The Right Mindset for Educating Kids
Your teaching or education mindset kind of runs things 24-7, so don't you think it might be important? Our conviction is that homeschool families really need to think through what they are doing and why (mindset), so they can stay on course. There is one way to think that is for superior than most of the notions about education out there these days... I dare you to re-think it!
Fred Ray Lybrand
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Homeschoolers, Salaries, and College Graduates
How much do college graduates make? What do high school graduates make? Nowadays it's en vogue to pooh-pooh (sorry) college as unnecessary, citing counter-examples like Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Gates. However, when you get down to it, college is a big-time money producer in our culture.
Although people can do well without college, homeschoolers probably need to re-think being dismissive about it. Why not get your kids ready and let them pick (even if they pay for a lot of it)?
Fred Ray Lybrand
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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The Wrong Way to Pick a College Major
Often we look at a college major in terms of the 'job we can get' rather than a specific skill we need to learn. This skill gets you ready for the multiple careers you (or your child) will have throughout a lifetime.
Off to learn,
Fred Ray Lybrand
I’d love to hear your comments or answer your questions
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5 College Majors that are Useless . . .
A recent article slammed a few majors as being useless degrees. The next two links will take you to the article and a thoughtful challenge.
The Article
5 Useless College Majors – Bright Futura
www.brightfutura.com1/19/12
Useless College Majors. By Terence Loose at Yahoo. If you’re considering going back to school in hopes that you’ll graduate to more opportunities, there …
The Challenge
Yahoo’s ‘College Majors That Are Useless’… Really?
I have a bit of a different take coming from my experience with three college kids (and two on the way), along with Jody (Masters degree) and my own (Doctorate) taste of education.
My son Tripp has a degree in Studio Art from the University of Texas in Austin. He is currently a consultant to a governmental policy think tank, employed to convert research into a systems analysis (uses a program called Mathematica).
HUH? Art to Systems?
Well, sure! Is the point to get a degree or get educated? I’m convinced it is to get educated. Remember, education is the acquisition of the utilization of knowledge…and, once you know how to learn, you can learn anything.
Of course, some degrees are not as immediately employable as others, but the last time I checked, around 85% of graduates are no longer in their ‘field of study’ ten years after graduation!
If the real value is in learning how to learn, then don’t you think motivation and effort will make a difference? Every student who studies a major she hates (and is likely not designed for) will probably not do well. I’ll take a student who loved his subject and produced results over a student who muddled through in a ‘good’ major. The reason is that after it is all said and done…a skill(s) remains. It is that skill that is employable (a good attitude helps too) since almost every job requires much training AFTER getting hired.
Surely we can notice that no one leaves college fully equipped to do any well paying job…no, no one.
If you pay attention life will learn you a thing or two (sorry…grew up in Alabama 😉 Specifically, life will learn you that you do not know the future. Why not do well with what you enjoy and see what God might blossom over time?
And, Mom and Dad…why not cheer for your kid’s pursuit of learning…wherever it may lead?
They will love you for it!
Fred Lybrand
Leave your thoughts below 🙂
63% of High School Seniors Aren’t College-Ready
Only 37 percent of students are prepared for college-level math and reading, according to newly released data.
If you know me, then you know that one of my convictions is that "Simplicity Solves." I could go further and say that Complexity Clogs / Simplicity Solves...which is the best and easiest explanation for what is up with high school students.
The article is from US News and says (among other things) that...
Only about a third of U.S. high school seniors are prepared for college-level coursework in math and reading. And while the performance of the country’s highest achievers is increasing in reading, the lowest-achieving students are performing worse than ever.
Why?
Hmm... we know that virtually everyone can learn to ready AND that almost everyone can learn plenty of math. Honestly, there really aren't many 'moving parts' here. We have students and the school and the teaching process.
- Students
- School
- Process (teaching approach)
Options:
1. Something is wrong with the students (home-life, culture, disease, diet, etc.)
2. Something is wrong with the school (poor lighting, supplies, distractions, etc.)
3. Something is wrong with the process of teaching
While all of them can be related, what we are looking for is the simplest explanation (this is known as Ockham's Razor...and yes, I have been called "Sir Fredrick of Ockham"). Actually, beyond a simple explanation, we are looking for the one dial we can turn that will change it all (how simple is that?)!
1. The students can be a mess, but it needs to be enough to override the other two elements. Now, since we know many students who live in this culture and come from equally bad homes and eat poorly still do well, we can rule this out as the point of leverage.
2. The school can be a mess and poorly disciplined and underfunded, but for the most part that's not what we see. We also see students who prevail in EVERY school, so this isn't a good candidate either.
3. Process, how we teach, now there IS something! If you teach kids wrong, then they'll all learn wrong. Hey, I know, I'm from Alabama!
Face it, the current process is about ‘knowledge’ (if not trivia). The preparation is for a competency test and it is not skills focused.
It’s another reason Jody and I were attracted to homeschooling. We wanted to focus on developing our kids’ ability to learn how to learn. Specifically, we wanted to give them the following:
- The SKILLS of Reading, Writing, and Math
- The CHARACTER that is morally sane and impactful in a crazy world
- The COMMUNITY of family and relationships (our choice was a good Christian Church in addition to our home.
If they aren’t focused on skills, how will they teach them? No wonder they aren’t ready.
If you homeschool (or other), then PLEASE get your kids effective at Reading, Writing, and Math…that’s the crux of College Readiness!
Blessings,
Dr. Fred Ray Lybrand
