# Andrew Pudewa #4: However Imperfectly

##### 7 Lessons Learned from 30 Years of Teaching

1. It is hard not to do to your children what your parents did to you 
    - The problems with education in the USA and its development 
        - Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling - John Taylor Gatto
        - The Underground History of American Education - John Taylor Gatto
    - Was what was done to us, the best thing that we want to do to our children?
    - What were people learning and teaching before the “modern thing” in the late 19th Century?
2. Process must be attended to more than product 
    - What a child is experiencing is more important than the artifacts they produce
    - You can’t take business lingo and apply it to children… “the proof is in the pudding” 
        - My 11 year old needs to get into a good college… versus… what does she like? What is she good at? Etc.
    - Don’t become attached to the ARTIFACT of learning - it doesn’t represent well the EXPERIENCE that the child had doing it
    - How you learned something is more important than what you learned 
        - Schools have disjointed courses about random things that don’t connect
    - Understanding is Highly Overrated 
        - Anything worth understanding, you probably will never understand it FULLY
        - Doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing
        - It’s good to learn along with your children
3. All kids are different 
    - Educational system was created to standardize all kids
    - Now there are “individual styles” and things, but the majority of the system is still centered on “every kid should be able to do the same things at the same age.”
4. Progressive (“New”) does not mean Progress 
    - Schools have “new” things every year, but there is no Progress… 
        - New things are provided by who? Money!
        - Bill Gates… more computers in schools!
        - John D. Rockefeller… industry/factories
        - There’s no money in going back… there’s only money in what is “new”
5. College and Career Readiness 
    - Think about the qualities you want when hiring (or even when accepting a student into a college) 
        - Integrity
        - Teachability
        - Honesty
        - Loyalty
        - Etc.
    - None of these are taught in modern schools… but these are acquired from the home and church!
6. Teaching is about YOU not THEM 
    - Teaching is the overflow of the soul of the teacher into the student
    - Take care of yourself 
        - If you are tired, hungry, etc. you will not be a good teacher
    - Educate yourself 
        - If you are not filled intellectually, you cannot fill others
7. Be Diligent 
    - Diligent from Latin “diligere” - meaning “love” - Love creates diligence 
        1. The power of a smile - if you smile at someone long enough, they WILL smile back. A smile communicates “it is good to be with you” - “I am happy to be here with you, right now.”
        2. Emotional Gas Tank - making corrections is an emotional drain… give positive comments BEFORE giving negative. Even at a 10:1 ratio
    - 1 Point Focus 
        - Focus on the one point you want to fix
        - ”Straighten your back and move your chair and turn your leg and fix your bow and that note was wrong.” 
            - No…. “Let’s fix that note”