Dear Parent,

If you attended Elementary Curriculum Night on February 2^nd, you had a sneak-peek into LePort’s unique approach to education. [See the videos on the right if you weren’t able to attend.]

In this newsletter, I’d like to offer you further insight into what makes LePort’s curriculum different. How does LePort’s approach, which we call “Knowledge for Life”, compare with the California Standards?

Almost everyone agrees that there’s something wrong with “teaching to the test”, the practice of focusing in school on memorizing and drilling for standardized tests. But this practice is based on the California Standards—the textbooks, lessons and outcome measures approved by State education committees.

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Science education is a staple of modern schooling. One rarely hears anyone question the value or necessity of teaching our children science. But what is the reason behind this view? Why should a child study science?

Despite today’s focus on standardized test and national content standards, it’s clear that the purpose of science education cannot merely be to ensure that children score well on standardized tests of science. (Why have those tests?) The same is true of any answer of the form that science education is necessary to ensure that a child will succeed in high school science, or be ready for college many years down the road. (Why should science be taught at those levels?)

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As parents, we know that children are not automatically able to focus. When a toddler loses interest in a toy, she stops paying attention. She can’t just will herself to keep going.

So how is it that a child eventually acquires the mental stamina necessary to master skills such as reading? How is it that in later years, a high schooler is able to resist the temptation to check her Facebook account and keep at a demanding essay?

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In a recent segment of ABC’s Food Revolution show, host Jamie Oliver hypothesizes about the poor food choices made by children and adults alike. Oliver holds up common vegetables—tomato, cauliflower, potatoes, eggplant—and asks school-age children to name them.

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What does medieval history have to do with a juicy steak from a modern, upscale restaurant? Read on, watch the video and find out!

In a recent LA Times article, education reporter Karin Klein reflects on her experience at her children’s back-to-school nights:

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Every school we know talks about instilling a love of learning in children. But what does that actually mean?

Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us highlights the importance of self-directed, autonomous learning, of learning that is aimed at getting better, at achieving mastery at tasks the child himself perceives as meaningful. The best learning makes the process of learning autotelic, meaning motivated by the pleasure of the experience itself. Children in such environments exhibit a sense of purpose and curiosity, they are fully engaged in what they do, they have, in the words of one scientist, many rewarding flow experiences.

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When parents first visit a well-run Montessori school, they often comment on how quiet the classrooms are compared to many other environments where groups of preschoolers come together. It’s true: our classrooms are quiet—not quiet in the sense of totally silent, but quiet in a busy, active, yet very civilized way. Continue reading →

Several recent articles in major newspapers discussed the demise of creativity in kids, and linked it to a lack of “unstructured, messy play.” For example, The New York Times reports:

For several years, studies and statistics have been mounting that suggest the culture of play in the United States is vanishing. Children spend far too much time in front of a screen, educators and parents lament — 7 hours 38 minutes a day on average, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation last year. And only one in five children live within walking distance (a half-mile) of a park or playground, according to a 2010 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control, making them even less inclined to frolic outdoors. Continue reading →