Where do we add the character education lessons in an overcrowded curriculum?

Paul Tough’s recent book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character shows why some children are able to rise above the challenges that derail many of their peers. According to Trough, character development makes a huge difference in how children’s brains develop, and scientists are now able to trace a direct route from those early negative experiences to later problems in school, health, and behavior. By combining STEM and literacy with character education, EntelechyEducation, LLC helps children succeed through integration of positive social expectations with intellectual development.

No longer should parents focus solely on the intellectual acumen of their children, encouraging them to rise above their classmates to high honor roll status.  Instead, Tough’s research indicates that parents should help children to understand the basic social skills of cooperation, responsibility, and empathy.  Wow!  What a breakthrough concept for test-stressed children!  Can we actually let children play and jostle for position as they learn to cooperate within a group?  Should we teach responsibility and manners as we teach science, reading, and math?  How is that possible in an already overloaded curriculum?

The answer lies in careful selection of resources for that curriculum.  Teachers and parents should carefully choose books that teach science with responsibility, math with anger management, or geography with generosity. When our children learn to control their emotions, they will collaterally learn to control their education.  Imagine a world where children do homework without prodding, investigate topics of interest on their own, and accept everyone’s differences without question.

Entelechy Education, LLC sees that world and has begun to develop a series of books that combine STEM education with character education that can be used in the literacy learning center and the home library.  Read the first book, Where’sGreen? in which children learn about rainbow science, cooperation, and alliteration.  Your child will be one step closer to emotional and intellectual maturity.

Innovation in Education: Reducing “The Burden of Knowledge”

Technological progress --- and the creation of a new knowledge base --- continue at a very fast pace and some will argue that this pace is accelerating.  A very interesting piece of research, published by Benjamin F. Jones, reported the adverse impact of technological progress upon innovators --- and described this effect as “the burden of knowledge.” 

Essentially Jones posited that knowledge accumulates as technology advances, therefore, successive generations of innovators face an ever increasing educational burden.  Jones measured this impact in terms of lengthening education, narrowing expertise, and very interestingly, an increase in age of first invention and specialization.  Essentially, although technological progress continues at a rapid pace, because there are more innovators, it takes each of us longer to learn what is already known before we can innovate. Certainly this makes sense. 

But, what if?  What if we were able to deploy a strategy to reduce some of this burden of knowledge for our next generation of innovators?  What if we were able to teach some basic STEM concepts at an earlier age, in a way that is engaging, taking full advantage of our current literacy curriculum for early elementary school children? 

This is the basis for Entelechy Education, LLC. 

Entelechy Education, LLC, presents a unique teaching approach integrating STEM and character education themes within the literacy curriculum. Entelechy Education, LLC resources help children grow to achieve their scientific, technological, engineering, mathematical, character, and literacy potential in a world filled with opportunities.

The EnteleTrons™ and all of us here are up for the challenge!

 

Resource: 

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/documents/ame_05_08_jones.pdf

Young readers learn anti-bullying tactics

In a Philadelphia suburb on March 3, 2013, a young boy died a day after his twelfth birthday, the victim of bullying.  Unfortunately, his sad story is not an isolated incident.  Around the country, other children have become victims of bullying. 

Parents and teachers can begin to break this cycle by helping children understand the nature of a bully. And then offer these explanations:

 

1. Bullies behave that way because they want attention. By walking away, you deny them the attention they want.
2. The only attention a bully gets at home is generally negative attention. To change the bully's attitude, everyone must begin to give him attention for the good things that he or she does. It may be hard to find that spark of goodness, but it's worth the effort to help the bully feel needed and wanted for something in his or her young life.
3. Sometimes it isn't enough to ignore the bully. Occasionally, the bullied child needs to gently and respectfully confront the bully by saying, "Why do you want to do that to me? What did I do to deserve that?" When the response is also negative, the bullied child should walk away, leaving the bully to consider the questions. 
4. Humor defuses most situations. Teach your child to laugh and say, "Hey that was funny! But don't do it again." The bully will likely take one step backwards and then go the other direction!

What you DON'T want your child to do is confront the bully with more anger and more negative attention. That will almost always lead to a fight where someone gets hurt. Bullying is a real problem in schools, but with education and practice at home, your child can have the emotional armor to protect him or herself from the inevitable bullies.

It is the goal of Entelechy Education, LLC to educate children, parents, and teachers about ways to be more caring about others.  Each of our books on STEM topics includes a character component.  In the newly released Where's Green?, one of the rainbow colors feels so isolated from the group that he volunarily leaves to avoid conflict.  The EnteleTrons™ teach all the colors about the meaning of cooperation and understanding to create a harmonious group. 

Order Where's Green?, the first book in The EnteleTrons series now, and start your child on a road to an emotionally stable life.  Sign up to get notifications of new titles as they are released: Mailing list.