Education Revolution

Inspiration # 1. My own learning: I learn little from what I am taught, but I learn much from what I pursue. I don’t even want to think about the number of hours I wasted behind a desk in a classroom when I was itching to get out of there and explore things myself.

Inspiration # 2. Teaching: I teach kids who have fallen way behind. The source of the problem can often be traced back to the education that was meant to help them. In my experience, “traditional” methods aren’t particularly effective. If they were effective, these kids probably wouldn’t have fallen behind in the first place.

Inspiration # 3. Two books by John Taylor Gatto entitled “A New Kind of Teacher” and “The Underground History of American Education“. They do an amazing job of challenging the effectiveness of forced schooling and providing some evidence that alternative methods of education can be very effective.

Inspiration #4: My current Masters program through the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Illinois in Curriculum Technology and Education Reform. The courses are providing me with new alternative educational resources and challenging me to make effective use of them.