DIY Homeschooler

We have pulled several times from this excellent book by Dr. Howard Hendricks: Teaching to Change Lives: Seven Proven Ways to Make Your Teaching Come Alive. Whether you are a public school teacher that wants to make a difference in the lives of your students, or a do-it-yourself homeschool mom mentoring your own children, Teaching to Change Lives will make you think. And it will encourage you to hone tools that will help you reach your goal of reaching children.

Table of Contents

• 1. The Law of the Teacher
• 2. The Law of Education
• 3. The Law of Activity
• 4. The Law of Communication
• 5. The Law of the Heart
• 6. The Law of Encouragement
• 7. The Law of Readiness
• Final Thoughts

Dr. Hendricks was a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary for over 50 years. He loved getting ahold of new freshmen. He was well revered.

The principles from the book have been on videotape for some time. And while it is a pleasure to hear Dr. Hendricks express his passion on this topic, the book has all of the meat. You can read it and refer back to it over and over again.

Hendricks obviously pulls from The Seven Laws of Teaching by educator John Milton Gregory.

The 7 Laws are as follows:

1. The Law of the Teacher

You have to be homeschooled yourself. You teach out of the overflow of your life. What you do not have you cannot give. Intellectually. Socially. Physically. And I would add spiritually.

If you stop growing today, you stop teaching tomorrow.

2. The Law of Education

The learner can only learn for themselves. You cannot do the learning for someone else. That means the teacher is primarily a stimulator and motivator (or as we say mentor/tutor).

Your number one goal is to teach people how to think. Really think. And your second goal is to teach the student how to learn. Can you imagine being able to learn anything for yourself? What a gift!

The next goal is to teach them how to work. We use delight-directed interests to create this desire to work.

And of course, they need skills.

Though it may take time, once you get people over the barrier and into the true joy of discovery and learning, they can never again settle for education that’s less exciting. They’ll never be satisfied with anything less than a deep involvement in the learning process.

3. The Law of Activity

Hendricks uses the example of a Sunday School class where the teacher is constantly saying “be quiet” and God has put into those young people “MOVE!”

Maximum involvement will lead to maximum learning.

Ideas must be rethought, experience must be re-experienced.

John Milton Gregory

• Practice makes perfect (you will remember what you practice).
• Experience is the best teacher (the student must be the one doing the learning).
• We learn by doing. Or as he says, “We learn by doing the right things.”

I learned early on that students can memorize materials in any way you ask them to, and on an exam they can tell you it all. You can give them a great big A for it. Brilliant. Yet give them the same examination three days later, and they couldn’t pass it if their lives depended on it.

We can provide activity without “dictatorship” The students need to work for themselves, not the teacher.

There needs to be immediacy. What does the student need now? Not everything he will ever need.

And finally planned purpose. Forget “busywork.”

Then there is the process vs product. And problem-solving.

4. The Law of Communication

Building bridges. Understanding people.

All communication has three essential components: intellect, emotion, and volition — in other words, thought, feeling, and action. So whatever it is I want to communicate to another individual, it involves something I know, something I feel, and something I’m doing.

In this section he addresses the fundamentals of how to communicate.

5. The Law of the Heart

Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.

This was something Ruth Beechick encouraged in home teachers.

There is first the character of the teacher. Do I believe what I’m saying?

Then there is my compassion that will motivate the learner.

And finally there is the content where the learner sees what the teacher sees.

To be a person of impact we need to:

• Know the student.
• Earn the right to be heard.
• Be willing to be authentic and real.

6. The Law of Encouragement

The nature of the mind, as far as we can understand it, is that of power or force actuated by motives. The striking clock may sound in the ear, and the passing object may paint its image in the eyes, but the inattentive mind neither hears nor sees.

John Milton Gregory

How do you encourage learning? Around here we advocate setting up an atmosphere that encourages learning. Hendricks approaches the topic by:

• First telling.
• Then showing by providing a model.
• Doing in a controlled way.
• Then doing in an uncontrolled way.

With responsibility comes accountability.

Of course the big question is are YOU motivated. Only the motivated can be change agents.

7. The Law of Readiness

The teaching-learning process will be most effective when both student and teacher are adequately prepared.

Go at the student’s pace. Start where the student is. Build confidence.

I was always amazed at how difficult teachers tended to make LONG DIVISION. AH!! The world is ending. We HAVE to do long division!! And YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE CAPABLE!

Bah. We did it this way:

This is easy. You’ve got this. It is simply multiplying in reverse. Let me show you how.

And that confidence that you know that the student can do this transfers to the student. We are building confidence (real confidence).

Final Thoughts

I have read this book at least three times. But have referred back to it over and over again and can highly recommend the book for those of us who take our job seriously.

Hendricks puts a nice conclusion in the back to help us remember the laws:

T The Law of the Teacher: Stop growing today, and you stop teaching tomorrow.

E The Law of Education: How people learn determines how you teach.

A The Law of Activity: Maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement.

C The Law of Communication: To truly impart information requires the building of bridges.

H The Law of the Heart: Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.

E The Law of Encouragement: Teaching tends to be most effective when the learner is properly motivated.

R The Law of Readiness: The teaching-learning process will be most effective when both student and teacher are adequately prepared.

Everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Luke 6:40b

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Additional Resources

Many of the principles are discussed in the video below:

Summary
But please do take the time to read and savor the entire work.

Three Goals of Teaching
Three goals of teaching: teach students how to think, how to learn, and how to work independently.

Learning with Meaningful Activities
Meaningful activities are a great way to teach concepts — especially those that are currently resonating with the learner.

Learning Lifestyle
Many of the ideas in Teaching to Change Lives ended up on this page….