Written by: Daniel Govender
Article source: Supplied
In the last 18 months most parents have been bombarded by schools with educational materials in various formats and on different platforms to assist their children at home. This is because of the Covid-19 pandemic and its resultant disruption on traditional, teacher-led classroom-based instruction. In the frenzy to come to terms with ensuring learners complete their curriculum for the year, parents have had to take on a far greater role in each child’s educational prescription. I have heard stories from distraught parents as to how challenging the content is, or how badly presented the material is from school, or how demotivated children are, or the lack of time for each child and the list goes on and on.
“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:7 KJV
The responsibility for training a child is the parents, not the church or the school on its own. This scriptural principle is greatly emphasized today as children are spending more time with parents than ever before. One wonders whether this may be one of the unintended positive outcomes of the Corona virus pandemic. However, parents must embrace this as a long-term change in educational theory and practice. The below principles are provided to assist in the thinking of parents and children/learners.
Mastery Based Personalised Learning
The basic premise is that given sufficient time and intervention every child can master academic material. In this educational model, time is the variable and learning the constant and each child is seen as an individual with a personalized academic program. This means parents will have to spend different amounts of time on different children so that they master the content before any form of assessment (testing). Mastery of content means learners score consistently between 70-80% on assessments. Whilst this may be a hard pill to swallow some children master reading at 7 or 8 years and others at 4 or 5 years old. Some complete high school at 16 years old and others at over 19 years old. What then is the important factor? Is it the age at which you master a concept or the fact that you have mastered the academic content and skills and are ready for life? These are the questions every parent will have to grapple with as each child is assisted in his/her academic journey.
Responsibility For Learning
Continual working from home has again largely shifted the index of responsibility from teacher to learner. In the traditional classroom model, the teacher assumes responsibility for completion of academic work and sets the dates for group testing. In this new-normal academic world it is imperative that learners take responsibility for mastery of academic material. This shift must be managed by parents who daily must train children to set goals and complete their goals. This aspect overlaps on the aspect of developing Christian character, which includes, honesty, faithfulness, and the other fruit of the Spirit.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23 NIV
No more can parents or children rely on teachers – only because one never knows when you will get to school and have the privilege of having a professional assist you.
Moving Ahead
Parents, take heart! As much as the above points are mind-blowing from traditional school education systems, we have seen thousands of learners move from a teacher-dependent classroom model mindset to a mastery personalized model. It can be done!
“…we have the mind of Christ.” – 1 Cor 2:16b NIV
What is involved is a change of mindset first for you the parent, and secondly for your child. A mind of a child that says this is my life, my future, my God-given mission, and I must take responsibility for my work as an individual. A mind that also says I can read and master content on my own and when I am challenged, I can seek assistance from online and other human resources. This truly is the pinnacle of Christian character – taking responsibility!
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Date published: 21/08/2021
Feature image: Image for illustrative purposes only. unsplash.com
Daniel Govender leads a local New Testament fellowship, NewLIFE Centre in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and is the Operations Director for SwitchedOn Education, an online Christian curriculum.
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