Experience Education through Real-World Learning
by Mimi Rothschild
Experiential education is defined as purposefully engaging learners in an experience with focused reflection to increase knowledge and skills and to clarify values. Rather than hearing or reading about the experiences of others, experiential learning requires students to discover, research, and experiment with knowledge themselves. Experiential learning then asks students to reflect on their learning, thus developing new ways of thinking and heightened awareness of their world.
Several prominent figures have stated their views about the way experience impacts education. Some thoughts are as follows:
* “What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print.” - Isadora Duncan
* “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” - Benjamin Franklin
* The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered. - Jean Piaget
* “All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.” - Sir Walter Scott
* “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” - Mark Twain
If such commanding leaders believe that education must be paired with life experiences, why doesn’t traditional schooling reflect these beliefs? Why do most schools still implement teachers as knowledge-givers and students as information-takers? Rather than teaching what someone else has accomplished, homeschooling families have the exciting advantage of using life experience so that homeschooled students accomplish something meaningful through their education.
John Dewey was one of the earliest promoters of learning through the experience of action and reflection. This type of learning never “caught on” in mainstream education because it differs drastically from traditional education. In traditional classrooms, teachers set knowledge before the students. They hope that students will connect this knowledge with other information they have learned and apply it in their lives. Despite many efforts to alter this type of teaching, studies have shown that most teaching, especially in high school, still involves the teacher providing knowledge and the student as a passive recipient of information.
Homeschooling can provide an escape from “typical schooling” and can help implement experiential education. Regardless of how experiential education is employed, its key idea involves students taking on new active roles that have real consequences. When students are active learners, their adventures often take them outside the classroom walls, which, ironically , makes available a world of learning opportunities. As our children’s teachers, we need to take advantage of these “secret” teaching locations.
Experiential education not only changes the role of the student, but also that of the teacher. Just as students must become active learners, so must the teachers. Teachers must experiment mutually with their students, evoke student reactions to the activities, and respond to those reactions. Because of the necessary closeness between teacher and student when experiencing education in this way, homeschooling families are in the best position to teach and learn through these progressive and effective methods.
Some suggested experiential learning activities are:
* write articles for a local newspaper
* complete a ropes course with your family
* act in the church play or sing in the church choir/band
* organize a service group with your friends
* interview others and write articles on their views
* renovate a homeless shelter
* take self-defense classes with your family
* set a budget and go shopping
* volunteer in a soup kitchen
* launch an environmental campaign
* write to a pen pal from another state or country
* collect money for a local children’s hospital
* plan and run a fundraiser for a charity
* set goals for and play Monopoly
* make beaded jewelry to sell to friends and family
* cook for a bake sale
* have a yard/garage sale
* shadow a professional while they work
* write to your local politician about an issue that concerns you
All of these activities require a variety of skills, from proper speech and language to sociological awareness to financial responsibilities to teamwork and problem solving. Experiential education strives not to isolate one skill set or topic, but to unite acquired skills into a cohesive blend of informative action. Because of this, experiential education can be much more successful than traditional education.
Homeschooling families have the means to take experiential education to a level not possible in the traditional school environment. We encourage you to take advantage of this and allow yourself and your child to learn in the most unsuspecting of places.
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