Why Draw?

    

In almost all our courses, students are asked to draw idea they have, or that they have studied. The reason why we ask them to do this is that this makes the student create a physical representation of a concept, something tangible they can see that demonstrates the ideas they're mastering. Without this, and the exercises that are hands-on, study would be nothing but words. Many students need more than words.

When asked to draw, remember (unless you're doing animation) that these are not "art classes". We only want a physical representation of a concept. Stick figures and blobs are perfectly acceptable, so long as the requested idea is clearly there on the page.

     Steven Horwich
     Connect The Thoughts

 
 

What to Do with a Student Who is Deceitful About Doing (or Not Doing) Their Work

    

Ok, I've dealt with this one, too. I'll give you my best shot, here. And I am speaking here as both a parent and an educator, I'm afraid.

First, to directly answer your question, the student MUST RESTUDY (ACTUALLY STUDY) THE MATERIALS! The whole point is that we want the student to learn, preferably in as self-possessed and causative manner as possible. The student lied, he/she didn't actually do the work. How they passed any of our tests is a bit of a mystery, but duplicity can get really creative.

Quick advice: I know you're angry. Oh, boy, I understand. Put your anger in a box and close the lid. There may be a study problem your student is not willing to admit to, or something not understood which made her distrust the course, or herself/himself as a student. You're going to need to be extraordinarily patient and loving, and I suggest you call upon whatever reserves you have. (When confronted with the same situation, as I'll discuss, I was NOT very loving. I wish I had done better. I got angry and I yelled a blue streak. Not helpful.) Now is the time for real discussion. WHY did he/she do this? Only the student knows. You'll need to make it terribly safe to get the whole truth. There may be a problem you can help with that will resolve this and make certain it never occurs again, but if the student becomes afraid or defensive, you won't get far.

THE GOAL IS TO HANDLE THE PROBLEM EFFECTIVELY AND GET HER BACK TO STUDYING AND LEARNING AND WINNING, no matter what curriculum you're using!

To the harder points. My son did far worse, about 2 years ago. He pretended to study and did not FOR THREE MONTHS. It took me a while to figure out what was up, so I'm no brighter than anyone else when it comes to my own children. I insisted he MAKE UP THE DAMAGES. First, he was required to put in extra time...in this case, his summer vacation! He actually agreed (once he admitted what had been done) that he needed to do this, and he did it. On his own, he decided to GO BACK A WHOLE HISTORY COURSE AND REDO IT, to locate what he did not understand. This was not my idea or suggestion, and I was opposed to it. That said, he located a number of things he had not understood, which had made him distrust the course. He restudied, gained an understanding, and announced proudly (3 months after re-starting studies) that he was back to where I had thought he was in the studies. In other words, HE TOOK RESP0NSIBILITY FOR FIXING WHAT HE HAD DONE. That's all anyone can do, isn't it? (He's a great boy. His sense of integrity is powerful, and when he violates it, it doesn't last and it always comes up. I imagine yours are similar. If they truly didn't want to be caught, I'd wager they would not be caught.)

Frankly, I believe it only takes a FEW IDEAS OR WORDS MISUNDERSTOOD to send a student running for the hills. Granted, IT'S THE STUDENT'S RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE CERTAIN THEY DO THE WORK NECESSARY TO TRULY MASTER MATERIALS AND COURSES! But we very often do not know what we do not know. You might be reading something, hit a few words you THINK you understand, or that you can "provide" a definition for based on context, read on...and be utterly confused and lost two pages later. Happens all the time. Going back, finding words and concepts not fully understood, truly defining and understanding them, and then RESTUDYING forward from the point of confusion can repair a whole area of study a student has abandoned. (If you want to know more about this, or want some advice on study materials that will help with this sort of problem, write me and I’ll make a recommendation.

Bottom line, the student may need HELP LOCATING WHAT WAS NOT UNDERSTOOD, rather than a tongue lashing (or cat o' nine tails...).

My son also had lied to me repeatedly, and frankly, had to earn back my trust. He did this by helping out around the house, doing great schoolwork, being productive and helpful (without being propitiative, which is disgusting, I think) and generally demonstrating trustworthiness. It took a while, about 6 months, for him to win back my trust. I didn't make it easy, I'm afraid.

Another thing we did was initiate POLICY TO MAKE CERTAIN THIS NEVER HAPPENED AGAIN. For the year or more before this, I largely trusted him to do his studies honestly. I wasn't looking at many essays, etc. (I was pretty busy writing Connect The Thoughts , which is my lame excuse.) We created a policy where, once a week, I reviewed all his weekly work. This took the question out of "is he working"?

Trust is a dicey thing, under the best of circumstances. When it comes to education, remember that YOUR CHILDREN HAVE BEEN BETRAYED REPEATEDLY by rotten schools, boring and erroneous curricula, inept teachers and tutors, newspapers that lie, etc etc etc. We need to earn back our children's trust and respect. They need to know that we are doing everything we can to provide them an education they can USE, something real and valuable. That's hard today, and when you encounter a situation like this one, bear in mind that trust goes both ways.

Hope this helps.

     Steven Horwich
     Connect The Thoughts

 
 

Long Term Planning, Education, Schooling, College, and Connect The Thoughts

    

Janet asks all the right and hard questions. Here's the latest:

"Ok, I'm a long term planner. What happens next if my boys start the lower school courses at age 9 and finish at age 16? or 15? or even 14?"

ANSWER:

The Lower School Curriculum is not intended to go any longer than two years, whether the student completes the Lower School materials or not. Lower School materials are principally preparatory for Upper School , though they do educate, and intensely so. If someone were to do ALL of the curriculum (which NO ONE has yet done, by the way), they would do Lower School from say age 9-10. WHEN THEIR READING SKILLS ARRIVED AT A POINT WHERE THEY WERE ABLE TO READ AND EXECUTE UPPER SCHOOL MATERIALS, they would IMMEDIATELY move up, but probably not much before age 11, as these are largely based on University-level materials.

The key is LITERACY. When a student is sufficiently literate, we'd like him to move into Upper School, and quickly. TO THIS END, I WILL CREATE A LITERACY TEST FOR UPPER SCHOOL AND PLACE IT ON THE CTT SITE THIS WEEK. (We used to have one, but when we moved over to the new site, it was mysteriously lost. Ah, computers...)

Upper School cannot (and probably should not) be done in its entirety any faster than 4 years. This would include completing at least the following, currently:

• ALL BASICS COURSES, INCLUDING US HOW TO DO RESEARCH
  
  
• US HISTORY I-XI
  
  
• US SCIENCE I-VIII
  
  
• CREATIVE WRITING I-V (MINIMALLY!)
  
  
• Our AMBITIONS AND PLANS; and MANNERS
  
  
• AS MANY CURRENT EVENTS (WORLD PROBLEMS) COURSES AS POSSIBLE

Ideally, however, the student would also do a Writing Master's Course, as these go a very long way towards providing a salable skill. These are very involved and take time, I would think AT LEAST 1 year per course, unless the student is very dedicated. I used to teach at U.S.C., in their professional writers program, and these Master's Courses are FAR more complete and involved than that program. They have the intention of helping create a PROFESSIONAL writer.

Also, I'm a big fan of students doing arts electives. As you know, we offer acting, animation, and music. The acting programs will take a student 2 semesters, currently. Music, however, is probably a good 2 years, animation, as long as three. I'll be adding to these course line-ups this year.

So, what's the answer? Well let's break the question into parts.

PART ONE: HOW LONG WILL UPPER SCHOOL TAKE?

Upper School, given the student should be studying math, history, science, basics courses, creative writing, electives, and doing some sort of P.E. should take AT LEAST 4 years. My son (VERY bright and diligent) is on his 5th year, is 16 years old, and will complete sometime this year. He will have studied Upper School nearly 6 years. That said, his essays and creative writings are frighteningly brilliant. His vocabulary is intimidating to most adults, and his general subject of conversation incomprehensible to anyone without a very good background in many areas. Me personally, I believe if a student does their studies honestly, vigorously, and diligently, without any "glibness", but with the intent to truly and actually learn, Upper School is AT LEAST 4 years, more likely 5-6. Then again, it replaces High School and Middle School (or Junior High)...and provides an education FAR more complete and intensive than schools offer, as a rule. Connect The Thoughts is intended to REPLACE completely "school", with home school that will actually challenge, educate, and work.

PART TWO: WHAT NEXT?

So, your student finishes Upper School at age 16. Or he/she is a wunderkind and completes at 15 (unlikely, but then, it's a big world.) Where to? Let me offer you an OPINION. This is ONLY my OPINION, it is not any more than an opinion. It's based on having taught and lectured at many universities and colleges and schools, and having taught for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and for private schools for over 10 years. AGAIN, THE FOLLOWING IS OPINION .

I generally don't like schools. What they are today and how they function (and this includes almost all school, including private schools) reminds me either of prison, or mass baby sitting. I don't like the fact that schools are forced to shy away from certain subjects which are not "PC", such as religion, politics, social behavior, etc.

I only went through High School, myself, in Los Angeles. I never went to college, not for one day. By the time I finished High School, I was working professionally as a writer-director-performer, and had won an Emmy Award. All the teaching I've done (and we're talking MANY thousands of hours of classroom time) has happened because I invested massive amounts of time and effort to master something that I LOVED...theatre. I decided at a very early age that writing was the thing I most wanted to do, and that writing theatre in particular was for me. I studied HARD, particularly from age 11, and on my own. I read about 3 plays a DAY, for 10 years, no joke. (I read very quickly.) I directed over 5 productions a year and ran my own theatre company from age 14. I started teaching acting workshops at age 15. All true, if a bit bizarre. (Fortunately, I had no one around telling me it couldn't be done.)

It is my OPINION that a person knows what he wants to do at a very young age. I believe that some people follow up on their young dreams, and many do not, and for many reasons. One reason many people fail to go after their dream is THEY ARE STOPPED, often by well-meaning parents, friends, and relatives who "know best" what their child (or friend) ought to do with his/her life. But of course, only YOU know what YOU dream of and believe in and want to do. A person's dreams can be murdered at a very young age, with just one sour look from someone respected and beloved, when the child mentions casually "I want to paint", or "help people", or "be an astronaut".

Further, it is my OPINION that a child...and by this I mean nearly any and every child...has the capacity to DO EXACTLY AS THEY DREAM. Those of you home schooling bright children know what I mean! But even a child who is "challenged" (HATE that word and the silly idea behind it) WILL learn things he/she WANTS to learn, and I've found this to be a nearly inviolable law. The CAPACITY is there, and usually, at a young age.

SO WHAT, besides a sour look or misspoken word, STOPS A PERSON FROM LEARNING??? Let me tell you a quick story. I COULD NOT READ UNTIL 1ST GRADE. True. Why? NO ONE TAUGHT ME. My mother was busy raising two sons alone, and dependent upon the school system to handle us. They didn't. As a matter of fact, my kindergarten teacher SPOKE NO ENGLISH. My stepfather refused to believe this until he went to "open house" and met her. Not able to speak any Korean, they were unable to communicate.

Then, I lucked out. My first grade teacher, whose blessed name was Mrs. Schick, but she re-married and became Mrs. Miller, looked at me one day, and came up with an odd idea, one she ONLY DID WITH ME. She asked me to start reading through Webster's Dictionary from page one, with her. We did this every day (at lunch, etc...) NO PHONICS, NO ANYTHING but learning to identify the written word (combination of written squiggles) with the sound of the word, with the definition and meaning of the word. Page by page, word by word. I became better and faster at this as we went. Much faster. I was tested at the end of the school year, and they found that I was able to read over 1,000 words a minute with 100% comprehension. (Wish I'd learned to spell better, however...)

Mrs. Miller saved my life, simply by both challenging me, and providing me THE ACTUAL INFORMATION WITHOUT ADORNMENT I needed to learn, and then expecting me to master the materials. And YES, this was a GOOD result from my connection with a school...however her method was utterly NON standard, and she did this with no other student I knew of. Why me? Don't know. Someone was certainly looking out for me, though. END OF STORY.

So your student does all the Connect The Thoughts materials...many of which are University Level AND THEN SOME. He/she finishes at age 16. What to do? College? Well, MY OPINION, college/University is GREAT for having a social life, and is NECESSARY if you plan to do something which REQUIRES a degree, such as being a doctor or lawyer or, as my son has expressed some interest in...an "Astro-Botanist". (He is also a professional actor and a brilliant writer, however, so we shall see. His current hero is Carl Sagan, something that developed out of his studies.) But I can't imagine why anyone would go to college for any other reason. And a warning (one shared by my dear, departed wife, who had a Masters in music and voice from Texas University)...I believe that sending a student to a college or university to learn the arts is simply a mistake and deadly. Nearly every artist I know who has experienced any success simply started in their teens or earlier, and continued to create and study ON THEIR OWN OR WITH VERY TRUSTED INDIVIDUALS. I know MANY successful artists, and very few have degrees.

If college is the game, you will need to have your home school student take any state-required tests to graduate high school. These tests, structured for the public schools, are VERY EASY to a bright home school student, though I advise you make certain your student knows his/her math. You may also want to do the SAT tests, if you wish to place a student into a great university or college. But for myself, I discourage the idea generally of college. Besides, frankly, Connect The Thoughts is designed to teach most of the general educational requirements a student would do in college (and more), and at a much younger age. General Ed can cover the first year or two in college, before one is allowed to specialize. I say (my OPINION) start specializing YOUNG, when you know what you want to learn and do!

I BELIEVE that, by age 16, most people have formed a very real idea of what they want to do, and are READY TO GO AFTER IT. If it requires study (as my career did and does), they WILL study. But if they're in love with what they're planning to do, THEY WILL FIND WAYS TO LEARN ALL ABOUT IT, including real world experience. I did. Millions of others have.

Finally, we come to THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION . Education is NOT a means unto itself! It is NOT a career, except for the professional teacher. It SHOULD be on-going for a life time, as there is no shortage of amazing things to learn, but now we're talking about EDUCATION, and not "SCHOOLING", which are two entirely separate things! The PURPOSE of education, it seems to me, should have a lot to do with preparing a child (or adult) to live a happy, successful, useful life. I think most parents would agree on this, and possibly many educators. Education can provide skills and insights which will serve the student throughout his/her life. Education should open the eyes and mind of the student to the wonders of life, and the uncountable options available at every moment. It should open the door to endless solutions to problems undreamed of at the time education was occurring, problems that will crop up in later years and resolve with cool and intelligent application of information and skills.

Our job as parents and educators includes (MY OPINION) the true and thorough preparation of our young TO LEAD, to make wise decisions based on good information and clear thought and clean hearts. In doing this, we best guarantee the survival of our young, our civilization, and our planet. Education should OPEN THE STUDENT'S AWARENESS to possibilities, and to THEIR OWN IDEAS AND BELIEFS, those deeply held truths unique to that unique person. It should demand of the student that he/she think and delve and comprehend and form opinions. It SHOULD NOT demand stock answers to stock questions, regurgitated neatly on cue. That IS schooling and at EVERY level and in nearly every institution, including universities.

I think we should educate, and listen to our children when THEY tell us "what next", based on the fact that they're awake, informed, and interested. And when they tell us "what next", we should do everything in our power to help them to their dream. THAT is my answer to the wonderful question Janet asked, by the way.

     Steven Horwich
     Connect The Thoughts

 
 

How to Handle Recommended Word Counts for Essays in Courses

    

In each course, in nearly every lesson plan for Elementary 1st Step (ages 7-8), and Connect The Thoughts (ages 9-adult), there are essays the student is asked to author. These have a word count "requirement" of usually between 25-50 words. The word suggested count for each essay should be treated as just that, a suggestion. The purpose of a designated word count was to get the student writing and hence, thinking. But it is a recommendation ONLY, and students should not be counting words to see if they're finished. The goal isn't to teach the student to count, it's to get them thinking. Don't let them worry too much about word count, please!

     Steven Horwich
     Connect The Thoughts

 
 

Are There Enough Connect The Thoughts to Cover Junior High and High School? (or How Long Does CTT Take to Do?)

    

The short answer is that there are 6-7 years of history, science and creative writing, and electives, built into Connect The Thoughts . Here's the long answer:

Lower School History and Science Courses (for students ages 9-10) are MUCH shorter, and contain easier materials overall, than Upper School (ages 11-adult). Upper school courses are generally based around college-level materials.

A student should start with the basics courses; How To Do Connect The Thoughts Courses Course ; Information - Right Or Wrong ; How To Do Research ( Lower School if ages 9-10). These, if done in a concentrated manner without starting history, science, or creative writing, should take about 2-3 weeks, about 4 hours a day, on a guess. They can take longer...this is pretty new for the student! They can be done faster, depending on the student.

The "average" Lower School History course might take a student anywhere from 25 hours to 50 hours of study. A few are longer, particularly toward the end of Lower School , as we start to prep a student for Upper School materials.

The Lower School History is intended to be done about 1 hour a day, and Science, about 1 hour every other day (say twice a week). At that rate, you'll need around 4 "semesters" to get through, though I've seen students ace the science very quickly. (This accounts for 2 hours or so of study per day. The curriculum is designed to have a student also do Creative Writing (about 3 days a week, 1 hour, to start, so it balances history, science), spelling, and an elective. (Maybe 2 times weekly, an hour or so.) We don't offer math, but I usually recommend Saxon, I like the design of their first three books (5/4; 6/5; 7/6). After that, I have no great recommendations for math, other than a good High School level economics book from AGS. Anyway, math is another hour a day or so.

Upper School courses are much longer, and the Upper School curriculum is designed to take roughly 4-5 years (without Summer School). A student should first do the basics courses, if they haven't yet, and they should certainly do Upper School How To Do Research , which may take as long as a few weeks, in a focused approach.

In Upper School , one does both History and Science every day, Creative Writing at least twice a week, and an elective, as well as math of some sort every day. I also believe a student should do a current events-oriented course, probably completing about one every two months, maybe four-five of these per year. (We have five. I'm about to author many more.) This would be 2-3 times a week, an hour or so each day. We're looking overall at 4-5 hours a day, five days a week (excluding holidays and summer), plus "homework" in the form of reading a book every month or so (advised, sometimes required by the state). There is generally no other "home work".

Generally, you'll need to do some kind of P.E. activity. Each State has its own requirements for P.E., in California, it's twice a week, for 45 minutes, I believe.

Hope this helps!

     Steven Horwich
     Connect The Thoughts

 
 

An Open Letter to Parents

    

Is there anything a parent has to get right that is more important than their children's education?

That's why you've come to this site, isn't it? You're looking. Many of you are looking because you're unhappy with schools or curricula you've used. Many of you have decided you want more control over what your children are learning. In many cases, your children have not been challenged or assisted by available curricula, or were not taught or expected to think for themselves, a skill they will have to master to survive. We understand.

For those of you who have decided to home school, we commend you. Home schooling is a big job! Connect The Thoughts™ is a curriculum that was written just for you. It consists of over 100 specialized study guides in Creative Writing, History, Science, various arts and related areas. These were authored over a five year period, over 8,000 hours of painstaking research and labor. This curriculum has, over the past five years, been thoroughly piloted in home school and school situations, and has been used successfully by hundreds of students, ages nine to adults. It is based on ancient and proven ideas in education (many abandoned by educators today), but is current and entirely "of this world". It is a curriculum that constantly asks the student to evaluate the information for themselves, and USE the information in life, so it has immediate application.

     Steven Horwich
     Connect The Thoughts