I'm trying to transfer all we have communicated to this blog so newcomers can access the information quickly.  Here is the first email I sent on October 6, 2012

 

Dear Friends,

I, like many of you, have questions about education for my family. As I interact with you, our conversations often turn to education and our worries and frustrations about how things are going in our schools.

I have started looking for the basics of education that transcend time, culture, religion, politics, institutions, age, gender, methodology, individual needs, and social status. I know there are educational principles that advance freedom and prosperity. I know there are principles that work in public, private, charter, religious, higher education, trade, and home schools. What are they?

I don't know all the answers to that question, but I have found some resources for my search that ring true for me, and I'm determined to mine them until do know. I believe that the answers cannot be found in 30-second sound bytes -- there will be work involved in their discovery. I'm doing this now and invite you to join me.

My proposal: I would like to host a monthly discussion of educational principles in my home, assuming there are those who would like to join me. I propose the traditional read, write, discuss, and apply method for the gatherings. Our monthly format will be short assigned readings, one or two writings to do at home, a meeting to discuss the readings and writings, and ideas for implementation of what we discover. The books I'd like to explore are all available for check-out at the library or for purchase at amazon.com. Imagine a book group on steroids with a specific focus and immediate applications for our families.

While I personally home school my children, this is not intended to be a debate about which school is the best or what teaching methods are most effective. The answers to those questions will be different for each family and each child. My desire is to come to understand the core concepts of learning -- what underlying principles will guide my decisions and apply to each of my children, at every age, and in every context? When I know what constitutes a world-class education, I can compare that to what is currently happening for my own children, identify the holes, and make plans to fill them. Some of us may choose to fill holes by spending more time volunteering in classrooms, some might work to develop and implement new PTA programs, some may work with administrators to improve current programs, some may take action on capitol hill, some may create after school experiences, and some may make changes in their educational venues. For many of us, it might be a combination of these things. If based on sound principles, these actions would synergisticly impact education, and cover a much broader spectrum than any one of us could cover alone. We'll also feel more confident as we craft education plans for our children, knowing we do so on sound foundations.

The texts and experts I'd like to use will explore:

8 Keys of Great Teaching

5 Environments of Mentoring

Basic Tenets of Education

Phases of Learning

Making a Master Plan

The difference between poor education and leadership education

5 Pillars of Statesmanship

The Trivium and Quadrivium

The Greek Education Model and the Hebrew Education Model

Content and Context

55 Ingredients of solid core and love of learning phases

The power of read, write, discuss, and apply.

The History and Future of Education

If this interests you, please email or call me with your preferred meeting time. We'll need 1-2 hours once each month and I'm available any Tuesday evening after 7:30 and the 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings after 7:30. We can continue meeting monthly for as long as we choose. We'll hold an initial meeting in my home to assess interest and outline our group's education plan. We'll continue from there as decided at the first meeting. You are most welcome to forward this to anyone you feel may wish to join us.

Sincerely,

Jenny Curtis

801-272-5571