The Brave Learner: Cultivating a Love for Learning and Self-Expression

The "brave learner" embodies a philosophy that prioritizes connection, self-expression, and a love for learning above rigid rules and performance anxiety. It's about creating an environment where children feel safe to explore their thoughts, express themselves freely, and develop a genuine curiosity about the world around them. This approach, championed by educators like Julie Bogart, emphasizes the importance of fostering a child's natural desire to learn, rather than focusing solely on mastering grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The Essence of a Brave Learner

At the heart of the brave learner approach is the idea that learning should be an adventure, filled with enchantment, curiosity, and a sense of wonder. It recognizes that education is more than just acquiring facts and figures; it's about nurturing the whole child - mind, body, and spirit.

Julie Bogart's company is Brave Writer, and she wants educators to focus on the big picture in the Brave Learner. In Brave Learner, Julie says, “Once kids realize that paper is a safe place for thought exploration, they learn how to craft their writing into satisfying finished products. Writing becomes a safe playground instead of an intimidating foreign country."

Key Principles of the Brave Learner Approach

Several key principles underpin the brave learner philosophy:

Connection and Relationship

"The key feature of our homeschools must be a connection-connection never fails." A strong connection between parent and child is essential for creating a supportive and encouraging learning environment. This connection fosters trust and allows children to feel safe taking risks and expressing themselves openly.

Read also: Scholarship for Frontline Families

Self-Expression and Voice

The brave learner approach prioritizes self-expression over technical perfection. It encourages children to find their unique voice and to communicate their thoughts and ideas in a way that is authentic to them. Julie Bogart was raised in a way that valued self expression. From a very early age, Julie had been taught that her internal world mattered, and that expressing it was important.

Freedom and Flexibility

Rigidity and strict adherence to rules can stifle creativity and enthusiasm for learning. The brave learner approach embraces flexibility, allowing for adjustments based on the child's individual needs, interests, and learning style.

Enchantment and Joy

Learning should be enjoyable and engaging, filled with moments of surprise, mystery, risk, and adventure. By creating an atmosphere of enchantment, parents can ignite a child's natural curiosity and desire to learn.

Holistic Education

Education is not confined to textbooks and classrooms. The brave learner approach recognizes that learning happens everywhere and encompasses all aspects of life. It encourages children to explore their interests, engage with the world around them, and learn through experience.

Valuing Questions

One way to ignite interest in a subject is to interrogate it- to resist the temptation to know the answers. Put a stack of sticky notes next to a clean surface. Include markers to write questions. All questions for the whole week go on sticky notes. At the end of the week on Sunday over dinner, start peeling them off, reading them, and discussing them. You’ll be amazed at how much learning is catalyzed simply by valuing questions for a whole week.

Practical Applications of the Brave Learner Approach

The brave learner approach can be applied in various educational settings, including homeschooling and traditional schools. Here are some practical strategies for implementing this philosophy:

Creating a Safe Space for Thought Exploration

Encourage children to view writing as a safe playground where they can explore their thoughts and ideas without fear of judgment. Provide them with opportunities to write freely, without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or spelling.

Separating Mechanics from Self-Expression

To help kids experience less resistance, separate the mechanical and self expression parts of writing. Use someone else’s writing to teach a child the mechanics of writing. Use their writing voice to help them experience being an author.

Free Writing

Free writing is the permission for unbridled self expression in written form, without undue attention to grammar, spelling or punctuation in that initial burst. As you pay attention to the words on the ticker tape in the mind, the hand is learning how to keep pace. If you get stuck, and you are free writing, you can write things like I’m stuck. This is stupid. I can’t believe my mother is making me do this.

Embrace "snapshots of the mind"

Writing is like taking pictures of the mind life of your child at the various stages of development. Capture what I would call the snapshots of the mind.

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Encouraging Journaling

Encourage personal journaling every morning as kids begin their day. Never check grammar, punctuation, or spelling since this is their spirit on paper, it is confidentially theirs.

Fostering a Love of Reading

Encourage reading as a way to expose children to new ideas and interests. Read aloud together as a family, and provide children with access to a wide variety of books and other reading materials.

Leveraging Everyday Learning Opportunities

Recognize that all experiences can contribute to education, from cooking to playing games. Incorporate real-life learning opportunities into your daily routine, and encourage children to explore their interests and passions.

The Forces of Enchantment

The Forces of Enchantment - surprise, mystery, risk, and adventure - are powerful tools for engaging learners. Enchantment in education involves creating an atmosphere of ease, surprise, and joy. It's about small moments of happiness scattered throughout ordinary days, acting as turbo boosts to learning. The atmosphere that promotes learning is free, emotionally nurturing, and filled with learning opportunities of all sorts.

The Right Atmosphere

Get the atmosphere right and learning blooms. The “right atmosphere” includes: Lots of talking, Freedom to be yourself, Snacks, Second, third, and fourth chances, Hope, Optimism, Love expressed as admiration, support, collaboration, Time, Following your hunches, Faith in learning, not just curriculum, Willingness for mess, mistakes, and makeovers and Growing as an adult learner too.

Creating a Cozy Learning Space

Design a comfortable area at home that invites exploration and creativity.

Incorporating Small Joys

Use fun materials like colorful pens or special snacks to make learning more enjoyable.

Emphasizing Everyday Learning

Recognize that all experiences can contribute to education, from cooking to playing games.

Reading Together

Encourage reading as a way to expose children to new ideas and interests.

Embrace Imperfection

Remember that homeschooling is a journey of growth for both parents and children. Be patient with yourself and your children, and celebrate small victories along the way.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Each November, kids can participate in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, where grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and writing lessons are on hold, while they write, write, write.

Homeschooling Styles

Think about what kind of homeschooling style feels right for your family and choose books that support that approach.

Learning Styles

Every child learns in their own unique way. Some kids are visual learners, meaning they understand things better when they can see them. Others are auditory learners, and they learn best by listening to explanations and discussions.

Overcoming Challenges

Implementing the brave learner approach is not without its challenges. Some common obstacles include:

Resistance to Writing

Julie is the mastermind behind the Brave Writer Program, the Brave Writer Podcast, and really thoughtful content on all things kids writing, learning with confidence and critical thinking.

Resistance is not about you, ever. It’s about what makes the child feel good. So when the child says I don’t want to write, they’re not thinking to themselves, how can I show my parents I’m defying their authority, they’re thinking, how can I avoid doing a painful thing? If we reframe resistance as a child, trying to protect that small, fragile self that is starting to emerge, we can actually lend it more support.

Performance Anxiety

Performance anxiety is at the heart of a child struggles to get started putting those words down on the page.

Balancing Freedom and Structure

Finding the right balance between freedom and structure can be difficult. While it's important to allow children to explore their interests and learn at their own pace, it's also necessary to provide them with guidance and support.

Overcoming Fear of Failure

Some children may be afraid to take risks or make mistakes. It's important to create a safe and supportive environment where children feel comfortable experimenting and learning from their errors.

Shifting Mindsets

Parents who have been raised in traditional educational settings may find it challenging to embrace the brave learner approach. It requires a shift in mindset, from focusing on grades and performance to prioritizing connection, self-expression, and a love of learning.

Resources for Brave Learners

Fortunately, there are many resources available to support parents and educators who are interested in implementing the brave learner approach. Some helpful resources include:

Books

"The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life" by Julie Bogart
"Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace" by Sarah Mackenzie
"For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
"The Unhurried Homeschooler" by Durenda Wilson

Online Programs

Brave Writer (Julie Bogart's online writing program)

Communities

Tilt Parenting
The School House Anywhere

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