It makes me cry

To think that I have homeschooled so many years and missed out on so many opportunities to ignite my children’s passion driven education. It makes me want to cry to think of all these children in the public schools who are learning to hate education. I fear I have to some degree caused my own children to hate learning. But that is going to change. We will do more unschooling and focus on their passions. I have read and done what I can to follow a Thomas Jefferson education model. But my children often get bored with the reading and are not listening when I read. I have tried to follow what I thought was best, but Connor has opened my eyes to the fact that I need to have faith in my children’s ability to find their own passions and to allow them to be anything! Not just what I see as educational. I need to have faith that I will be able to figure out how to help turn their seemingly uneducational passions into an amazing path of discovery. There is so much we can learn about everything out there. There is so much we just don’t know. Thank you Connor for helping me see in such a short book how to help my children and myself. I am in tears.

5 people found this helpful

Good principles in action

Any additional comments?

I love the principles of love, freedom, learning, empowerment, trust and faith expressed in Passion-Driven Education. Boyack also provides case-studies which prove the efficacy of those principles. It's inspired me to more seriously pursue my own passion-driven education and provide the right environment and guidance for my children to learn and grow. My wife is excited to read it now that I'm done.

Reading this little gem reminded me of the sentiments expressed by Albert Einstein:

"Curiosity is a delicate little plant that, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom."

"I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."

"Play is the highest form of research."

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."

3 people found this helpful

Good

This is very close to how I feel about my own children's education. I'm glad other feel the same way. I hope to implement the methods spoken of in this book.

1 person found this helpful

Compelling ideas, a little redundant

I love the premise of the book. I agree that leveraging a child's passion to find a common jump off point for learning all other material is a powerful way to teach. The only problem is that the actual proposal and implementation of Passion-driven Education takes up just over a chapter. All the rest of the material is trying to convince me that the current system is ineffective and detrimental to true learning.

If I were reading this with the intent of changing my mind about the current education model, this would have been extremely powerful. I was already convinced.

And I really admire Connor for going all out and narrating this after he authored it but there was a noticeable difference between Connor's voice and a professional narrator. Still, he's very concise in his reading and uses a good, steady tempo that allowed me to listen at a faster speed setting.

1 person found this helpful

Insightful and inspiring!

This is a must-listen/read for all parents and educators. I will be revisiting this book often as I work to give my daughter a "Passion-Driven Education"!

1 person found this helpful

quick and easy, but certainly great

I really enjoyed this quick, easy read. I highly recommend it to others. our education system is ripe for disruption, and some of the methodologies contained in this book will help is move forward.

great

extremely helpful. I enjoyed this reading a lot. awesome stuff. I will employ these strategies for my unschooling kids

An eye opener about education today!

great book if your interested alternative styles of education and why the current system is broken. Helped me tremendously when I started homeschooling.

Good listen

I was hoping for more content. I guess after I read dumbing us down I kinda got all I needed to hear about our common core and allowing our children to follow their passions from there.

Puts your frustrating thoughts about compulsory school in logical order and gives you solutions to start today!

I recall leaving high school thinking, “now REAL learning can begin.” I felt that I was perhaps the only one who wasn’t brainwashed and hadn’t drunk the government school Kool-Aid. College and a military career continued to be just an extended process of being told what to do; today I still ask myself, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Connor Boyack touches on these thoughts on how we are kept so busy and how our passions are squelched and squashed.

Now as a homeschooling mom, I find myself imposing (at times) the same system I loathed on my children. I was probably the most brainwashed being that I was a high achiever. Not to toot my own horn, but just to say that I conformed (seeking too much the authorities approval) and have not much to show for it when I look at acronyms behind my name, and I have no passion for those titles. I love my title of ”Mom” and want to do my best for the kids. I want something different for my kids. This book is inspirational.