5 minute read
Ownership of Education
The gift that lasts a lifetime
WRITTEN BY Gina Prosch
ILLUSTRATED BY R.W.
Talk of education brings to mind images of school days gone by. Riding the bus to school, memorizing multiplication tables, standing in cafeteria lines. Be quiet. Don’t stare out the window. Read this book. Take this test. Dash from one room to another.
School days become a series of go here, now stand there. Do this, not that. And lest you forget—if you mess up, it all goes on your permanent record.
It’s no wonder school gets a bad rap.
What if there were a better way? What if children had an active role in their education? What if they learned about things that sparked their imaginations? What if, even from a very young age, kids owned their own education?
Too often, we have a knee-jerk reaction to suggestions that children should have a voice in what they learn. Perhaps we fear our children will opt to learn nothing, or they won’t learn the “right” things, the things they’ll need to know later on in life.
Anyone who’s spent more than 10 minutes in the company of small children knows they are full of questions, and their questions are the launching pad for their ownership of education. As educator and homeschool advocate John Holt says, the best way for children to learn is “not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by … answering their questions … and helping them explore the things they are most interested in.”
Holt points to the deep and abiding purpose of education: to encourage learning, to cultivate curiosity, and to increase a child’s understanding of the world around him or her. Learning isn’t something that happens in school apart from life, but rather, learning is life itself.
When children experience ownership of education, they become self-directed and develop a sense of autonomy. Because their learning reflects their interests and values, children retain their sense of curiosity. Children are motivated because they have a buy-in on what they’re learning about.
More than any toy or trip to the zoo, giving your children ownership in their education is a gift that will last their whole lives through. Because, as Holt points out, “true learning—learning that is permanent and useful, that leads to intelligent action and further learning—can arise only out of the experience, interest, and concerns of the learner.”
Facilitating Ownership of Education
Whether you’re a teacher in a traditional classroom, a homeschool parent, or someone in a teaching role through church, 4-H, scouting, or another civic organization, giving kids ownership of their education isn’t complicated—simply follow their interests.
1) Ask Questions
Discover what a child finds interesting by asking open-ended questions. Open-ended questions begin with the words “why,” “how,” “what,” “describe,” “tell me about,” or “explain.” “What sorts of things would you like to learn about?” “Tell me about your favorite pastime…” “Describe your ideal day at school…” These are open-ended questions that encourage children to reveal something of themselves.
2) Listen Actively
Ask a question—get an answer. So the next step is to listen, really listen carefully, to their answers. Then, act on those answers with integrity. Asking questions and ignoring the answers is the educational equivalent of a bait and switch. Don’t ask, “What would you like for supper?” if you’ve already got meatloaf in the oven or pizza on delivery. Don’t ask, “What would you like to study for science this year?” if you have already purchased the physics curriculum.
3) Integrate Input
Ask your 8-year-old what she wants to learn about. Her answer? Ancient Egypt. Feed that curiosity. Read books about the Nile, draw pictures of the Sphinx or color in King Tutankhamun’s mask.
Dive into hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone, learn about the geometry of the pyramids, and study the geography of Egypt and the impact of the river delta.
Benefits of an Ownership of Education Model
And whether you’re a classroom teacher or a homeschool parent, there are many benefits to an ownership of education model for learning.
Less Rebellion
Whether we’re talking teenagers or toddlers, one of the best reasons to embrace ownership of education is the way it deflates the need for rebellion. As toddlers, they may have chosen to hear “Goodnight Moon” for the 87th time, and as sophomores in high school, they may have chosen to study astronomy. The point is that the ownership of education gives kids a sense of their own agency, so what is there to rebel against?
Greater Autonomy
The message at the core of ownership of education is one of autonomy: Child, you can teach yourself or find a way to learn anything you really want to know about. Kids who own their education remember how, when they were 6, they taught themselves to identify scores of dinosaurs; and when they were 12, they taught themselves calligraphy and origami watching YouTube videos. Why should anyone be surprised they took an online real estate course when they were 17?
By owning their education, they become primary actors in their own life’s story, not someone standing around the stage waiting for direction.
Engaged and Self-Directed
The older students get, and the closer they move to adult life, the more important ownership of education becomes. Students who owned their own education are engaged and self-directed because they’ve opted to study things that matter to them. They understand their transcript will look different depending on whether they want to attend a four-year college, a two-year technical college, or simply graduate and get a job.
Kids who follow an ownership of education model know that their decisions, and the responsibility for those decisions, rests on them. But because they’ve made decisions for themselves throughout their lives, they are well equipped to move into the adult world.
When W.B. Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire,” he might well have had ownership of education in mind. •
