Product Description

Acting on their conviction that to educate a child well is to enable her to find her destiny, David Albert and his partner Ellen listened carefully, with respect and with love, to how their children expressed their own learning needs. Leaving traditional home schooling methods behind, they followed their daughters' unique knowledge quests -- from astronomy and botany, to opera and mythology -- and then went about finding the resources and opportunities to meet those needs within their community. Gracefully written, And the Skylark Sings with Me passionately illustrates that real learning is much richer and more mysterious than any school can encompass.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435323 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
David Albert is a storyteller, writer, and Senior Planner and Policy Analyst with the Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and a contributor to Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope (New Society, 2002).

Customer Reviews

an adventure in learning
David Albert's aim is "to be the strongest possible advocate for my children and for ensuring their learning needs are met in the best possible fashion". You really have to understand what he means by "learning needs". Not the prevailing orthodoxy: 'you must learn this now because the national curriculum says so - we'll try to make it fun/bearable/worth-your-while" By learning needs,he means the child's innate essential need to make sense of his/her physical,linguistic,social world. What it comprises, how it is organised, what the rules are, what you can and can't do, what you can create with what you've discovered. (Please read Joseph Pearce's Magical Cild and Evolution's End for a profound, disturbing, urgently-needs-to-be-read perspective on how children learn ) The kind of learning that both Albert and Pearce are talking about stems from the child, is qualitatively different from externally imposed learning and all that it needs is a sensitive adult capable of listening,responding and creating or indicating an extended domain of possibility.

David Albert and his partner, Ellen did this for their children. They were there not just to acknowledge and respect their children's autonomy in learning and provide knowledge resources, they also made the radical assumption that children should have access to the "best the world's cultures have to offer". Instead of the standard 'Do your piano practice/reading/times tables because we say so and you will thank us for it one day' they gave 'I'd like to give you a glimpse of this astounding world of music...literature... science... mathematics...." And then when the child is ready and wants to try for herself the parents are there ready to oblige, to maximise the moment, to give substance to this opportunity for learning.

Learning has its own intrinsic rewards. School-based learning needs its smiley faces, stickers, formatted records of achievement because learning is imposed and not responsive to either the child's developmental level or his personal learning agenda. Schools talk about developing the child's full potential but they cannot, are not equipped or designed or even have an understanding of how "to optimise the potential of each individual child at the moment it manifests itself" But Albert and his partner could ( and so could an extraordinary young man called Fynn in a one-off, uncategorizable book called "Mr God This is Anna").

We need to look at learning with a wider lens. We need to look at the way the educational system has hijacked the concept of learning, created its own mandatory set of standards and procedures which it attempts to enforce with its armoury of Ofsted inspections, league tables, teacher and pupil assessment and accountability .

I have been teaching for many years. I now find that my modus operandi; my tiny optimum learning environments are becoming ever more restricted and prescribed. I delight with Albert at the quiver of excitement shown by a child who discovers something new and magical for himself. I doubt it happens very much in schools nowadays. Albert's intelligent account of his highly successful experiment in educational diversity is a beacon to those of us who try to keep alive the child's sense of curiosity and need to interact with, and contribute to the world in his or her own unique way.

One family's inspirational journey through home education
Thank goodness we found this book. While it is autobiographical, it inspired so many ideas within us of how to provide a wealth of opportunities for our children to grow educationally, socially and spiritually.

David Albert shares his experiences with a gentle passion and honesty, born out of the knowledge that home education can be made into a far richer and more rewarding alternative to standard education for whole families and the whole community.

sadly a little disappointed
I was prepared to love this book - I love the idea of getting an education in the community - but somehow this book left me uninspired. I was expecting to be motivated on to new experiences - but the whole thing struck me as a little beyond the average family,