Education and Opportunity

August 2, 2018

One man who has is making a  remarkable contribution to the education worldwide is Sal Khan and his ever expanding Khan Academy of well made learning videos - all free - on a great variety of common school subjects. He now has an enormous team working with him to make more! Such videos allow anyone with internet access to get help with school subjects. What an offering to the world.  Check it out. Khan Academy.


August 1, 2018  

While I believe quality public education is essential to fund and maintain, there are many places in the country, and many individual students for whom it may not be the best option. Or could be enhanced with some of the ideas below.

Idea #1 Community Learning Circle Projects

This could be a major component of a home school plan or class credit added to junior and senior high school programs. Active or semi retired teachers would lead a small group of 8-10 students living in proximity to each other in a learning community that would explore and enrich the learning of basic subject matter going on in schools or via computer/books/workbooks at home. Students would engage in learning projects together, e.g. creating a play, creating a diorama for a local museum, making a presentation to students in local schools, creating a resource web page or you tube videos,  or art projects for local display. To prepare for this they would make field trips to related locations (factories, museums, boat trips, train trips etc),  invite and interview professionals in the field, do research to find other  relevant information in libraries or online. Take notes, paraphrase and write essays about what was learned from them, engage in debates or discussions with the other students or do role plays. Then create and present the final project  together.  

EXAMPLE TOPIC and SCAFFOLD: Poor Eating Habits and their Consequences. Students watch  and then discuss the video Supersize Me, invite a local  doctor/nutritionist to speak to them about different dangerous eating patterns,  research and then, over several meetings teach eachother by sharing articles and online videos about the digestive process and the effects of bad eating habits, visit a local high school cafeteria together to discuss current student eating preferences with the cooks,  visit a Weight Watchers meeting and invite anyone willing to share, to tell the story of their personal weight loss journey. Write a long essay summarizing and analyzing what they have learned,  create posters about the different types of bad eating habits and their consequences. Then work together to create a play or panel lecture they would then either present at a local jschool or make a You Tube video  and put it online. Finish with a group cooking session and dinner, each person preparing a healthy dish to  add to it, and explaining why it is healthy.