*Exclusive Exerpt*: the Introduction to My Upcoming Book

*Free, Exclusive Exerpt*

My book Customized Learning: Putting Students In Charge of Their Own Learning will be published in the next week-plus, available through Amazon.com as a Kindle-ready eBook or in paperback.  Here is an exclusive free sneak-peek for my local readership:

Introduction: Humans Love to Learn

I've always loved learning. I did fine in school, didn't feel I had much to complain about when I was in public school growing up in Northern California-- but I didn't want to go. Many might relate to that feeling.

I certainly had some great teachers along the way, and favorite subjects, sports, activities and friends...

By the time I was thirty, having graduated university, travelled, made movies and theater in New York City-- all the while working with kids of many ages in summer camps, child care and preschool centers, and as a tutor, starting the summer after graduating high school-- I found myself a licensed teacher in the Brooklyn Public Schools. I worked for three years full-time as an English, Music Experience and Literacy teacher, and teaching workshops in DV Moviemaking and Music.

During this time, my daughter Naia was born-- and sometime soon thereafter, my perspective began to shift. By the time she was old enough, I was no longer working full-time as a teacher (though I still taught elective workshops in Moviemaking, Creative/ Screenwriting, 'Blog Design, and Community Organic Gardening, and occasionally substitute-taught in all grades from kindergarten through high school)-- I had begun to put my energy and focus into homeschooling her, alongside a small cadre of kids her age. The group stayed small, so we could be mobile, taking full advantage of many opportunities the City had to offer, from Brooklyn's Botanic Gardens and Museums to Prospect and Central Park, playgrounds, ferry rides, andon and on.

I found myself learning a great deal from my daughter and her companions, and our time together at home and roaming the City. As a teacher, and a lifelong lover of learning, I was really appreciating how incredibly much young kids   Learn-- how much they absorb about and within the world, about their own capacities, about the language they learn to speak, the ability to crawl, then walk, then run (then cartwheels, then handstands...), the alphabet, then sounds of letters, then combinations of sounds, leading to reading... And beyond these (amazing!) things, humans learn so many intricate, unique, idiosyncratic things-- each person learns different things, differently from anyone else...

At around age four, my daughter became incredibly absorbed in the monkey bars at a local playground. She'd play other things, especially with friends-- but whoever was or wasn't at the playground on a given day, whatever her mood--  she could go for an hour at least, almost exclusively on the monkey bars-- swinging, skipping bars, kicking her feet up and climbing above the bars... Different playgrounds offered different lengths, height, and configurations of   bars-- always a new, absorbing challenge-- and New York City has a lot of playgrounds! We visited many, many-- and, not just from the monkey bars, I was seeing my daughter learning, so much! She was learning about herself, her capacity, coordination, strength, flexibility, stamina-- she was learning what she could do, what she couldn't (yet)-- and how to apply herself, day after day, hour after hour, until she COULD do what was formerly out of reach.

Since (and before) then, I've seen her go through similar stages in so many things-- learning to swim, going from sounding out simple words to being able to decipher almost all words she encounters-- now age nine, there are plenty of words she still isn't familiar with when reading, but her vocabulary grows daily through her reading, and through conversations with me, and with everybody she encounters.

This is How We Learn. Humans have been endowed, blessed, with these Beautiful Minds-- organs which Learn, which Master, which coordinate with our bodies in order to learn to walk, to swim, to ride a bike, to swing on monkey bars... It is a humbling thing to witness. The human mind is capable of incredible things.

Not only is the mind capable of such feats, though-- it is voraciously enthusiastic about accomplishing what it does-- figuring things out; taking things apart, then putting them back together; making things; building things. On and on. If a human enjoys what he or she is doing, or trying to do-- if the task seems relevant to their life, to what they want, to bettering themselves, to mastering a new skill, to being able to make or use something, or simply to have fun-- such as in playing games, which is probably the #1 most productive way that humans learn (for example, by-far the most engaging and ubiquitous game of all young children is playing make-believe, playing-out roles and situations from their imaginations, mimicking conversations, emotions and situations they see their parents and others going through; similarly, humans of all ages love every sort of story, from movies and television to books-- and even gossip-- all of this is basically still a form of make-believe play-acting, not just on the part of the performers and authors of the story, but in the imagination of every viewer/ reader). Formalized games, and sports, also bring all of the core aspects of learning into play-- and if the person isn't interested, involved, absorbed in the game, they are not only unlikely to improve in mastery-- they are likely to lose.

The point is-- if a human is engaged, interested, involved in whatever activity they are pursuing, they are likely Learning. Voraciously. Without much need for external prodding, or even instruction (of course, to play a game, they'll need to know the rules of the game-- and "prodding" comes naturally in the form of keeping score in a game, various rewards involved in other engaging activities). If an activity is more exhausting, or uninteresting to an individual, than it is compelling or rewarding, the human is likely to quit the activity, unless being forced into it-- in which case, it is extremely likely that little (intended) learning is occurring.

Not that this implies humans are lazy in this regard. Yes, they're likely to quit an activity if they perceive it to be boring or to offer less reward than makes the effort seem worthwhile-- but, as with my daughter and the monkey bars, humans have incredible stamina, perseverance, focus and (mental and physical) strength if the activity does engage their interest. A human, motivated by their own, internal interest and motivations, is likely to Master a thing that inspires such interest. If they move on before achieving mastery-- so be it. It's a rich world, there's much out there, available, to Learn, to Master.

*Later this week, one more free exerpt exclusively for Southbury Patch 'blog readers-- Chapter One:  Freedom Demands Responsibility