The 10 principles of Modular Learning
For the last couple years, I've been talking a lot about homeschooling. I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching and I’ve come to a decision I want to start talking more about modular learning as a distinct concept and the core principles that may differentiate it from school at home or other forms of homeschooling. To me, this type of education is not a revelation, it’s common sense. And if we want to experience it fully, we can’t keep clutching onto pieces of the old way because we’re afraid we might be wrong.
Lately, I have been having a lot of conversations that seem to be driven by families who want to keep the door open to school, or find the perfect AI tutor that’s scientifically proven to optimize math learning.
So many people seem to want a bite of what homeschoolers have found, but not the full enchilada, not the full force, powerful learning that’s happening when we have the courage to re-think everything we imagined about how kids learn and what we want them to achieve.
I know how to optimize learning, how to challenge the most unmotivated kid in the world, how to inspire a child with zero confidence to reach the top of their math class. But all this it’s such a tiny piece of the puzzle of what success means, and quite frankly, degrades the power of the extraordinary educational movement that’s shaping our world. You can’t really experience the benefits of modular learning if you’re still attached to traditional goals. And so I’m throwing those goals away and lighting a fire.
As Shakespeare says, “what’s in a name?” and I don’t think that the name we call it is really that important, but what’s key for me at least, is that this beautiful force for good in the world, that has so much potential to transform our lives and transform families, doesn’t get confused with the commercialization of a new fad.
As the homeschooling conversation surges, so much of the talk around homeschooling is focused on how to optimize brain power, rather than a whole new approach and concept to what learning is, the power it has in communities and it's key role in leading a joyful, impactful life. And moreover, its role in sustaining this ecosystem we call home.
Wanting your child to thrive intellectually is a powerful goal, but it’s so often clouded by the sometimes repressed desire for them to do well in school or maximize earning potential. What if instead, we returned to the core of what it means to raise an individual capable of leading a joyful life, connecting with the fierce innate drive and problem-solving skills that are fundamentally part of their biology, possessing the skills to build delightful, fulfilling relationships, contribute meaningfully and receive meaningfully from their community and, yes fulfill their absolute potential as the member of their community, while doing the maximum good and least harm.
A person who embraces evolution, new technologies, and is driven to evolve the world that we live in as part of that ecosystem, and not separate from it.
We want our child to always have enough healthy food on the table, to have the financial freedom to follow their curiosity and live a happy life, whether that’s through being able to pay for therapy, medical care or doing something they love like travel the world. We want our children to have skills to shape the world they live in and not be limited by education or resources. We want our children to have healthy relationships and be grateful for the childhood that shaped them into who they are. That’s so much more to aspire to than being the smartest person in the room, having a great job, being a math olympian or star athlete. And those types of goals lead to so much more. They are so much less limiting than fear-based goals.
In this video, I share a bit about how I discovered this kind of education and the potential it has to shift our world and bring about the deep transformation in the world many of us crave.
If you want your family to thrive, if you want your child to have an insatiable passion for learning, to learn all that they can, to be all that they can be, to feel proud and joyful of who they come and love the process even more than the destination, than read on.
The ten principles of modular learning are these. Watch the video to learn why.
The “formal education part” only needs to take 1-2 hours a day and more time isn’t necessarily better. (to learn 20x times faster than traditional group settings). Everything else will fall into place when you buy into this.
Take kids everywhere. Family attachments matter.
Boredom is gold. Kids need loads of time for their minds to wander. Kids are wired to learn, so let that unfold.
Find your community and share care. This should be the first thing you do.
Find curriculum your child loves. If you find a curriculum they love, the rest will be easy.
Carve out time for you. Three hours minimum per week.
Learn with your child. Anyone can be a teacher if they’re a learner.
Scheduling. Find an organizational system that works for you. There are many options. You don’t need a homeschool schedule.
There’s no secret advantage to school. Anything you assume school knows you don’t probably doesn’t exist.
Become an entrepreneur. It will make everything better.
Bonus: Throw all of these principles out the window. You are the ideal person to raise your child. And your child has so much wisdom about what they need and how they learn. Don’t outsource that. If you’re child is asking for a different way, a better way to learn, they probably have seem something important and worth paying attention to.
If there’s a whisper in your hear that there’s a better way, a different way, a new possibility, you’re probably right. The best thing I do for parents is to tell them its ok to listen to that whisper. You’ve been conditioned for centuries to think you’re not the ideal person to raise your child. The school system is designed to disempower parents and exclude them from their child’s education. For each of these principles, I’ve seen someone do the opposite and raise a thriving child. Don’t let anyone else tell you how to raise your child.
If you have an inkling, you know better, you probably do. Trust that.