Self Design?

We are almost finished our first year of Self Design with the Kindergarten program which was truly an amazing experience.

So what is the Self Design program all about? Their website says it all...

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uch of what goes on in schools is about their need to organize and make the teaching process as efficient as possible. In SelfDesign we focus on individuals enthusiastically learning what they are interested in and in allowing each child to generate his/her own curriculum based on interests and efforts. Overall, we do not conform to many common schooling conventions, believing them to be poorly matched to the natural learning proclivities and neurobiological attributes of all children.

SelfDesign learners are not put in classrooms. They are free to learn whatever they want to learn. Our job as parents and learning consultants is to keep good records on what is being learned so that we can demonstrate equivalency and therefore accountability for money invested in learning.

We do not test our learners in the k-9 program. In school one of the ways teachers can find out if a student is paying attention is to give exams and tests that illustrate at least that the child remembers the facts that are being taught. In SelfDesign we track the enthusiastic interests of each learner, therefore we are getting an accurate record of what they are 'attending to' - i.e. our 'attendance' is neurologically determined and not just a child in a seat. Every Ph.D. student engaged in the highest and global process of learning focuses on discussions with his or her committee, and we have designed our way of evaluating 'real' learning through our conversations between each learners committee - composed of (learner, parents, learning consultant and mentors).

In SelfDesign we do not grade our learners. In school classrooms teachers do not have time to individualize the learning of 30 learners and can not provide meaningful records of their learning so they need to grade the learners comparatively. In SelfDesign we have over 50 pages of observations tracking the learning of each learner annually.

We do not impose a curriculum on learners. Our program is not coerced by expectations or management processes that are external motivations derived by intimidations like failure or coercements like passing. We believe in the intrinsic value of understanding and engagement of learning as a rich, valuable and meaningful experience in itself. Even students in school who sit for years experiencing an imposed curriculum are not guaranteed to learn the curriculum. Many learners experiencing imposed curriculums learn in fact to hate or dislike the subject. Many learners leave school turned off most of the curriculums that have been imposed on them. Our learners in SelfDesign demonstrate learning based on interests and in our experience over many years learners who learn based on enthusiasm live life as an enthusiastic experience and are more likely to enjoy and continue learning about all subject areas.

Ensuring a successful future is more determined by ensuring a happy and meaningful present. A child living in enthusiasm learns to be enthusiastic. A child who does not enjoy or find meaningful or relevant the schooling experience but who learns to postpone their rights and interests to some future time ends up living for the future never to return to the present. In SelfDesign we appreciate that we can and only do live in the present and that the quality of living in the moment is a sacred trust to be sustained by parents and mentors for every learner.