Image Courtesy of: http://goalsandachievements.com/career/leadership-creativity-the-golden-rules-of-effective-brainstorming/ WARNING: This post contains swearing. Yes. I swear sometimes. If you offend easily or you're a child, please do not read on. I've felt the inner pull to plan my 'curriculum' out for the homeschool year of 2017... It's been tugging at my guts and boggling my brain (no irony there if you know anything about the gut/brain connection!). The struggle has begun... I sit down to plan a school year based on my pasionate beliefs and powerful values around how children must be allowed to learn and experience life and learning with guidance not guilt, freedom not fear. Yes... sounds good. But when I get to the 'planning' phase, about to start writing my lists and plans and structures, my head and heart start to argue. You see, my mind is deeply indoctrinated in the old eduational paradigm. Afterall, thats how I was raised, that's the generation I belong to. ... you go to school, you study, you follow all the rules to the best of your ability and you don't rock the boat wherever possible... above all, do not be a free thinker, open feeler, intuitive learner. BAM! The pressure builds inside me and the inner clash reaches it's climax... I know in my heart this is BULLSHIT but my brain keeps saying YES this is the way forward. ...and I'm stuck. Paralysed. Planning grinds to a highly discombobulating halt. I know my old ways cannot be the way forward for the next generation of learners. I know it in the hard and fast fabric of my bones. And yet, those old neural pathways of how I know learning was for me - the shoulds and shouldn'ts of an authoritarian system - have a super strong hold on my senses. So... I sit down to plan in my usual (now apparently outdated) fashion... blank paper strewn over the dining table, coloured pens for brainstorming, lined pages for converting the results into lists and quantifyable measures of my children's progress, computer at the ready to research and decide on the online resources and text books I'll use to structure our learning. That's when the real stumbling blocks appear and crash headlong into my value systems. I don't want to teach this way. My kids don't want to learn this way. SHIT! Now what? I try to brainstorm what I want my kids to learn this year and manage a handful of gross terms that cover the main topics that I 'should' be teaching our kids in homeschool. By the way, who the F*#K is that person in the back of my head saying 'you should do it this way' anyway?! F*SK that guy!! Then I change tack and try to set GOALS... you know the 5 golden rules of goal setting, right? 1. Make them motivational 2. Make them SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and timebound) 3. Write them down 4. Make an Action Plan 5. Stick to it ARG... the whole concept of goal setting in this way is like listening to an orchestra play out of sync with the conductor. Number 2 particularly gets my goat. How do you measure inside a child's head AND heart without subjecting them to innane and pointless tests that end up presenting a great example of short term memory and a 'right' or 'wrong' response? Problem... that's not a measure of true learning OR knowledge!! Double shit. I can't use this measure now, so what else? I ask myself. Have to address that twister later. So then I tried to break those down into lists of activities and outcomes. Bugger, bugger, bugger.... It all feels wrong. Definitely need a new appropach. All the while this is going on, my tummy has that feeling you get when you drag nails down a chalk board (my kids will never know that feeling thank goodness!). SCRAP IT ALL.... I have to start fresh.... not only find a new way to develop my curriculum, but also a new set of metrics!!! How does a person start fresh with no knowledge of how to do a new thing, going on just a undeniable gut feeling that it needs to be dramatically different? DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU KNOW! My 'normal' way of learning and teaching cannot happen this time, because the old way is based on a flawed system that no longer applies to my world or my children. I can take elements of the old ways - like the coloured pens and blank paper for brainstorming... but then the similarities stop short. In this moment I realise that GOALS are a head based method of getting shit done. I want a heart based method...one based on feeling, sensing, intuiting and flowing with the Universal energies and the deep inner callings of my children's hearts... not what I think they should be learning based on the fear of them falling behind, or missing out, or getting it wrong. Those guidance systems are particularly detrimental to true, deep and visceral learning! I need an INTENTION for their learning. I realise I am not destined to be their teacher, but rather a guide... closely observing and then offering opportunties for them to direct their own learning. I know, I know... this is what homeschooling is all about. But when youre entire psyche is fighting the insinct things get a little confusing. okay... RESET. I've listed in a different way now. Rather than dictating a set of goals with measureable outcomes, I have returned to my values and asked myself these questions for each child: 1. What is their passion / what do they love? 2. Where are their natural gifts and strengths? 3. What areas require further guidance? 4. What kind of experiences and environments do they want? 5. How can I best serve them / guide them? 6. What kinds of opportunities can I facilitate that provide for a rounded, healthy and happy individual? 7. What is most important to them, and me? And, rather than a set of goals, I thus have set my INTENTION for each child's learning this year. I have a vision for how I'd like that to look based on the experiences they've said they would like to have. The timing is in alignment with our collective energy and will unfold within this framework. (Being a person who really thrives with structure, order and predictability YET still wanting to allow for my soul's love of free expression... I did go on to develop 5 golden rules of INTENTION! You'll see them in a later blog.) Don't get me wrong... goals are useful, but only to the extent they are in alignment with our core values - otherwise, they become a stress, a forced outcome that is ego driven rather than heart and soul guided. But more on that in another musing. And I'm still going to use lists... but the lists will be a breakdown of our intentions in short form and we will choose the most aligned thing to do from that list that suits the energy of the day. I'm now off to be and do the opposite of what I have always been and done and NOT plan our 'curriculum' but rather explore a new framework for learning guided intention and opportunties for expression!
3 Comments
Amber
4/1/2017 11:16:37 pm
Thank you
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Sheelin
9/1/2017 02:09:08 pm
Extremely well said! And so totally captures the thought processes going through my brain as I try to make decisions about which path to take.
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Kristy Rackham
2/2/2017 09:36:56 am
And, Sheelin...we are not alone!!! Leave a Reply. |
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