鈥淭he word 鈥榚ducation鈥� comes from the Latin 鈥榚ducere鈥�= e (out of) + ducere (to draw). Education is not just about putting information in. We have forgotten that it, in fact, begins in the child鈥檚 heart.鈥� -Vince Gowmon

Wonderful things happen when educators employ child-led learning in their classrooms. My own children are not quite school age; Claire is 4, so my personal experience pertains to preschool. While searching for options, I visited a preschool where the teachers take cues from their students and help them navigate their interests, explore their creativity, and critically think about their ideas. One class was particularly interested in writing and storytelling, so the students, ages 2 to 6, contributed to a short story they worked on daily. Each child had a journal, and even though many of them couldn鈥檛 write yet, the teachers were of the mindset that all markings are important. Another class at the same school was interested in 鈥渉ow to get wood to stick together,鈥� and after working through a couple hypotheses 鈥� tape and glue 鈥� one child returned to school after a weekend with a new idea. He informed the class that as his family was driving, he saw houses being built, and his parents told him they used nails to get the wood to stick. In this particular classroom, the teacher created a station with a framed sign that read, 鈥淛ulian鈥檚 theory on how to get wood to stick together.鈥� The station was equipped with wood, hammers, and nails, and even the two-year-old students participated in the project. This preschool had a two-year waitlist.

I also visited a preschool where the teachers insisted that each child participate in a craft project, whether or not they wanted to. The crafts were primarily completed by the teachers, and I watched them coax children (who were immersed in imaginative play) into participation. The crafts felt forced 鈥� they seemed to function as keepsakes for parents rather than as tools to help students unfold. I鈥檓 sure many of you have experienced frustration with teachers and school systems that lacked the training and resources to help your children move beyond the standard subject material.

During the COVID quarantine, I somehow lost sight of my own educational philosophy for a moment. The internet has been brimming with all the creative things everyone is doing with their kids, and I have felt paralyzed and inadequate through it all. When my daughter鈥檚 preschool started sending home packets of worksheets and day-to-day ideas for activities, I clutched those scraps of paper and marched straight to the kitchen table with my child. Finally, I had found the structure I needed to conquer at-home preschool and live up to, well, everyone on the internet. Claire would emerge from her quarantine chrysalis as a polished and refined, well-educated preschool butterfly. I posted the calendar on the wall and announced that we would mark off each activity with a special sticker, and we sat down to conquer preschool. I pulled a worksheet out of the manila envelope. It was packed with bunnies and eggs and flowers and other spring-type shapes, and its instructions said to find six bunnies, nine eggs, eight flowers, and so on. I didn鈥檛 feel any measure of zen looking at it, and Claire didn鈥檛 hesitate before scribbling frantically while I tried to block her pencil, shouting, 鈥淣O! We have to find six bunnies!鈥� She also refused to rhyme three words with 鈥渂ee鈥� or find four objects in the house shaped like rectangles. She wouldn鈥檛 count to 20 three times, either.

I despaired. My Instagram feed was brimming with watercolors of irises and stained-glass mandalas, and I couldn鈥檛 even get my kid to rhyme with 鈥渂ee.鈥�

As I bemoaned my lack of creativity and inability to create structured learning during a phone call with a friend, she pointed out that Claire doesn鈥檛 like activities that are presented to her in a structured way. She might run around the house, singing an original song about unicorns, but the moment you tell her to sit down and rhyme with 鈥渉orn,鈥� she will respond by blowing raspberries and falling off her chair. The activities her preschool sent were probably fun for some of her classmates, but they didn鈥檛 work for Claire鈥檚 style of learning. I only wanted to check them off my list because of my own insecurity.

I want to help Claire dive deeper into her interests, especially now that I鈥檝e scrapped the picture searches and worksheets. In order to move forward, I had to experience an important epiphany: by putting pressure on myself to approach at-home learning with perfectionism, I subjected Claire to undue pressure and perfectionism. We made a few shifts. Instead of following the preschool calendar, we created a new calendar one week 鈥� she picked a subject she wanted to learn about and drew a picture of that subject for each day of the week. One day, we learned about flowers and embarked on a nature walk to find flowers to examine. The next day, we learned about mermaids, which led to many discussions about ocean creatures and life under the sea.

Child-led learning is especially important for gifted kids, whose basic education should include the type of acceleration that nurtures their particular gifts and interests. This is why Academy is so important 鈥� it allows gifted children to go as deep as they want into dynamic subjects that excite them. It places them among experts who encourage their excitement for a subject while helping them cultivate a mastery of it. Academy students have the space to think deeply about their subjects and discuss ideas with their fellow students and teachers. I have been inspired and impressed by my colleagues, who have transformed Academy into an engaging distance-learning platform. They have adapted quickly and efficiently to the needs of our community. Academy has been described as a 鈥渓ifeline鈥� for some 优蜜视频 families, and I imagine that it is even more so now, as families strive to meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of their children while balancing their own work.

I hope that 优蜜视频鈥檚 year-round resources 鈥� Academy, LABS, Gifted Support Groups 鈥� are a source of support for you right now. Parents, please have grace for yourselves. We are all doing our best.

鈥淭o take children seriously is to value them for who they are right now rather than adults-in-the-making.鈥� -Alfie Kohn

is 优蜜视频鈥檚 Academy Coordinator. A British import, Louise graduated from the University of Manchester with a B.A. Honors Degree in English Literature and Language, completed her post-graduate teacher training at The University of Cambridge, and has recently completed her dissertation in Educational Leadership and Innovation with the University of Warwick. Louise has 20 years of experience in education as a high school literature teacher, lead teacher, administrator, adviser, and consultant. 优蜜视频鈥檚 Academy program, described here, provides elementary and middle school students with challenging enrichment classes that focus on exploration and application of knowledge.

鈥淣ow, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts….Plant nothing else, and root out everything else… nothing else will ever be of any service,鈥� declares Mr. Gradgrind in Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times. Gradgrind is, of course, a grotesque parody of all that education shouldn鈥檛 be. Ingrained in his face, Gradgrind, like the educational system he advocates, is 鈥渋nflexible, dry and dictatorial,鈥� demanding only closed-answer responses with absolutely no space to think, let alone enquire. Inexorable in his approach, Gradgrind looks at his room of students and sees 鈥渆mpty vessels,鈥� vessels he must fill to the brim with the facts he determines most useful. The one thing needful in this context is a 19th century industrialized utilitarian view of education: keep it if it’s 鈥渦seful,鈥� lose it if it’s not, and let’s not think about who decides what’s useful. Furthermore, it’s an educational system where the distance between the teacher and the students is a steadfastly vast unexplored wasteland, devoid of personal interaction, engagement or 鈥� dare we say it 鈥� enthusiasm for teaching and learning.

In 1992, my younger self was being interviewed for the Post-Graduate Certificate in Teaching Training in the UK. I was asked which 19th century novel I could imagine teaching to a class of restless teenagers. I identified Hard Times as the best text to help illuminate, as I argued then, to restless teenagers how much 鈥渂etter鈥� the education system was for them now. In 2013, my thoughts are different, and I wonder if we have made any progress as all around us nations battle out their place in international performance tables with what seems, at times, little thought given to what and how we should be teaching our 21st century youngsters. In the face of such performativity, I find myself thinking more about what is 鈥渘eedful.鈥� Coordinating the Academy program at 优蜜视频 prods me to contemplate this on a daily – and nightly – basis. We are fortunate that we are unencumbered by grade-level and state standards and that classes are not defined by a child’s chronological age. We are fortunate to be able to harness the talents of amazing teachers who take fascinating, intellectually challenging content and telescope it into teaching and learning experiences for these, our youngest, learners. Unencumbered we may be, but we are also determined to provide the best service possible. And so, as the fall session draws to a close, now is a good time to consider the one (or more) things needful for our gifted and high potential Academy students. What follows are observations, not solutions….

What do they need?

1) They need feeding, intellectually speaking.

Without fail, our students arrive because they just want more. They are curious, sometimes for the parents, exhaustingly curious. They have questions no-one else seems able to answer. Their minds need feeding, not always at a rapid pace, but with a sense of challenge and high expectation. They take pleasure in applying their codes in Neuro-Energy II; they relish grappling with structures in Molecular Biology. At the same time, they need to be encouraged to take risks and find the resilience to face a challenge, to practice scansion and learn their lines for Shakespeare, to present their ideas in Astronomy II. They need feeding, but they also need encouraging.

2) They need teachers who are mentors.

Academy teachers could never be mistaken for Gradgrind. They are Rose, Ronnie, Cindy, Miss Megan, Andre, Josh and Warren. They are full to the brim with knowledge, but they are patient, respectful, reflexive, sensitive, caring and unrelenting in their enthusiasm. They see remarkable individuals, not vessels. They respond to questions, they listen and they give their students the space to learn comfortably. They are positive role models and mentors to each and every each child.

3) They need emotional reassurance and encouragement.

优蜜视频 prides itself on providing educational experiences which serve the whole child. We acknowledge the part emotions play in learning, especially intense for gifted and high potential youth. A caring, emotionally nurturing culture permeates throughout the organization. We understand this need and we do our best to offer a warm welcome and an ear. We love it when our parents encourage and support their son or daughter to venture into unknown lands, to take a writing or literature class, to attend a Genius Day and to make new friends. We know that our learners do and should still get excited by the small stuff – star stickers, leaves on the learning tree…knowing that the steps they take as learners are celebrated. We smile when we see them making friends, heads together, pouring over a book or a periodic table, not wanting to leave as they enjoy the reassurance, affirmation and encouragement they receive from one another.

And so as the fall session closes and I reflect on 鈥渢he one thing needful,鈥� I feel satisfied that we are personalizing our teaching for learning at 优蜜视频鈥檚 Academy and identifying and serving some key needs. As the post-class surveys come in from the real experts – the children – their words speak for themselves. On the whole they struggle to criticize, instead they comment positively on their 鈥渇ascinating experiences.鈥� They say that 鈥渢he classes are so wonderful鈥� that they are 鈥渉ard in a good way.鈥� They ask, 鈥淲hy can鈥檛 this be my regular school?鈥�

It seems then that the one thing needful is a place to be who they are right now and to explore who they might be, intellectually, emotionally and personally. Gradgrind wouldn’t be happy, but maybe social critic Charles Dickens would. To that end, I am pleased.

Interested in 优蜜视频鈥檚 Academy, which provides year-round enrichment classes for bright young minds in the Los Angeles area? Email Academy@educationaladvancement.org for more information about the upcoming Winter Session, which will take place January 11 鈥� March 6!