Will you let an exam result decide your fate?

Has an exam ever changed, influenced, or decided your fate?

It has for me, and for many, exams have been the gatekeeper to experiences brilliant people close to me had hoped to pursue. An algebra exam kept one friend who has run a successful business for years from completing the a Bachelor's program she wanted to pursue. Two friends who have proven track records as education technology leaders were denied consideration for a doctorate program because of their GRE scores. A high school student renowned for his successful political activism was denied entrance to numerous colleges based on his SAT scores ALONE!

The insanity of it is brought to life by Suli Breaks. The talented young man who brought us the viral video, "Why I hate school, but love learning" is at it again, with his latest, "I won't let an exam result decide my fate." Breaks message to us is that these exams and the academic opportunities they promise are no longer the one and only way to achieve success. He inspires today's youth to think outside the exam and stop valuing that as an indication of what we are worth. He suggests we all take note of so many of those in our world, who pushed exams aside so they could move on and achieve their dreams. Watch Break's latest effort to inspire us to reconsider this destructive practice and forge new paths to success in his latest spoken word piece, "I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate."

15 Key Facts about Homeschool Kids in College

In recent years, homeschooling has seen a rise in popularity, with more and more parents deciding to educate their children outside of school. Some parents (and their friends/family) who choose this path are concerned about their child's ability to move on to college should they choose that path. Things are easier for homeschooled college students today than they were in the past as more and more colleges have seen great success with students from non-traditional education backgrounds.  Today, homeschool students often enjoy easier admission, better college performance, and even the opportunity to enter college with several credits already earned. Read on, and you'll find out more about what the homeschool college student experience is like today.

1. Homeschoolers often enter college with more credit
   Homeschooled students are able to work at their own pace, and as a result, students have the freedom to move significantly faster than those in a traditional classroom. Michael Cogan, a researcher at the University of St. Thomas, discovered that homeschool students typically earn more college credits before their freshman year than traditional students, with 14.7 credits for homeschoolers, and 6.0 for traditional students. Earning college credit before freshman year can save thousands of dollars and shave time off of a degree. The 14.7 average credits for homeschoolers represent a full semester of freshman year, which is typically 12-15 credit hours.

The College Myth: Why College Isn't Worth The Cost For Many 21st Century Students

I wrote this piece for the Huffington Post. If you’d rather read it there, click here. 

If you are a kid or have a kid in school today, you know that preparing kids for college is just a way of life in schools. Forget the fact that some people have discovered it is a “Race to Nowhere” that leaves many children riddled with stress, anxiety, headaches, stomach pains, and in for some even suicide attempts.  Nevermind the dirty secret that a bachelor’s degree is beyond the reach of many students - Charles Murray, New York Times (2008) or that “The four-year college degree has come to cost too much and prove too little. In fact, it's now a bad deal for the average student, family, employer, professor and taxpayer” - Jack Hugh, Smart Money (2009). It’s what Forbes Magazine calls “The College Hoax,” which clearly outlines the faulty stats that mislead Americans to believe that a degree will result in higher earnings later on.  In the article Kathy Kristof reveals that higher education can be a financial disaster. Especially with the return on degrees down and student loan sharks on the prowl. 


While it is becoming more evident to disillusioned college grads who are victims of an unfolding education hoax on the middle class that's just as insidious, and nearly as sweeping, as the housing debacle, there is little thought given to the fact that we place kids in schools with a promise that if they do well in school and then in college, they’ll be rewarded with a life time of success and opportunity not otherwise available to them.  We need to start rethinking what we’re taking as a given in school today, because the reality is, we’re lying.  Our new crop of college grads, known today as generation debt because of the huge pile of debt attached to their diploma, have no real guarantee of a job.   In fact, what was true for the parents of today’s kids, isn’t true for them.  As a result, more and more often smart students and their parents are also beginning to understand that a college education is not what it’s cracked up to be.


The problem with college being the goal of school, is that we are assuming a degree is necessary for everyone regardless of their interests, talents, and passions and we rarely even bother helping students figure out what their passion is.  If we did, we might very well find college isn’t necessary to pursue their dreams.  You can be a famous chef with your own cooking show without college (Rachel Ray).  You can become a successful photographer to the rich and famous without college (My friend Amy).  You can be a dog whisperer with your own TV show and books (Caesar Millan).  You can work as a motion picture film editor without college (speak to Marco Torres). Some of the most successful business entrepreneurs never bothered getting college degrees. Multi-million/billionaires  Steve Jobs, Mary Kay Ash, Mark Zuckerberg, Ted Turner, Coco Chanel, Richard Branson, Debbie Fields, and David Geffen have no college diplomas to frame.  Shakespeare and Orwell are required reading for entering college, yet guess what? They didn’t get college degrees.  J.K. Rowling, the successful writer from the Harry Potter series didn’t bother with college either.  Florence Nightingale never attended school.  Perhaps most interesting is that revered diplomats like Prime Minister of Britain Winston Churchill also have no college degree.  Here in the U.S. we have at least four presidents who lead our country without having had the “college experience.”  


When I share this with others, I’m often met with the reaction that I’m taking extreme and unusual cases. 
The fact is they are not.  There are endless examples of successful people who let passion, not college lead them to success.  In fact on a more personal note, when I ask those of my generation (I was born in 1968) to think of their parents and grandparents, and other family and friends of the generation prior, they often realize many of them worked in successful careers without college.  This is the case for me.  My father become a successful Director of Photography popular sit coms and game shows  like “Who’s The Boss,” “Different Strokes,” “The Gong Show,” “The Dating Game,” and “The Newlywed Game.”  He often worked with my other father, a man passionate about music, who loved his career as a sound engineer on these shows as well as big shows like the “Academy Awards” and the “Grammys.”  My mother is passionate about her career as an entertainment business manager.  My best friend growing up had a father who was a big casting director for a major network.  All of them have no college degrees, no college debt, and achieved great success.


Sadly, we’re bringing up a generation of stressed out, over scheduled kids, who spend their days in school and nights in activities and doing homework with little to no time for themselves.  We’re telling them they’re doing all of this so they can attend a good college that’s worth all this investment in time now and debt later but they don’t even really know why they’re there.  Sure we say this will open doors and opportunities, but when they haven’t had a chance to determine what door they want to go through, it doesn’t really matter if it’s open.  And, unfortunately, many kids who picked a major unsure of what they really wanted, end up just being shoved through a door because they saw it open and were never even given time to explore the opportunities behind the other doors.  


When I speak with students, I often find they’re like Amy, Carlie,  Jessica and Maria blindly doing as they’re told so they can get into college, but they really have no idea what it is they’re interested in.  Some will say that’s what college is for, isn’t it? It’s a place to figure out what you’re interested in. That’s sure an expensive way to spend time for kids who don’t know what they’re interested in. Furthermore, why would we wait to college to start doing that? There are usually 17 or more years of learning prior to college.  Why not devote more time in those years allowing passion, not just data, to drive learning.  


The goal of school should not be college readiness. It should be supporting students in determining the lives they want to live when they leave school. Why aren’t they discovering what it is they want to be ready for and then if that requires college, sure, pursue a path that gets you ready for the area of study you are interested in.  This is not the same as everyone gets 3 years of math, science, English, and social studies in high school and all have to take the same test because it shouldn’t be one size fits all and it’s okay to pursue lives that never involve each of those subjects.  


Recently I was told we have to force kids to learn Algebra, trigonometry, and geometry because they will need it for college.  Really? Why would a lit, theater, or women’s studies major need that for college? Others have said if we don’t force kids to learn these subjects in high school they’ll never know what they’re interested in.  Okay, but by the time a kid reaches high school they’ve spent 8 years studying math, science, English, and social studies.  Students know what they’re interested in.  Ask them.  I HATE MATH. SOCIAL STUDIES IS MY FAVORITE SUBJECT.  I LOVE READING.  I WISH I HAD MORE TIME FOR ART (or dance, or photography, or music etc. etc.). Why not give students ownership over their learning and let high school be a time to discover and/or pursue passions?


It is not acceptable for children to spend 12 years of school graduating high school with little to no emphasis placed on knowing what you love and then matching what you love to what you do next.  Most students today have little time devoted toward exploring, discovering and developing their passions, talents, and interests.  They often get to college and have no idea what they should be pursuing.  Many students are like me who took a few classes then majored in the subject of the teacher I hit it off with only to learn upon graduation, this really had no connection to the career I ultimately pursued. In fact, if you look around and ask people what they went to college for, and the career they are in now, you’ll quickly realize that the degrees we pursued were unnecessary for many of us.  Even those who pursed the profession they attended college for often admit is was not the best preparation for their career.


The college business is big business. We need to begin questioning why it is we were really led to believe this is the goal and measure of success for high schools and they’re students.  Instead, I’d challenge schools to be measured by how well they spent the 12 years of K - 12 schooling helping children determine what they’re passions and dreams are and think about a plan to achieve it.  Some people will say, they can’t do this in K-12.  They’re too young to know what they want.  Really? How would we know when we don’t give them the chance.  The schools that do incorporate discovering passions know that children are ready, right from the start to begin discovering their passions and also that it doesn’t mean force feeding them a curriculum but rather letting them go far beyond the curriculum.  When you do, you get a school full of students like Armond McFadden. His school followed the Schoolwide Enrichment model from K - 8 which honors students talents, passions, and interests.  As a result he had a clear idea about the direction his life may be headed by the time he was in middle school.  He was also armed with the knowledge to pursue whatever passion he may desire.  


We tend to infantilize youth today.  Some will say it’s to keep younger people out of the workforce.  Some might say it’s because college is big business.  Some might say because today’s youth aren’t ready for the real world until they’re much old than prior generations. The reality is kids shouldn’t have to wait to adulthood to have the opportunity to do great real things and discover and develop passions. In this data driven age of schooling children, rarely have the chance to learn independently about things they choose. Historically people were empowered to explore their passions at the same ages today's students are disempowered to prep for the test.  


Here are some examples of what prior generations accomplished by age 13.

• Pianist Mendelssohn performed his first original compositions.
• Mary Leakey saw the famed Cro-Magnon caves in France and became dedicated to anthropology.
• Ludwig van Beethoven became an assistant organist.
• Country singer, songwriter and actress Dolly Parton made her first radio appearance.
• Thomas A. Edison began performing electrical and mechanical experiments in his spare time.
• Writer and general Carl von Clausewitz ("On War") joined the army at age 12.
• Albert Einstein taught himself Euclidean geometry. He also dedicated himself to solving the riddle of the "huge world."
• Filmmaker Steven Spielberg got his first movie camera and spent hours writing scripts, drawing storyboards and making movies of subjects such as head-on miniature train crashes and an exploding pressure cooker full of cherries jubilee.
• Pablo Picasso was so skilled at drawing that his father handed over his own brushes and paints and gave up painting.
• Jodie Foster wrote and directed a short movie, "Hands of Time," consisting of a series of shots of hands portraying life from cradle to grave.
• French painter Renoir worked at a porcelain factory, painting flowers on dishware.
• Mario Andretti began racing.

Will Richardson who understands that it’s okay if his kids don’t want to got to college, says it this way.  

More and more, all I want from my kids’ school is to help me identify what they love, what their strengths are, and then help them create their own paths to mastery of their passions. Stop spending so much time focusing on subjects or courses that “they need for college” but don’t interest them in the least. Help them become learners who will be able to find and make good use of the knowledge that they need when they need it, whether that means finding an answer online or taking a college course to deepen their understanding. And finally, prepare them to create their own credentials that will powerfully display their capabilities, passions and potentials.

When we allow students to explore their passions in school, upon graduation we may learn that some will choose a future that involves college.  Others may not.  Neither is better or preferable, and the reality today is that the kid who selects a path without college, may very well be better off from a financial and happiness standpoint, then the kid who went to the “good” college.

School Doesn't Have to Be a Race to Nowhere

Race to Nowhere is a documentary created to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens. The movie website has a few trailers and the Op Ed piece below from the New York Times. The piece focuses on the stress that comes with AP courses and also reveals a secret I was unaware of. In the past, the idea of AP courses in part was to provide student with college credit. At some point this changed. You see if high schools give students college credit for free they're stealing dollars from the colleges. Now it's just pull your hair out stress that results in an $84 per student profit for the testing companies. It ultimately has become a gatekeeper to many universities rather than its initial intent to give students higher level material and college credit.

Interestingly, when I was in high school I took International Baccalaureate classes. There was some opportunity for college credit but it was not equivalent to the amount of work required. I realized in my junior year, that this stress was kind of a dumb waste of time. Instead of taking high school classes to prepare me for college, why not just go to college??? The only issue was I wasn't old enough to drive. Somehow my mom got a waiver so I could have a license at 15 and off I went! I took the regular classes in high school, just so I could get my diploma, but each day, I left high school and drove on over to college to "take college level classes" and get real college credit. I did this in the summers too. This is why I ultimately graduated college at 19. I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life...but that's another post :-)

The big idea for parents and students is this:
Stop preparing your kids for college. Let them take those classes now. In fact, take a lesson from the unschool/homeschool/free school community and let your child take the GED whenever s/he may be ready and let them just move past high school if they're ready and hop into college. Online options also open up new possibilities. In short, take ownership of your learning. Don't follow the herd. Think outside the box and if you have a child that may be ready for college-level classes, sign em up!

Oh..and don't believe the BS that age mixing is an issue. I heard that sooo often before my first day of school and was a bit nervous because I was a young looking 15. It wasn't a problem. I was younger, sure, but age didn't matter when it came to learning a topic of interest.

And, now to the New York Times Op Ed piece.

Bill Gates Says Tech Is The Key to Driving Down College Costs

Bill Gates says tech is the key to bring college costs down as it lessens the importance of “place-based” learning. He shares that “Five years from now, on the Web for free, you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university.” I don't think we have to wait five years. A lot of the content already exists as I shared in my post Stop Reinventing the Wheel with OER.

Good college, bad college

Posted originally on Un-schooled.

People say “college” like it’s just a stage of life. You go somewhere called college, you party, you learn, you’re happy, and after that, for the rest of your life, you get to say things like, “Aw, man…college….” with a distant look in your eyes and a slow, wistful shake of your head.

But on a really basic level, there is good college and bad college. I know, because I went to both. I started out at a giant state school, and then I went to a small, Ivy League school. When people ask me about the state school, I usually defend it. I say, “You know, that kind of environment forces you to be self-sufficient. And there are some incredible professors. If you’re in the right department, it’s a great education, and you don’t go completely bankrupt after."

(college. it doesn’t always look like this. source)

These things are all true. But I don’t mention the part about getting locked out of the dorm in the rain when I forgot my keycard by a big, mean guy who told me he’d let me in if I could prove that I wasn’t a thief. About my adviser retiring without anyone letting me know, and then receiving an email two months before graduation that stated I wouldn’t be able to graduate because my language requirement hadn’t been properly fulfilled. Or the night I called the campus police three times in a row because I couldn’t leave my room– there were guys pounding each other to a pulp in the hall. The dispatcher sounded unsympathetic. “It might take a while. They’re across campus.”

They never came. Eventually, an ambulance came, to take away someone who was unconscious.

Or what about the girl who cursed me off in class, for asking her to please stop using the word “faggot”? She called me a lot more things than that, in front of a quivering, helpless assistant professor, who, after she’d stomped out, told me apologetically, “Kids say these things a lot, I hear. Even in middle school. It’s not a big deal.”

Or my personal favorite: the teacher who found out that I’d been homeschooled and when I tried to answer a question in class informed the other students conspiratorially, “Kate doesn’t understand how these things work because she was homeschooled.” Awesome.

These are things that just don’t happen at some schools. Like at Stanford, where my husband went. When I talk about freshman year with him, he says, “I don’t even want to tell you about how annoyingly nice everyone was to everyone my freshman year.” He wished they would give him some space and stop bringing him cookies. I wished boys would stop yelling things about sex positions at me on the way to the dining hall. I wished I felt safe doing my laundry (a girl had been raped somewhere in the labyrinthine basements). I wished I had called 911 when a man tried to break in through my ground floor window in the middle of the night, rather than freezing in my

bed and waiting and waiting.

.
(or this. sheesh, it really looks like a place where the people are nice…source)

I am proud of the scholarships I got, and the practically negligible cost (compared to the small liberal arts schools that are so desirable) of a lot of my education. I’m proud of myself for being strong and finding mentors and doing well academically.

But I’m also angry. I’m angry that there are two distinct worlds of college, and that many students only have access to one of them. I’m angry that as a homeschooler, I didn’t know that there was a different kind of college out there. I thought that maybe all schools were just terrible. I hadn’t known what to expect, and so I accepted the environment without asking the right questions. I figured, “Well, everyone has to put up with this stuff to get a degree.”

But when I went to the other school, I realized that wasn’t true. At the Ivy League school, there were other problems. Frustratingly arrogant people, entitled people, intimidatingly famous professors, and flawless designer clothes. But no one was cruel. I never felt physically threatened. I never felt like a loser for being interested in the subject. I felt like I should be smarter, like I should try harder. I felt outmatched and intellectually naive. But when I wrote a good paper or made a good point, and people congratulated me or smiled or gave me an A, I knew it was because I was doing really well. Not just because I wasn’t asleep, or had actually read the book. Not just because I was one of the few who cared.

In the end, though, I think college is mostly about two things: getting a degree, and networking.

My biggest regret is that I didn’t get to network with enough people I respected at the first school I went to. People didn’t act as dedicated to their futures. They didn’t end up going into fields that interested me. There’s a whole discussion about class and wealth that needs to happen here, but it requires a lot more attention than I can give it right now. I will say that at the state school, some of the students I knew were working two jobs and commuting. They were almost too exhausted to pass. Many of the students were happy to have gotten into college, and had no goals beyond it. A lot of the students retained attitudes that must’ve worked well for them in middle school and high school. “Learning is lame.” They were not the students who had done well in their classes as kids.They had learned to be defensive.

Going to college did a lot of important things for me. I learned a lot about the way the world works. About sucking up. About fitting in. About avoiding being raped. Important skills. And most importantly, I got the degrees I needed to look valid. But if I could have spent the whole time at the second school and forgone the first, it would have been better, without question. I wish I had had that option. I wish everyone had that option. Or the option not to go at all.