Before you get too deep into this book, I should warn you that I'm a homeschooling parent. I say "warn you" because I'm sure that my opinions about education are colored with a very thick brush because of my experiences in home education. However, I also want you to know that this is not a book about homeschooling your children.
Actually, it's more like a book about homeschooling yourself. Well, not only homeschooling, but that among other things.
I want to make it clear that this is not a book bashing schools. In fact, all three of my children have spent at least some time in public schools. My daughter prefers to study in a school environment, and so she does. Personally, I didn't like school before I hit college, but I loved university. Along the way, I've learned that there are some really fantastic schools out there, which teach children in a way which I believe is relevant to their lives, and which -- just as importantly -- feed the children's love of learning throughout their studies. So, I'm not anti-school.
On the other hand, I am very pro-autodidactism. Even if you are in school, the ability to teach yourself, to learn what and when you need to in the way that suits you best, is a vital skill.
This book is about education from cradle to grave. It is about getting the most out of school when you are in school. It is about encouraging all educators to think about what they are doing when they teach. It is about learning how to learn, knowing why you want to or need to learn, and making the learning process enjoyable.
I don't separate "children" from "adults" in the way that I think about teaching and learning. Yes, we do have different ways of learning as our brains and bodies develop, but we are all humans, and we all have an innate ability to learn. In fact, we all have a desire to learn new things from the minute we pop out of the womb. We are wired for learning right from the get go. So, when I think about education, I think about the ways in which we can take the best advantage of that hard wired learning ability. If there is a way to enhance our innate learning abilities, that's definitely a bonus, and some of those enhancements are tied to the experience or biology that comes with age.
Our society marks a clear line between childhood learning and adult learning that cannot be ignored in this book. Childhood learning is often thought of as "required" learning whereas adult learning is "optional". In fact, learning throughout our life is filled with both required and optional elements. The fact that a government body has declared certain elements to be required at certain ages does not make them so any more than the lack of government intervention makes new knowledge optional later on in life. For example, we can easily question whether reading Shakespeare's plays is really necessary for a high school student, but we can all agree that learning the route from your new house to the grocery store and to your new job is absolutely required.
My hope is that this book will help you to rethink learning and education for yourself, for your children, and for our society. I hope that it will open dialog in your household about what and how our schools should be teaching and about what lifelong learning really means to you.