Children begin learning about the world from the moment they are born. The first months and years are filled with an astounding amount of information assimilation. This learning is certainly assisted by the parents of the child, but for the most part it is directed by the child himself through an innate sense of what he needs to know to become a functioning human being.

This innate sense of direction and need to know learning is one of the first things destroyed by the public school system. There is little time for the natural curiosity of a child in a crowded classroom where the focus must remain on the subject being taught.

One way that the educational system has tried to address this issue is with Project Based Learning. This type of agenda allows the student to do actual hands on projects that involves him in the educational process. This is a good thing, but it needs to be taken a step further than it normally goes. Instead of structured, teacher planned, supervised, and graded projects, there is a need for a more student focused approach to this concept. This includes a need for less of the structure involved in this type of learning.

In a normal educational setting, a classroom with rows of desks and a teacher in the front, there is a need for structure to maintain the order needed to accomplish the established educational goals. There are fortunately more designs to be followed for the educational process, designs in which the child can become more important and more central in guiding the process.

A virtual classroom is one in which education is not confined to a limited space confined by four walls. In a virtual classroom, the world is available for the students to explore by making their own choices about what it is important to learn. Child-Directed Project Based Learning allows the student to decide what he needs to know to work toward goals that are important to him.

Project based learning is hands-on, real world experience that is invaluable for children from kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is a method that has been proven to help students have a better understanding of what they have learned and to retain the information. It also increases a student’s ability to apply what he has learned and engages the student in the learning experience. Students get excited about projects and this motivates them to study and learn the information that is needed to complete the project.

The objectives of project based learning is to allow students to discover how things work in the real world and also to discover their own inner strengths. For example, a student can learn facts about entrepreneurship and he will have an academic understanding of the subject, but if that same student completes a project in which he starts and manages his own business, then he has real life skills that he can carry with him and use in his adult life. This is not to say that the facts aren’t important. Having an understanding of a subject is significant and our students will be given these facts before being asked to complete projects or be directed to where they can find the information as it is needed.

Project based learning is defined by the Buck Institute of Education as:

“…a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.”

There is no real limit to the possible projects and the potential learning for this type of program. Any subject in the curriculum offers vast opportunities for allowing students to be in control of their learning and take it to new levels of understanding and relevance.

Project based learning will enhance our Life Skills curriculum which includes a variety of important subjects that are designed to prepare students for life in the real world. Read about the Life Skills curriculum here.

One concern that people have had with children receiving their education at home has been socialization. This concern has been researched and found to be uncalled for. Research shows that children who are schooled at home are usually more socialized than those that receive a public school education. Click here to read about home schooling and socialization. Project based learning allows students many opportunities to interact with their peers and members of the community. There are organizations that allow students to join together and share activities such as band, choir, and academic and athletic events.

Volunteerism is an important part character development in children. Project based learning will help to encourage students to reach out to others in their community and lend a helping hand. Through projects such as reading to the elderly and mentoring younger and less advantaged children, students will learn the value of helping others. Character development is an important part of our curriculum and is taught at every grade level from kindergarten through 12th grade. Projects that support and give life to the principles taught will help the students integrate those principles into their lives and make it much more likely that they will act upon these principles as adults. The time for large groups of children sitting in rows listening, writing, and reading to attain knowledge has passed. It is a broken system that has created a broken society. The time for an innovative, hands-on approach to learning is here. We must teach children what they really need to know in ways that they can relate to and therefore carry the knowledge with them into their adult lives.