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Teaching Tips February 1, 2010 |
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by Lori Coeman 
What does it take to succeed? That question may sound too secular for some Christian homeschoolers, so let me word it another way. What
is it you want your homeschooling to achieve? Or what do you want to see in your son or daughter by the time they reach 18 years of age?
Or try this: How will you know if your homeschooling has been successful?
Success literally means a favorable outcome or result. So the only way we can know if our homeschooling has produced a favorable outcome is to know what it is we are trying to achieve, and stick with it until we get that result. In his 2008 best-seller, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell offers a wide range of success stories that highlight the remarkable achievements of some well-known and lesser-known individuals. The biographical vignettes offer a glimpse into how ordinary individuals accomplished extraordinary results. Two of these will come as no surprise to homeschoolers. (1) No one is self-made. All sorts of elements and individuals influence a person's achievements, including circumstances, relationships with family members and mentors, opportunities, education, the environment, and discipline. (2) Genius is no guarantee. Raw intelligence is only part of the picture. What a child learns also depends on hard-work, discipline, and perseverance. To state it another way: a child will get out of homeschooling what he or she puts into it. Which brings us to another observation that Gladwell makes that may not be so obvious. In fact, in this day of immediate gratification, fast-paced entertainment, and “don't-bore-me-with-the-details” approach to life, there's an opposite trend creeping into homeschooling – avoiding curriculum that is unentertaining and tedious. Not that those aspects shouldn't be considered, but too much emphasis on them breaks one of the cardinal rules Gladwell uncovered. The “10,000-Hour Rule.” Simply put, those who succeeded in their pursuits logged at least 10,000 hours striving for their goal. That's a lot of perseverance! Michael Jordon, the great basketball player, has admitted that what made him so great was his constant devotion to the basics. In every practice he made a point of including basic drills even though he was probably one of the most accomplished players in the game. He continually drilled the basics. What are your basics? What do you consider to be the “absolute musts” in your homeschooling? Is your family logging 10,000 hours on those basics? What strengths do you see in your children? Are they investing 10,000 hours into those strengths? To give you some perspective, if you take the typical academic school year of 180 days (five days a week for nine months), and have the student work at something for 5 hours a day, that comes to 900 hours each year. If you multiply that by 12 (the typical number of grade levels), it comes to 10,800 hours. Okay, before you get overwhelmed with guilt that you're not doing enough, here's the moral of the story: focus on what you consider REALLY important and PERSEVERE. And don't be surprised if it takes a LOT of hours. Maybe more than two weeks; perhaps more than two years. Most likely, 10,000 hours. Learning is a life-time affair. 531 Words To view more 'Teaching Tips' Articles please 'Log In' and visit the 'Achives' page. |
