How do we know that we’re doing the “right” volume of work?

I first learned of the concept of the minimum effective dose from Tim Ferriss, who got it from inventor and exercise expert Arthur Jones.

Jones applied the minimum effective dose (MED) idea to bodybuilding; Ferriss extended it to medications and food. Here, I apply it to schoolwork.

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When you begin with the belief that everyone wants to learn, it stimulates a lot of high quality problem-solving.

As a teacher, I can’t just write off a student as lazy, disobedient, unintelligent, or unmotivated. If something isn’t working, I see it as my responsibility to find something else that will.

What to do with a student who struggles to turn in work on time (or at all)? Who looks at an assignment and immediately gets overwhelmed?

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It’s one of the questions I get most often from the parents of prospective students: “If there are no grades, how will I know that my child is learning?”

Underlying this question is the assumption that grades measure learning. They do not. A test score, at best, measures mastery — but in reality, grades most often measure conformity and obedience. Did you turn in this work, on time? Did you study these specific things, as you were instructed to, for the test? If yes, good grades; if not, poor grades, regardless of whether you already knew the material.

To measure learning, you actually need to measure growth. To do this, you would need to compare two work samples which illustrate a student’s ability or knowledge, one from prior to the supposed learning, and one from after.

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Many of the students we work with at The Little Middle School and Rulerless Academy are seeking refuge from unhappy learning experiences.

Our job is to help them find satisfaction in learning again.

So many students have come to believe that being wrong is dangerous, asking for help is unwelcome, and that no matter how hard they try, they still won’t be good enough. It’s hard for them to trust their teachers, having been stung by indifference, hostility, or inconsistency in the past.

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I wrote yesterday about my reluctance to push a student through developmentally inappropriate material on a too-fast timeline. There is a flip side, however. Learning is not linear, and it’s important to recognize when a student is actually ready to take a leap.

Here’s the uncomfortable part: It may be before you’re ready, and they may leap right over you.

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“The bottom of the nose belongs down here, and the eyebrows should hit here. You can improve the perspective on the house in the background by incorporating these lines. Also, why is the sky a strip of blue at the top?”

We know that there are developmental stages that children’s artwork goes through as they learn, so we don’t expect kids to draw like adult professionals. Dena Luchsinger makes the case that it’s just as unhelpful to a growing writer to point out all of their mistakes.

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It’s simple: Don’t give them too much, too soon.

Simple, but not easy.

My friend sent me a couple of adorable videos of her four-year-old daughter at the piano, singing passionately while tenderly pressing the keys to create a bit of avant garde atonal accompaniment. The lyrics were surprisingly sophisticated — kind of a Nick Cave meets Tori Amos vaguely-confessional-but-abstract vibe. In short, pretty good for a four-year-old.

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Every morning (along with lunchtime and after school), the piano at The Little Middle School is overtaken by a series of students. Each one informally shares the music they can play. This ranges from video game themes, classical pieces, folk songs, songs we’ve learned in class, to just messing around. Each student will continue to play until they have run through their repertoire to their own satisfaction or find themselves jostled off the bench by the next person (usually the latter).

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