. The child himself must think through the solution and determine his own steps.
When I taught in public schools, I prided myself on making my science classes hands-on, by showing my students a picture of a complete circuit, giving them the components, and allowing them to construct a complete circuit, per the diagram. As my friend, David Quine, would say, "Why not give each child a C-battery, a flashlight bulb, some paper clips, and see who can make his bulb light first?" Real discovery learning does not tell an answer. It poses a problem that causes light bulbs to go on in children's minds.
I recently received an email from a women who loved the hands-on, discovery approach for her children but was married to a clean-freak. While the mother wanted the children to set up a huge model ear that they could crawl through under the dining room table, the father preferred filling in workbooks. To him, messiness was non-learning, yet learning and retention clearly increase through multi-sensory, discovery learning. Fortunately, the mothers of Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, and Teddy Roosevelt allowed their young boys' genius to develop amid a mess. These mothers' tolerance of messes netted the 20th century the light bulb, the airplane, and a US President. I am convinced that the Yankee ingenuity of yesterday has been stifled today by adults' compulsion for children to fill in workbook blanks.
There are many new unit study curricula out on the homeschool market, yet a closer look reveals that all unit studies are not created equal. Successful unit studies not only have a central theme and offer many related activities and projects based on that theme, they also encourage discovery learning. Discovery learning is not merely the absence of instructions; it is the absence of instruction plus the presence of carefully constructed open-ended questions that lead children to the next thought, then the next thought, and finally to the big concept that connects their single activity to the larger issue being studied.
Why construct a model ear to crawl through under the dining room table if the emphasis is not on the Creator's intricate design of the ear and the ear's purpose - attentiveness to God and His creation? Otherwise, the projects become little more than activities for activities' sake. Those activities that lead to the consideration and discovery of existing truths are worthy of our time........
By Jessica HulcyPrinted in PHS #19, 1997.
As a successful product of public school, I am often asked, "Why did you and your husband choose to homeschool your four boys?" True, I was a member of the National Honor Society, in honors science and honors English, and even voted Most Likely to Succeed - giving the appearance of being one smart kid. Then I took the SAT test. When the results arrived, my counselor called me into her office, showed me my low scores, and advised me not to attempt college.
Why this huge disparity between my poor standardized test scores and my stellar twelve-year academic performance? Two things were at play.
First, many people do not perform well on standardized tests. When I took my GRE to enter graduate school, I again scored poorly. A brilliant friend, who had taken the test with me, called to compare scores. When I told him my score, he said, "No, Jessica, add the verbal and the non-verbal scores together." I replied, "I already have." Standardized tests are not my cup of tea, and yet, in graduate school the bulk of my grades were A's, sprinkled with B's.
The second explanation is that I was well-trained in regurgitation. With a photographic memory, I could fill in blanks, receive A's, and promptly forget my regurgitated answers. Public school was product-, grade-, and results-oriented. There is still some of that thrust today. The emphasis is on passing the TAAS test, with weeks to months spent teaching the test! I was a shining example of one who could pass the test, graduate with honors, and not even be educated! If homeschooling parents and public school teachers want to break out of the product-oriented mold, unleashing children's creativity and thinking, what can they do differently?
Discovery Learning Fosters Creativity and Thinking
Discovery learning usually involves a hands-on approach.
This also naturally lends itself to problem solving. Children come up with solutions to problems without following prescribed step-by-step instructions. The child himself must think through the solution and determine his own steps.
When I taught in public schools, I prided myself on making my science classes hands-on, by showing my students a picture of a complete circuit, giving them the components, and allowing them to construct a complete circuit, per the diagram. As my friend, David Quine, would say, "Why not give each child a C-battery, a flashlight bulb, some paper clips, and see who can make his bulb light first?" Real discovery learning does not tell an answer. It poses a problem that causes light bulbs to go on in children's minds.
I recently received an email from a women who loved the hands-on, discovery approach for her children but was married to a clean-freak. While the mother wanted the children to set up a huge model ear that they could crawl through under the dining room table, the father preferred filling in workbooks. To him, messiness was non-learning, yet learning and retention clearly increase through multi-sensory, discovery learning. Fortunately, the mothers of Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, and Teddy Roosevelt allowed their young boys' genius to develop amid a mess. These mothers' tolerance of messes netted the 20th century the light bulb, the airplane, and a US President. I am convinced that the Yankee ingenuity of yesterday has been stifled today by adults' compulsion for children to fill in workbook blanks.
There are many new unit study curricula out on the homeschool market, yet a closer look reveals that all unit studies are not created equal. Successful unit studies not only have a central theme and offer many related activities and projects based on that theme, they also encourage discovery learning. Discovery learning is not merely the absence of instructions; it is the absence of instruction plus the presence of carefully constructed open-ended questions that lead children to the next thought, then the next thought, and finally to the big concept that connects their single activity to the larger issue being studied.
Why construct a model ear to crawl through under the dining room table if the emphasis is not on the Creator's intricate design of the ear and the ear's purpose - attentiveness to God and His creation? Otherwise, the projects become little more than activities for activities' sake. Those activities that lead to the consideration and discovery of existing truths are worthy of our time........
I will have the rest of this article tomorrow or you can click on the link below. I didn't write this but thought it an excellent article for homeschoolers. ~Kim
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