Archive for July, 2010

I recently read a very interesting article in Psychology Today, titled Standardized Testing and the Flight to Homeschooling.

In the article, Dr. Laura Brodie talks about “a test-prep overdose that cries out for a parent-driven intervention” and adds that “kids spend enormous time memorizing facts for multiple choice tests, and less time writing, reading, forming ideas and enjoying hands-on learning.”

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve spent years in traditional schooling, as a student and as a teacher, and there’s nothing that irritates me more than to watch bright, energetic students enter the school system full of life and ideas and eager to create, but fast forward 12 years or so and they are bored, stressed and have not just lost their ability to think and create, but worse – they have lost their will to do so.

I can’t say I was surprised to read that more and more parents are choosing homeschooling to “escape a curriculum geared toward multiple choice tests” that is killing children’s enthusiasm for learning. I’ve seen the enrollment in WiloStar3D explode over the past few years, and many of our parents are telling me that they are choosing homeschooling becuase they disapprove of the current state of traditional education and feel that it does not prepare their children to become thought leaders, but rather it teaches them to be followers.

Just one word of caution – I would encourage anyone who considers homeschooling to make sure that the homeschooling system they are choosing allows and encourages students to create and explore. Not all homeschooling programs are created equal, and some are closer to traditional schooling than you might think.

We’re big believers in creativity. We think that traditional education has gotten on the wrong path. There’s a lot of emphasis on learning facts, on passive listening to lectures, and on verbal learning. Sadly, very little emphasis is placed on encouraging students to become thinkers and leaders – to ask questions and find answers to their questions. Students are not encouraged to create, and in fact creativity and free thinking are often actively discouraged, becuase there’s a curriculum to follow, and that curriculum leaves no place for creation or for imagination.

We are especially sad for children who are creative, visual learners. You know the type – kids who like to think for themselves, who always have lots of questions that the teacher can’t answer. These are our future leaders, free thinkers with strong personalities, but the traditional schooling system typically cannot handle them. These students are often labeled as “problematic students,” as troublemakers who don’t follow the rules, or worse – they are diagnosed as suffering from ADD and are given medication.

We love these creative students. We love their imagination and we know how excruciatingly boring traditional text-based learning is for them. We also know that these students, who are labeled as “difficult” in a traditional school, usually flourish and thrive when they are allowed to create, explore and express themselves using our 3D online homeschooling program.

For these bright, creative students, the ability to learn in a 3D virtual reality environment, to create their own unique avatar and other 3D items, and to work on independent learning projects, is absolutely priceless. Suddenly, they are not “difficult” anymore, but instead they become accomplished students with a very bright future.