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Mastering the Mastery Model
 No one knows your child better than you do. You know if your child is
putting forth an effort in his/her studies or not. Furthermore, you are
now working from a much different MODEL of teaching: The mentoring model, or one-on-one model.
Unlike in the classroom you have the luxury of personalized attention
(unless you have 35 children!). In short, you are more like a mentor or tutor than anything else! As a result you may work toward a mastery model of education.
The first time I heard the term mastery model was in college. I had a Child Development course which I will never forget. On the first day of
class, the teacher passed out note cards to each of us. She said,"I want you to write on the card your name and what grade you would
like to receive for this course. And you can only choose an A or a B."Well, after repeating the instruction a couple
more times (because this was so out of the ordinary) we did it, and
most of us put an A on the card under our names. She collected the
cards and explained: "Here's how this will work. I will give you an
assignment, sometimes a writing assignment, sometimes a test. You will
turn in the work. I will grade it and give it back to you with
suggestions for improvement. You will turn it back into me as many
times as it takes for me to be satisfied that you have made an A on
it." We were in awe. Then she added, "I call this the mastery model of education." And I thought to myself, 'That's Home Education!'
I learned SO much from that one class. In reality we often learn more from correcting our mistakes, learning why we missed it. We
learn from being able to mull over it a while, think about, coming back
to it later if need be. We learn, not from testing and rushing on to
the next test, but from stopping long enough to digest the subject
matter and connect it to other subjects and to real life. So many home educators already do this, and their student's files have all "A's" to show for it. Of course, then we get the calls from parents asking, "Is it really fair for me to give my child all A's?" Our response: "Of course it is, if you child is working toward mastery."
Think about it this way: Imagine a
public school was able to hire enough teachers  to have a 3 to 1 ratio.
One day the principle walks into a home room of 30 kids, followed by
nine more teachers. The principle declares to the teachers:
"Find three
students each, take them to the library and work with them all year
until each of your three students make straight A's in all subjects. As
you get to know your three you may cater to each child's
strengths and weaknesses, and you may use any resource you deem useful or necessary.
Please use the mastery model. Don't move on until they've got it. If you need
to wait a while and return to a certain thing, that's fine. From now on
your three students are all that you are responsible for. Next year,
and every year until they graduate, you will have the same three
students."
With that much freedom, personalization, time and resources
it is certainly feasible that the kids of this public school would make
nearly straight A's. Well, that is exactly what home education offers
you. And that is why WE SEE MOSTLY A'S in your files.
Mastering the Mastery Model is no easy task. Most of us grew up with a certain philosophy of education which encourages "covering the material" over learning the content. But just remember, we at HLA will be just as flexible as you need us to be. If you need to take longer with a certain subject, go right ahead. If shorter, move right along. Our goal is the same as yours, that your students will really learn the things placed before them and that those things learned will benefit him or her in a future career, profession, home, and church. The main reason to master the Mastery Model now is so it will become a habit right into adulthood. Then that habit will be passed right on to your grandchildren someday. Won't that be a glorious sight?
Blessings, David Parkerson
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