By: Megan Prats

7/1/2013

A customized curriculum is something that the minor student desperately needs but rarely sees. Nowadays, the minor student is fed into a system of education that is designed to reach the masses thus the minor student is almost always going to learn in a group setting. Because this student is learning in a group setting, the student will be fed a standardized curriculum that fits the needs of the group instead of the individual student. To make matters worse, when the minor student returns home from school, the student’s parent/guardian will normally determine the student’s at-home curriculum without taking into consideration the student’s wants and needs. The parent/guardian will usually design the student’s curriculum to fit her wants and needs and not the student’s. So, sadly, the minor student is trapped in world of learning that does not focus on what is most important in learning – THE STUDENT.

However, at 2learn®, the minor student finally gets what she needs – a customized curriculum. A customized curriculum is crucial and MUST be implemented into every lesson because when the minor student is learning what is in the student’s self-interest to learn, the student learns with purpose, and thus the student absorbs what she learns in the lesson and is motivated to apply what she’s learned in the lesson outside of the lesson to her own life. On the other hand, when the student learns things that she believes will not advance her self-interest, the student becomes detached in the lesson and frustrated, and the learning comes to a halt.

The minor student’s customized curriculum contains two main elements – the student and you, and a minor element – the student’s parent/guardian.

• The Student,

The student contributes to the customized curriculum by telling you what she wants to learn. Even the youngest students have an idea as to what they want to learn.  No matter the subject being covered in the lesson and the age of the student, you must ask the student what she wants to learn in the first lesson, and continue to ask the student what she wants to learn in future lessons.

• You, and

You contribute to the customized curriculum by providing the student what the student needs to achieve her learning goals.

• The Student’s Parent/Guardian.

The student’s parent/guardian is a minor element to the minor student’s customized curriculum because you should look to the student’s parent/guardian solely as an informative source as to the student’s learning wants, needs, methods of thinking, educational history, etc. Proceed with caution when incorporating what the student’s parent/guardian tells you about the student in the lesson because the student’s parent/guardian is not always right. Just trust your gut with what the student’s parent/guardian tells you. If you believe that the student’s parent/guardian is right then go ahead and incorporate that information into the lesson. However, if you believe that she is not right, then just ignore it.

It is not fair that the minor student who is the best student because learning at a young age makes a lifetime of difference, is not given the customized curriculum that she needs. However at 2learn®, the minor student is finally given a customized curriculum with the right balance amongst all of the elements of the customized curriculum – the main elements include the student and you, and the minor element is the student’s parent/guardian. The student contributes to the customized curriculum by telling you what she wants to learn, you contribute to the customized curriculum by providing the student what she needs to achieve her learning goals, and the student’s parent/guardian contributes to the customized curriculum by being an informative source about the student’s learning.

© Megan Prats 2013