Dan Spiegel author of Brainstorm- Notes from his talk at Spirit Rock

Optimizing the Essence of Adolescence

Dan Siegel is a pioneer in the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology, a term he coined to describe the interdisciplinary study combining psychology, sociology, biology, neuroscience, anthropology and other fields in order to understand the mind, especially with regard to brain development as explained by science and shaped by interpersonal relationships.

I caught Dr Siegal speaking at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center this weekend and while I was only able to stay for the first half of the talk I took away some inspiring ideas as related to Discovering the Hidden Power & Purpose of the Adolescent Mind.

While a child’s brain operates like a sponge soaking up the world around, the adolescent brain has at it’s central pursuit a process Siegel compares to remodeling a house.  And like most remodeling projects, this one can be kind of messy.  “Pruning” and “Myelination” are two of the central activities going on as the adolescent brain rewires it's in “use-it-or-lose-it” brain changing process.  Pruning refers to the loss of synaptic connections and Myelination is the strengthening of others allowing nerve cells are able to more quickly transmit information allowing for more complex brain processes.  The teen brain goes through this intense remodeling and rewiring for the necessary purpose of preparing to leave home.  

During the tween and teen years, myelination occurs in the frontal lobe of the brain and impacts cognitive development.  Improved "executive functioning," planning, reasoning and decision-making skills result.¹

If you want to learn more about the myelination process as it relates to specialization and abilities, The Talent Code website has some nice visual models of the process as well as ideas for supporting the myelination process. 

It's not all upside.  It's true that...

Risk-taking and Novelty Seeking are Responses of the Developing Teen Brain

Part of the developing teen brain is the orientation towards seeking novelty and risk, which are a vital part of the process of becoming adults.  Teens have to go through this stage in order to learn how to take risks and to navigate the world outside of the safety of home.   The risk of the teen years according to Siegel has less to do with sex hormones as the cultural myth suggests and more to do with changes in the structure and functioning of our brain’s dopamine reward system.  Teens tend to be intellectually aware of risks but they put more weight on the exciting potential outcomes.  And because baseline dopamine levels are lower in adolescence while dopamine release amounts are higher adolescents seek experiences that secrete dopamine.^2,4

Three dangers the teen brain is more susceptible to are impulsiveness, vulnerability to addiction and hyperrationality.  If we are aware of the inclinations we can help protect adolescents and provide appropriate opportunities for risk-taking and novelty seeking that are have very positive applications.  Impulsiveness mitigated by self-awareness and reflection, or “cognitive control”.  

Addiction

Because teens are 1) impacted by peer pressure 2) more likely to experiment with new experiences AND 3) more prone to respond with a strong dopamine release which can become part of an addictive cycle the adolescent stage of life ^3,4

The reward systems and other areas of the subcortex such as those parts that process emotions, reach maturity relatively early (when people are in their early teens)⁶

Hyperrationality: Thinking in literal concrete terms.  examining just the fact of a situation and missing the big picture.  Creates the positive bias that is dominant during the teen years.

My husband suggests that the evolutionary motivation for rewiring with a strong response for dopamine rewards is related to increasing motivation to propogate.

Hyperrationalism

Another one is what I call hyper-rational thinking, and this is where, it’s not the reward circuit, but what are called the appraisal circuits that change. And these appraisal circuits, basically, are weighing the pros and cons of the decision. So this would be relevant for drug use in that you may have people who are making choices about things where it isn’t in their best interest. The appraisal system, the upside is that it says, these are the exciting things going on, and this is why I want to do this, this will be really fun. It over-emphasizes the positive aspects of a choice, and it de-emphasizes the negative aspects of a choice. The overall result is you kind of rationalize it, and that’s why I call it hyper-rational.⁴

Pruning process reveals vulnerability plus stress increases pruning plus lack of sleep.  Give practices to grow integrated fibres to strengthen brain and protect from the danger of risks like mental breaks,  depression, schizophrenia.

Preventable accidents
-appraisal system weighs pros and cons and in teen brain this evaluation is skewed.  Why? To create rites of passage which is needed for the larger process of preparing them to get out of the house.
-pushing against the adult world...creating a whole new world.
-(childhood is sponging up the world of adults)
-major innovations in art science music come from adolescents.  Let's rethink this and capitalize on the courage and creativity of youth.  Instead tell them the truth.  Ue companies are motivated to get you addicted for their own benefit
-help adolescent to create an internal compass (my gut says don't do it)...empower teens with resource of deep internal compass

What Can Be Done

internal education, the kind of internal sense of yourself, the likelier you are to be able to regulate, for example, your emotions and clarify your thinking.

Essence of changes of remodeling

E Emotional spark (irritable and life has more vitality..optimize spark)

SE Social engagement (vulnerable and gets you ready to leave home with alternative influences)

Novelty (dangerous,  can't just do same old thing

CE Creative Exploration (new, all innovation comes from adolescence but can feel disoriented and identity confusion)

Top 4 things to keep brain young are the same four things

Cultural change means accepting this for adolescents and ourselves!

Approach world challenges in a way that engages those four things and creativity snd courage of adolescents tge opportunity to find solutions to the biggest problems is there.  How can you participate in taking this possibility and changing the cultural conversation to make this change.

The Essential Take-Away

I would what I took away from the first half of the talk as follows:

Our cultural tells an inaccurate story about teens which has us, and our teens, think of the time period of adolescence (roughly defined as 12-24) as something to get through; a period of ranging hormones and impulsiveness.  If we change our perspective and understand that the brain during those years is in a complex process of remodeling for the explicit purpose of leaving home and becoming autonomous we could better support the process; mitigate the risks that also come with the territory; and take advantage of the courage and creativity that are the gifts of that stage of life.  Further, if we as adults use some of the same techniques for developing and enhancing the implicit benefits in our own brains, we’d would have that much more to contribute and be more in line with and synergistic with our teens ability to challenge and innovate and solve big problems.  Adolescence is not a stage to get over, it is stage to cultivate well in order to enhance the vitally important developmental changes which are crucial for the individual and our collective. 

1. http://tweenparenting.about.com/od/physicalemotionalgrowth/a/Definition-of-Myelination.htm
2. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/dopamine-and-teenage-logic/282895/

3. http://www.rightstep.com/teens/teen-drug-addiction/why-adolescents-are-the-most-vulnerable-to-substance-abuse-and-addiction/

4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/teen-brain-addiction-vulnerable_n_4638723.html  

5. http://www.brainfacts.org/across-the-lifespan/youth-and-aging/articles/2011/teen-brain-vulnerability-exposed/

6. http://www.newstatesman.com/science/2013/10/hard-evidence-teenage-brain-wired-addiction

Program Ideas for 14-17 year old self-directed learners?

Earlier this year, I wrote a post called My Current High School Independent Learning Crisis because that's what happens occasionally when loving, highly-involved parents have kids .  We're even more susceptible when we've accepted 100% responsibility for not just the basic necessity offerings, but also the responsibility for our kids' entire set of life and educational needs.  We are simply going to freak out every once in a while! Or every few months!  That was April; this is November.

Seriously, I'm kind of joking and kind of not.  The teen/high school years are a time of so much change not only in said kid's body and mind but also in terms of ME and my relationship with him.  I am learning how to parent all over; navigating the treacherous seas of guidance, navigation and letting go (while wanting both to do so AND to hold on for dear life).  I'm never really sure how much is too much or too little of each at any given time.  It's an ongoing frenzied, emotional dance of sorts.

SO, today I woke up realizing that:

1) As far as we've gone from the norm of education, we could afford to amp it up a notch further.  It might be time to get rid of the remaining threads of school-at-home and step one step further outside of the box.

2) Metaphorically, he's about where I was in my second year of University.  I realized then that I was taking content based classes but didn't know what I wanted to say once I had the skills I was being taught.  That's when I left and probably why I never went back.  And that's why I'm preparing myself to "toss" him out into the right real world situation (if I can find the right one).  Toss, you say?  Isn't it his job to rebel/leave; isn't that the way he will define himself.  Yes, and "at some point".  Right now, I'm a scaffolder.  I see it as my job to understand (with his help wherever possible) what he needs and help him get there.  I haven't yet pushed him in the proverbial pool to learn to swim but if I though it was the right thing, I might.

3) I care more about him caring about something than I do about the content in his knowledge base or even (and this might be new for me) his skill-set.  The reality is that once he knows why he wants to write, do math, explore science, then it will be easy for him to apply.  The missing link at almost 15 is self-awareness, self-advocacy and love/passion.

SO, given that he's far younger than I was at this stage of development...and I because I do still have the responsibility of scaffolding support, I'm looking for possible opportunities to expose him to the following:

1) communities of young people who are coming together to change the world in some positive way (even if that means starting with themselves).  The bottom line here is intentionality.
2) programs which support that change and last between 1 and 6 months (ie. not a full-time-give-us-your-kid-til-college kind of program)
3) leaders and leadership skills training for 14-17 year olds (ish)

Here are some of the possibilities that come to mind off the top of my head.  Do you have personal experience with any of these or have other suggestions?

Outward Bound  is more than just an outdoor camp. It is more than a wilderness adventure. Outward Bound has been changing lives through challenge and discovery for more than 50 years by using the wilderness as a classroom to provide unparalleled opportunities for discovery, personal growth, self-reliance, teamwork and compassion.  (NOTE: OB has been around for ages. I have no personal or anecdotal insight.  Expensive?)

National Teen Leadership Program is committed to create positive environments that empower, inspire and educate all teens to discover and maximize their unique leadership potential and embrace the diversity and equal value of everyone.  The focus during the 3 day summer program (in Sacramento or Southern California) is on the positive and on channeling the energy and enthusiasm already inherent in our youth to help them acquire focus and a vision for their future. The program challenges and empowers today’s youth by providing them with the skills and motivation necessary to positively impact their own lives and the lives of those in their communities.

Anake Outdoor School features 9 months of in-depth training in nature awareness and wilderness survival skills.  Participants develop a deep and intimate relationship with the natural world grounded in a powerful, community-oriented philosophy of learning. Your year is informed by the legacy of indigenous cultures from around the world. Each experience is crafted around a cutting-edge understanding of our natural heritage as human beings.

Unschool Adventures with Blake Boles offers a month long writing retreat.  (NOTE: I have a young friend who just returned from this years retreat.  She said it was life-changing in terms of the friends she made.)

The Woolman Semester School (Nevada City, CA) is a progressive academic school for young people who want to make a difference in the world.  Students in their junior, senior, or gap year come for a "semester away" to take charge of their education and study the issues that matter most to them.  Woolman students earn transferable high school credits while taking an active role in their learning experience through community work, organic gardening and cooking, permaculture, art, wilderness exploration, service work, and by doing advocacy and activism work with real issues of peace, justice and sustainability in the world.

Conserve School (Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin) inspires young people, primarily high school juniors, to environmental stewardship through academics and engagement with the forests, lakes, and wildlife of Lowenwood.  Each Conserve School semester immerses students in environmental history, nature literature, and the science of conservation. Innovative hands-on courses capture students’ imaginations while making the most of Conserve School’s 1200-acre wilderness campus. The school’s strikingly beautiful Northwoods location sets the stage for an exceptional educational experience; at Conserve School, forests, lakes, and wildlife become students’ inspiration, their course materials, and their laboratory. At the same time, Conserve School’s program advances students’ skills in standard high school subjects.

Sea Education Association is an internationally recognized leader in undergraduate ocean education which also offers Seascape a 3-week summer high school level oceanography program. For 40 years and more than one million nautical miles, we have educated students about the world’s oceans through our fully accredited study abroad program, SEA Semester. SEA is based on Cape Cod in the oceanographic research community of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. (NOTE: The High School program sails from SF on the same tall ship a friend, Christa C. sailed in the Gyre, with shore studies on Catalina Island.)

The Experiment in International Living has been offering extraordinary immersive cross-cultural summer exchanges, fun and thought-provoking adventures, and experiential learning programs since 1932. Today, The Experiment offers three-, four-, and five-week summer programs for high school students in more than 20 countries around the world.

Summer Programs

SPARC is a how-to-be-awesome camp for extremely bright high school students, focussing on math, psychology, programming, statistics, and general personal effectiveness. CFAR (the parent organization, http://rationality.org/) normally charges $4k for 4 days of training, but SPARC is free for high-school-aged students, so it's a great opportunity for any interested young people. SPARC has typically only admitted folks scoring in the top 50 in the US on mathematics competitions, but is now open to admitting a more diverse group, provided the applicants are sufficiently awesome. 

Thanks for your ideas!  -Lisa

Addendum:

http://projectworldschool.com/

----

PS.  Please note that there are so many amazing opportunities for self-directed learners 18+ but that's another story.  Look for an upcoming piece highlighting:

Trailblazers

Watson University

Uncollege

The Millenial Train Project

The Thiel Fellowship

"Homeschooling" is a Misnomer

May 4, 2013

Even as homeschooling becomes increasingly common and public awareness of the practice is growing, an ever increasing number of people I know are looking for different words to describe what we do.

School-at-Home: Ideal Picture or Nightmare Image?

After all, for many of us "homeschooling" is a total misnomer.  Sure, there are people who do the stereotypical School-At-Home-sitting-at-the-kitchen-table-with-a-math-textbook, but most of the people I know who have chosen to take their kids out of school do not recreate School-at-Home.  Why would we?  We've gone another route for good reason.

Hell, many of us are not even home very often. Instead we spend our time out in the world, at museums, playing and learning with friends, supporting mentorships for ourselves, our families or our children, learning through travel, creating things at Maker-spaces, volunteering...the list goes on...and on.

And some critics of homeschooling, thinking that school-at-home is the work of over-bearing helicopter parents, might imagine it more like this:

These days many people I know are increasingly using alternative terminology like Independent Learners (my personal favorite), Autodidacts, Custom-Schoolers, Custom-Learners, Unschoolers or Free-Range families.

My Fave Life Hacking Tools and Apps

An ever-evolving list...

Education

Way too many to name but here are a few:

Coursera
A social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.

Udacity
Invent your future through free, interactive online classes.  Offers accessible, affordable, engaging classes that anyone can take, anytime. 

Degreed
The new degree for the new world.  Degreed is a free service that scores and validates your lifelong education from accredited and informal sources.  

Pathbrite
Collect, organize and share a lifetime of learning and achievement.

CodeAcademy
Learn to Code Interactively for Free

Ted 
Ideas Worth Spreading; Riveting Talks by Remarkable people, Free to the World

TedX
Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. 

TedEd
Lessons Worth Sharing around Youtube Videos

Rosetta Stone online
I think Rosetta Stone is really an excellent language approach for supplementation of conversational french (we use online tutors).

Busuu
A language learning tutorial website available for free.

Babbel
Subscription based alternative to Rosetta Stone. 

Italki
italki brings you everything you need to become fluent in another language. Get speaking practice, find an online language teacher, get help on writing, ask questions, and make friends around the world.

Duolingo
So far Duolingo is the winner for me in the free language app space.  I love that it's gamified, social, community-support oriented.  Caveat: One does come across some funny phrases sometimes, such as "I like eating pepper" but perhaps that adds to the fun...  From their website, here's an explanation on how it can be free which I love for the savvy synergy:

"Here’s how it works: Somebody who needs a webpage translated uploads it to Duolingo. That document then gets presented to Duolingo students who can translate it in order to practice the language they are learning. When the document is fully translated, Duolingo returns it to the original content owner who, depending on the type of document they uploaded, pays for the translation."

LearningJar
An opportunity for lifelong learners everywhere to build skills and advance their careers by capturing and curating informal learning.

Teacherspayteachers
An open marketplace for educators where teachers buy, sell and share original teaching resources.


Hippocampus
Teaching with the power of digital media. Designed as part of Open Education Resources, a worldwide effort to improve access to quality education for everyone. 

Learner.org
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum

KnowIt

A place to create online portfolios to highlight and track what you know.

So many more and changing all the time.  

Effectiveness and Time Management

Reqall
I like this app a lot.  Freemium model.  Because I have the Pro version ($24.99 per year) it integrates with Google Calendar and Evernote and allows me to capture To Do items I remember while driving by voice recognition with "eye's-free" one touch.

Letter Me Later

Allows user to send emails schedule for a future date and time. Free.

Fancy Hands
This is a virtual assistant service that I'm so far enjoying.  It's good for tasks which can be delegated easily with a fast email but will save you time.  (eg. place order for catered food, arrange meetings, research etc).  Various levels of monthly fee.  (Full disclosure: if you use my link above, you get 50% off the first month and I believe I get a $5 credit.)

Lift
I've been a fan (and sometimes user) of 10 Daily Habits since I started my Coach training at CoachU in 2000.  I've used paper and more often spreadsheets but I just got turned onto this simple, effective and share-oriented app and am finding it a nice addition to the process.

Other Self-Tracking and Quantified Self

Cronometer

Web or computer app which allows for the tracking of food and evaluation by composition.  I'm currently using it to help me achieve a 6:3:1 fat:protein:carb food ratio.  I'm testing the hypothesis that a higher fat diet will result in weight loss.  My focus is on increasing fat which I believe will naturally lead to ease of reducing carb intake. 

Withings Body Scale

The app goes part and parcel with the hardware but this is one of the best ones due to the ease of tracking.  I love it!  I've previously been a hater of scales but this one softens the emotional impact.  I did a QS talk on how the Withings scale and app worked for me as a result.

Fitbit

Another hardware/app combo deal.  I only use this to track steps.  I aim for 10,000 per day with a bare minimum of 4K per day.

Zeo Sleep Manager

More hardware!  This one is the best I know for learning about sleep.  It has amazing accuracy and seems to be able to tell through EGG when you're awake.  Postscript: R.I.P. Zeo it was nice knowing you!

Runkeeper

Love this app for the times when I'm running or walking outdoors.  It let's me use a GPS to see where I've been.  It's also a nice place to track indoor activites (like my treadmill walking) and other activities.

The Future of Education

In the very near future learning at all levels (even higher ed) will be radically, irreversibly altered.  Huge changes will happen such that many people cannot yet even imagine, and it's going to be capital M, Messy!

Here's some of what I'm guessing:

1) Learning will be increasingly modularized.  We won't be dealing in degrees but rather fine grains of learning gathered from various sources.  Once the education bubble is fully deflated (and it will probably deflate rather than burst) more people will reject spending huge amounts of money on a prescribed set of courses, which often feature only a small handful of awesome learning facilitators (professors) along with a lot of mediocre teachers and learning opportunities.

2) Universities will be radically, unrecognizably altered.  Don't get me wrong; the few at the top won't be as effected...Stanford, Harvard and other upper echelon universities will remain unchanged for longer (unless they are very smart) .  I'm often in rooms where people love to argue about the future of B&M universities and whether or not they'll continue to exist.  The best line I've heard recently was "universities will exist like orchestras exist".  In other words there will be a few, elite, expensive, high quality examples but most of the population won't relate to or benefit from their existence.  The rest of them will be enormously altered.

3) Learning will be much more learner-empowered and autodidactic.

4) There will be many more learning path options and the current "must-do" of university will no longer be regarded as the only way or even the best way.  There will be a flip in validity perception so autodidactism and self-directed learning at all levels will be more highly valued and rewarded.  EVEN by employers!  

5) The biggest change game in the edu space, the Holy Grail, so to speak, is the creation and establishment of an alternative credentialing system.  Currently, the institutions have a firm grasp on their remaining "brass ring", the degree.  They won't let go easily but it will be forced out of their hands.  This is the opinion where I get the most push-back; SO many people can't believe this could ever change but I'm very confident that it will and I think it's going to happen sooner than people think.  I've been advising start-ups in the edu space and I know many people who are working on alternative signaling systems.  It's a huge problem but once it's solved in a way that allows for adoption, and once more and more people decide to consider competence over signals, much will change.

Basically, the old system had a stronghold on three primary spokes: content, community, credentialing.  Tech innovation has made content and community creation much more widely accessible!  Once the last remaining leg is replaced, so much will change incredibly quickly.  So, from a futurist perspective I'm pretty convinced that a university degree won't be nearly as important as it has been in the past, or even as important as it currently remains.  On a personal level, my goal is to give my kids the meta-skills that I believe are necessary for university success because they are the same skills that will serve them should they choose to go a more independent route.  And in the meantime, I'm doing what I can to make sure there's a lot more choice in the matter.

Reconstructing Learning

Education is seriously broken!  The system is failing on at least three counts: efficacy, cost and access.   

Institutionalized learning is ineffective.  Schools as rule don't work well because of the behaviorist top-down model they are historically borne from.  Learners come with different learning styles, needs and interests; schools simply can't individualize due to the numbers of students in the room.  And schools don't allow students to move; Instead ADHD diagnoses are widespread.  Our current systems do not teach kids the complex application of knowledge or the solving of hard problems.  Standardized testing keeps institutions focused on lower level skills at the cost of higher order thinking skills.

Institutionalized learning costs too much.  Young people are being sold a false bill of goods by the big business that is Higher Ed.  The story goes that a degree guarantees success in the form of jobs and higher wages.  But the reality is that half of current graduates are jobless or underemployed.  And student debt averages $24,000 per student and at a whopping $900 billion, is currently higher than credit card debt in America.  According to research by the Federal Reserve Bank, almost 2 million people 60 years or older are still paying student loans.  No wonder Peter Thiel rightly names Higher Ed a "bubble".  

Education is not globally accessible.  In spite of huge technological advances, access to learning is shockingly distant from universally available because our thinking on learning still needs a redesign.  We're stuck in the idea of "school" and missing the increasing opportunities to learn for free, from anywhere.  

I predict that all this will change.  And while I felt alone in this belief for some years, a tipping point is coming.  Fast!

The Future of Learning as I envision it:

Teachers and professors will be less important than facilitators, coaches and mentors. The line between learners and teachers will blur, taking advantage of the fact that the best way to learn to is teach and most good teachers are effective learners; they have to be to keep up with what needs to be taught. 

There will be less separation between academia and the real world.  And hopefully a greater blend of work, learning and life.

Learning will be increasingly self-directed.  Learners will design their own educational environments, experiences and projects.  Self-designed assignments and constructivist learning goals will rule.

Learning will be modularized.  Learners will select courses or even more granular forms of learning to fulfill their personal goals rather than stressing over acceptance into an entire (oh, and did I mention, costly?) program.  They will choose based on quality of the offering, personal interest and relevance to their own long-term plans.  

In collective learning environments, screen time will increase.  Students can absorb content and utilized inexpensive differentiated instruction on their own time.  Mentors and facilitators will be able to use their precious time for targeted, personalized and effective coaching, facilitating and customization.  Screen accessible content and differentiated instruction will also increase access to content for students who remain outside of institutions by choice or lack of opportunity. 

    

Meta-learning skills will be increasingly important for learning and re-learning as the world continues on a path of exponential change.  Successful people will be those who have learned the skills to take responsibility for their own learning, including effective time management, parsing of data, goal design, time management and content curation as well as effective communication skills and social-emotional efficacy.  Equally important will be the skills of creating and utilizing communities and self-advocacy and expression.

Learning will be cheap and efficient, effective and creative.  It will have to be.  The cream rises to the top and the rest will go away.

  

Technology will make physical presence an option.  Brick-and-mortar learning spaces will exist as an exciting opportunity not an obligational seat-time experience.  Learners will access both to varying degrees depending upon their interests, goals and learning inclinations.

Private sector changes will lead the way.  Entrepreneurs and tech innovators, realizing that there's a huge market for supplemental and direct-to-consumer learning, will provide improved solutions which will in turn force reform in slower-to-change institutions.  Direct-to-consumer learning will be more common than mediated education.  

Learning will be for life.  From cradle to grave.  24/7.  

Crowd-sourced content will be king.  We ain't seen nothin' yet.  

  

Credentials will be replaced by alternative signaling systems, which will undermine the institutional monopoly on credentialing.  Degrees will be replaced by an emphasis on competence and experience.  More hiring will be done on the basis of competence, skills or other desirable traits, following in the example of Atari, which founder Nolan Bushnell says hired for enthusiasm.

Why do I believe change this radical is possible?  Because as an autodidact, homeschoolingparent, co-founder of a learning community of 1000+ Independent Learners of all ages and director of DisruptED, I've already seen most of it in action.  The large and growing population of independent learners, custom-schoolers, travel-schoolers, homeschoolers and unschoolers who have chosen to create alternative learning opportunities for themselves and their families are successful case studies.  We've broken down barriers and as a collective, we know that learning outside of institutions is not only possible, but very often more effective, financially within reach and increasingly accessible.  

So why not apply some of what Independent Learners already know to Higher Ed?  It's a very small leap!

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/02/opinion/vedder-college-costs/index.html

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/student-loan-debt-hell-21-statistics-that-will-make-you-think-twice-about-going-to-college

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-05-14/news/fl-near-retirement-student-loans-20120511_1_student-borrowers-college-loans-student-loans

http://moneyland.time.com/2012/04/03/60-and-still-not-out-of-student-loan-debt-seniors-facing-36-billion-in-college-loans/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/senior-citizens-continue-to-bear-burden-of-student-loans/2012/04/01/gIQAs47lpS_story.html

http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2012/03/grading-student-loans.html

My Journey to Independent Learning

I've been passionate about changing education since just-about-forever.  I remember a burning desire, at 4 years old, to go to school thinking of all that I would learn and the follow-on disappointment when faced with the reality of kindergarten.  I kept waiting for the learning to begin.  Eight years of elementary school, five years of high school (I'm Canadian; we went through Grade 13) and two years of university later --and, apart from a couple of stellar teachers-- in my early 20's I had the nagging feeling that, even though this was all I knew, this was not all there was.  Something important was missing!

But I couldn't place my finger on what it was.

So, I left university and became an actor.  Part of the thrill of acting for me was the self-development, the personal study, the curriculum of self.  For the first time in my life, I planned my time around my goal to be both a good actor and, equally important, a working actor.  I took scene study classes, on camera classes, did vocal work and dance; I saw plays and movies.  I also explored and implemented marketing strategies and learned tenacity and self-confidence in the face of rejection.  I did therapy (yay, universal health-care) which gave me insight into my psyche and the emotional experience of people around me.  I went to the gym.  I did all kinds of personal growth experiences in order to understand the human experience and to live an intentional and self-actualized life.  Everything was related and I got to design it all around my acting goals.  

But eventually I left acting because I realized that in spite of being lucky enough to have a ten-year working career, the business couldn't fulfill some of my deeper desires.  While I'd created the process to be meaningful, deep and rich, the content just wasn't (I worked mostly in TV and film...which was fun and exciting but not very meaningful; nor was it rich in personal autonomy, something I found I craved more and more.

Fascinated with personal mastery, I became a coach.  My passion was helping people align their work with their best selves.  I helped my clients design their lives and their businesses in a way that reflected who they were and what they loved.  I helped them see their light and the unique perspective that was theirs.  Frankly, I was amazed to discover how many people didn't realize in a deep way that they were valid, that their desires mattered, that they could create businesses, let alone lives, in ways that fit them best.

Then I became a mother and my frustration with education and my passion for self-designed living was seen through a more vivid lens.

Of the many books I'd read to that point in time, two were particularly memorable in that they introduced me to the idea that perhaps my yet unborn child might have other options available to him/her than those I had, should Joe and I choose to go the road less traveled.

One was, The Day I Became An Autodidact by 15 year old Kendall Hailey.  This is Hailey's intelligent, funny and charming recollection of the year she left school in order to read the classics and write and learn on her own terms.  I finally had a name for the way I knew I learned best, by my own design!

Then there was a book I've never been able to re-find, which I read in one sitting while at a party with my parents, about a family with three kids who left their everyday lives for a year to travel.  At the time, it was a bit of a revelation albeit one that seemed so obvious after the fact; why not skip school to travel the world since traveling had always been one of the most amazing eye-opening growth experiences of my own life?

When our son was born my resolve became stronger to create a different learning experience for him than I had had myself.  I imagined meeting his individual needs and sustaining and nurturing his love of learning.  I felt sure that was not going to happen in school since it was clear when he taught himself to read before the age of three that he would probably not meet the typical developmental landmarks on schedule.  

Soon after research and exploration, we discovered homeschooling* and gravitated to it immediately.  We joined the local homeschooling group in San Francisco, where we then lived, and apart from a three-year attempt an expensive private school** have been homeschoolers in spirit ever since.  

* I use the word "homeschool" because it's a catch-all that many people know but I think it's a misnomer since most of the Independent Learning families I know aren't "home" all that much and because what many of us do is so different and more involved than simply recreating "school" at home.  


** The school was very good for a school but far too expensive to justify for us and not customized enough to meet my vision of enlivened learning.  

To Learn or Not to Learn (a Second Language)

Recently when I announced my intent to have my kids learn a second language (French, since it’s the only language I know myself, beside American Sign Language), Joe expressed 1) concern about it conflicting with Kaizen’s recent study of Latin and 2) the usefulness of language learning compared with all of the other ways our kids might spend their time. He referred to some research, which supports the theory that there is no marked benefit to learning language as a child. My first reaction was complete disbelief and denial. So I figured I’d better look into it more deeply.

So, as far I can grok it, the seeming “opposing” theory goes something like this: Whatever benefit a young child receives from early language acquisition is at least, if not more than, made up for by an older persons more mature learning strategies and other skills.

Here are some nuggets from my preliminary research, exploring the current thinking on SLA (Second Language Acquisition). It is far from conclusive and not specifically organized, but in my opinion cursory exploration suggests to me that, while there are certainly contradictory opinions, there is good reason to utilize Pascal’s wager and bet that we have little to lose by embarking on French and potentially lots to gain. In the case, of Soleil I would extend that to say that we have 4-6 years of prime language learning to lose.

As far as I can tell, based on my looking for support for deciding not to teach a second language, here’s the closest point I could find:

University of Maryland, College Park instructor Robert DeKeyser (mentioned above) does in fact note that adults learn language differently from the way children do, and states that they are capable of learning it fluently. His primary point seems to be that for a person to learn a second language after the “critical period” s/he will have to employ different strategies.

However, nowhere could I find any research denying the fact that that there is period after which learning a second language is more difficult.

“Robert DeKeyser works with critical period theory to understand how cognitive development affects SLA. While people often assume that there is a “tipping point” in early childhood after which learning a second language is a real struggle, language-learning cognition is more complicated. After a “critical period,” typically near adolescence, the brain functions differently while acquiring a new language. Before this critical period, the brain learns a second language much like it learns the first language; after this critical period, the brain works differently. […] DeKeyser’s work considers learner aptitude in adult language learners. He has shown that, contrary to popular and some scholarly opinions, adults can obtain syntactic fluency in a second language. The process is just different from natural language acquisition, so instruction should be different too."

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Linguist Eric Lennegerg’s 1964 theory of Critical Period Hypothesis, which believes that a critical period of language acquisition ends around the age of 12, has been called into question. Lennegerg and Chomsky are proponents of the Nativist Theory of Language development, which supports the idea that children have a hard-wired “Language Acquisition Device”. Robert DeKeyser, and others, have tried to update the hypothesis by arguing that due to the role of language aptitude, adults can learn a second language perfectly at least syntactically, despite this critical period (see below).

“A more up-to-date view of the Critical Period Hypothesis is represented by the University of Maryland, College Park instructor Robert DeKeyser. DeKeyser argues that although it is true that there is a critical period, this does not mean that adults cannot learn a second language perfectly, at least on the syntactic level. DeKeyser talks about the role of language aptitude as opposed to the critical period.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition#Critical_period_hypothesis\

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Here is an url to an interview with Professor Laura-Ann Petitto, a cognitive neuroscientist teaching at Dartmouth College, where she also serves as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory for Language & Child Development in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, and as a Professor in the Department of Education:

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/oela/summit/Petitto.htm

My primary take-aways are:

1) Exposure to multiple languages (at least in very young children) does NOT result in language acquisition delays or confusion.

"Through a series of studies over a period of ten years, we mapped out the milestones for young children acquiring two languages -- and were quite surprised to find that they are not delayed at all. In fact, a child who's exposed early in life to two languages achieves each and every milestone on the same timetable as the other language -- and also on the same overall timetable as a monolingual child."

2) Early language exposure (as late as aged nine, at least has a positive impact on multi-language mastery.

“In accordance with brain development and neuroplasticity, children who were exposed to two languages early in life do extremely well in reaching full language mastery in two languages. […] Even when children were relatively late exposed to the second language, [as late as nine years old] they were highly likely to become fully bilingual - whether it was home or community exposure.”

Note: One caveat on the above seems to be that the exposure must be systematic and very rich.

3) There are benefits to early dual language learning, including cognitive advancement.

"[There is value in…] dual language exposure. We're finding that young children who have rich and early exposure to two languages are remarkably -- and this is quite an exciting finding - cognitively more advanced than their monolingual peers on certain highly sophisticated cognitive tasks to do with attention and abstract reasoning. And we think it's because they are switching languages and have access to multiple meanings, have part of their brain massaged like a muscle. Then there's the spillover of that amazing honing of their linguistic abilities, making them more cognitively advanced. […] So we're finding even how the brain neurally organizes the brain for language is impacted based on the age the child is exposed, and earlier is better. When I speak today, I wonder how many people in the room were exposed to another language in high school, and what percentage of them can raise their hands and tell me that they're totally fluent in that language? The reason we're not going to have a lot of people raise their hand is because their brain reached certain periods of maturational development after which they were not going to learn it with the agility and openness that they would have as a child. It's not just a social/attitudinal thing. It's really how the brain's wired. When you learn languages later, after these distinct periods of brain growth, then you're learning it in a different way."

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Below are some quotes taken from a paper exploring the Optimal Starting Age for a Second Language (in this case, ESL taught to Hong Kong school children).

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:nIMPz7xEk2QJ:sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/48/4800014.pdf+optimal+age+for+language+acquisition&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a

I consider this paper to be reasonably unbiased and note that it presents the complexity of current viewpoints. One can probably find some support for the viewpoint that language acquisition is not markedly hindered by age, in this article, but here are the points of interest and note, for me:

1) There are certainly many researchers who believe language acquisition facility declines with age.

“It is popular belief that young children have a special aptitude for learning foreign languages and that this aptitude declines with age. Chomsky (1959, dp. 49) spoke of the gift of the young learner: " It is a common observation that a young child of immigrant parents may learn a second language in the streets, from other children, with amazing rapidity . . . while the subtleties that become second nature to the child may elude his parents despite high motivation and continued practice."

2) L2 language learning does not hinder L1 language learning (academic orientation); In fact, language learning in one language actually benefits both languages and in particular, language acquisition skills.

"[…Spending time learning in one language does not slow down the development of language proficiency in another language, at least not that aspect of proficiency which is related to success in school . Or to put it another way, spending time learning in one language benefits both languages equally with respect to developing those language related skills essential to academic success. Furthermore, some writers have noted the positive role that LI experience plays in L2 learning, particularly in relation to the learner's overall ability to approach language learning. As Singleton puts it, "the beginning second language learner is more mature than the beginning first language learner not only physically, mentally and emotionally, but also linguistically.”

3) There are some (unspecified, here) advantages to learning a second language early (according to this article “early” is before age 9).

“Having extensively reviewed the studies concerned with age-related differences in second language acquisition, Singleton concludes that "the best one can say on this score is that, given the right learning conditions, learners exposed to early second language instruction probably have some advantage in the very long run over those whose exposure begins later" (Singleton 1989, p. 267)

4) There is no proven advantage to learning later than age nine, nor are there proven disadvantages to learning early.

"Research in SLA has not confirmed a phenomenal advantage for the older learner. Studies on early bilingualism and early immersion have not shown any negative effects (e.g . on Ll development) either."

Key Sources:

Chomsky, N . (1959). Review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behaviour.
Language, 35, 26-58.

Singleton, D. (1989). Language acquisition: The age factor.
Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.


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Here is the link to a summary of the book, An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research (1991), the intent of which is to introduce readers to second language acquisition (SLA) research.

http://tesl-ej.org/ej03/r18.html

Of note:

"Chapter 6 addresses individual learner variables and differential L2 achievement. The issue of age and SLA is extensively treated, and the conclusions uphold the sensitive age hypothesis, supporting the idea that "younger is better" for optimal L2 study and acquisition."