Unschooling Blog, Vol. 41: Volunteering at the Free School, Day 1 - Introductions.
Today was my first day volunteering at the local free school.
Greeted by a room full of smiling faces, I enter.
These kids are those who don’t quite fit in with the traditional “educational system,” and range in age from 11 to 19 years.
I’m almost immediately struck, after just a short period of interaction, by the maturity, interest, and true enthusiasm for life and learning—and extreme variety of talents—each student in the room seems to possess. Their smiling faces seem different than many of the kids I’ve met in the public schools. These kids seem...alive.
It may not look like much, but the real beauty is inside!
My “teaching” style.
I had mentioned to the head teachers right off the bat that I don’t want to give traditional, goofy-ass English lessons making learning into a gimmick and thus broadcasting the message that without a gimmick or “game,” English isn’t worth learning.
That’s kind of the world I’m engulfed in now, and one I’ll be leaving at the end of March. I was nervous that this new endeavor to volunteer at this free school, my son’s future school, might devolve into another “be a clown for the students” type thing.
Sure, the picture makes it look kinda fun, but trust me, it’s exhausting. If someone needs a constant gimmick or “game” to learn something, they’re not gonna learn anything anyway, because the genuine interest is not there!
Today, however, those fears were assuaged as I was greeted by a circle of well-adjusted individuals, actually interested in life and people, and not starving for the saccharine-cheap “attention” of a traditional “sensei” just there to play Bozo Buckets and keep student sign-ups coming in.
SCORE!!!
My plan of attack as of now, as English Volunteer/Guide from here on out at the school:
Presentations on American culture/world events.
Real life role play situations: meeting new people, calling room service at a hotel, etc.
Focusing on talents: music, dance, writing, cooking, sports, etc. All while speaking English. This way the focus isn’t “learn English!” but “use English to accomplish a goal you are already genuinely and self-interestedly interested in accomplishing!
And if some don’t want to learn English at all, that’s great! Let’s just enjoy our time together hanging out as individuals.
I hope we can do a kind of exchange, too, where these kids can show/teach me some of their talents and skills as well.
Stay tuned for more updates!
~*~
(Thanks for stopping by! If you missed he last installment of the Unschooling Blog, Vol. 40: “Hair Cut and Ice Cream Date for Me and the Boy!” you can find that HERE.)
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Tube Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
Kudos to you for volunteering Graham.
If your actions encourage one other person to do the same and so on, real change will eventually be effected.
You're a top bloke.
Now that sounds like a good school :) If there was one established a sensible distance I may have considered sending my mob there instead of homeschooling :D (maybe, more likely I would have just opted for a part time thing if at all and just to make the Department of Education happy as we quite enjoy homeschooling even if it is a real slog sometimes)
Hope you enjoy/ed hanging out with the kids and possibly teaching/facilitating stuff :D
Cheers. I hear ya. Doing things outside of the box isn't easy in a society that's no longer suited to other folks in "the village" living and working together and helping out with the kids.
Thanks for the kind words/wishes.
great social work in fact we need more of social enterprenuer than startups
Real happy for you man! Tell me, though: do free school kids still punch you in the balls?! On a more serious note: can you only be a volunteer? No way they can employ you?
Haha. Not a ball-puncher in the lot. Actually I don't want to be employed by them! Once a month with these cool kids and young adults seems just right. Have realized more and more lately that it is time to come to terms with the fact that I am largely introverted. I gotta pick and choose my battles carefully. YouTube videos, a class here and there maybe, and some good nights out are about all I need!
Don't forget pulling daikon in that equation ;) Otherwise sounds about perfect!
That's amazing.
My husband and I were looking at schools in the area that aren't traditional indoctrination centers lol we found mostly high schools but no elementary schools that are alternative enough to teach in a better way.
We decided that if there are no elementary schools that are suitable for our future child's needs, then we will home school and then send that kid to one of those alternative free school style of high schools. They're private, but they center on learning, they have smaller classes, more one on one learning, and in sec 3 the kids have few hours of learning in class and go out and do various skills, learn new skills, out in the field to find what they want to do in life. Just a few hours of class work is much better than the current traditional system.
I think the kids in your care will have a lot of fun learning what you have to teach them.
Kudos to you and your husband. It's parents like you that will change the world.
I think your child will thank you for being so thoughtful, in the end, as well.
Cheers!
Thank you. We'll do our best.
steemiteducation! It is a good tag!
Rewards Pool Farmer Alert
He is leasing 30k SP from @minnowbooster then using that to VOTE Up his own 7 Day old comments on random posts at the last minute. Scroll his comments to around the 6 day mark or just go to https://steemd.com/@ryacha21; he has a lot of self love on his own old comments.
HE IS DOING IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER.. He is farming the pool.. If you could help it would be appreciated..
Learn more about this sack of monkey spunk here:
https://steemit.com/shitpost/@pawsdog/the-shit-post-diaries-1-17-18-4
Also kinda a dick move to use the actual good post of another person to post a comment for no other reason to come back and farm it later.
Post Author, @kafkanarchy84 I do apologize.. This dude makes no actual articles of his own so the only way to draw attention to what he is doing is to comment his comments. My sincerest apologies for cluttering up your blog, outing the abusive self voting behavior of @ryacha21
Looking forward to future updates. I've really enjoyed your ideas on education so far and hope to incorporate some of what you've taught me into being able to use to teach my son as well.
Thanks man. I'll be sure to keep 'em coming.
How has the head teacher reacted to your way of teaching? I am pretty sure this way is much more successful then the traditional way of just learning text book stuff for cloze texts exams (ok, I am not sure what 11 years learn but as far as I know high school is just about this to get you pass the entrance examination at universities, which also are cloze texts).
This school is pretty much based on the same philosophy I have, so they are 100% cool with how I do things!
I really appreciate you for volunteering at free school and also taking time to share this exciting experience with us. Although gimmick or game may be exhausting, I think it is still a vital way to inculcate information into young kids. Infact Most of the Lessons I remembered as a kid in school , was through gimmick or game. So I think game or gimmick still play a vital role in kids learning.
this pic is
in this post.@kafkanarchy84