Articles

A purely self-taught curriculum would have no interaction. It would be a student sitting at a desk or carrel, reading printed materials. The next step up would be a student not with printed materials, but with a computer connected to the Web. The third step up is the “The Good Curriculum”: a … [Read more...] about What Is a Self-Taught Curriculum

A student who goes through this curriculum, kindergarten through high school, will be well equipped to commence his or her career or for advanced studies. There is no other curriculum on the Web to match it. It does not assign textbooks. This saves families a lot of money. Textbooks cost a great … [Read more...] about A Curriculum Like No Other

Age-grading was imported from Prussia in 1848. It was first implemented in Boston, in the Quincy Grammar School. It was a cost-cutting device. It was also imposed to let teachers reduce discipline problems. The rural “little red schoolhouse” did not adopt this model. There, students of all ages … [Read more...] about Age-Grading Is a Bad Idea

There are not a lot of ways to learn in a school setting. Here are the main ways. First, read. Most people read at 250 words per minute. Some gifted people read at 1,000 words per minute or higher. But we forget most of it within a day. We can mark up a book. We can take notes on paper. But this … [Read more...] about How We Learn

Any school program that relies on true/false and multiple-choice questions and answers is basically useless for students and parents who want to assess student progress. It is great for teachers: machine grading. It is part of dumbed-down, high-priced classroom education. Fill-in-the-blank exams … [Read more...] about Weekly Writing Assignments