Our Teaching Philosophy

Please bear with us for a little while. This is important to understand why we do what we do.

It Wasn't What They Thought

Years ago the "Educational Establishment" had an "obvious" theory they got study money to prove. The fact was that the children of wealthy and middle class parents did better in school than the children of poor parents. The "obvious" answer was that when parents have money, they can buy the supplies and training tools that help children excel. The study found the differences and fixed them, but something odd happened - it didn't help!

In fact, a judge in Texas once took control of a school system because it was obviously not providing for the poor and minority groups because the performance of those groups was substandard. He decided that the Court needed to take control and fix the problem. He ordered the construction of hundreds of millions of dollars of science and computer labs, provided the latest facilities, fixed everything, and provided all the cutting edge resources to teach the kids. Test scores stayed the same and the drop out rate went UP!

It became apparent that something else was going on. It took several studies to find out what was different between the poor families and the middle class and wealthy families. It wasn't the money. It wasn't the equipment. Fixing those made NO difference.

Another interesting thing they found out when they studied the education of children in the late 1990s is that a child of high school drop out parents will perform below the 50th percentile in school. No surprise there. BUT, here's the surprise - HOMESCHOOL kids whose Teacher-Parent was a high school drop out still scored around the 80th percentile! So why did the professional, college educated teacher produce less than a 50th percentile and when the drop out mom taught her own child the kid performed at the 80th percentile?

The Simple Answer: Ask!

The answer turned out to be remarkably simple: Ask Questions.

They found that poor families tended to TELL their children things, while middle class and wealthy families tended to ASK questions. For example, if a child said "2+2=5," in one family he would be told "No, 2+2=4" and in the other family he would be asked to try again. It can be as simple as telling children "It's too loud" instead of "Be quiet." The first one is an order. The second requires just one step of thinking "If it's too loud, then I have to be quieter."

We ask a lot of questions. We provide necessary information, and sometimes we ask leading questions, but the goal is to get the student to think. The more a student can figure out on his or her own, the more the student remembers.

BLACK BOOK: ANOTHER IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE

Marshall's Black Book refers to General Marshall. In World War I, he was attached to General Pershing. He saw the casualty reports and determined that if they had been better trained, that many of the people who died in the war could have survived. Years later he was in charge of Fort Banning, one of the Army's top training grounds.

He would make his cadets work out their plans in detail and then take away their map and compass and send them out. He would write the names of the most promising officers in a small black book that became infamous in the Army. He would go out of his way to try to make an officer's career complicated, contacting Commanding Officers to have his "Black Booked" officers given demanding and often unreasonable assignments - like being put in charge of something about which they knew nothing. If they handled themselves and the responsibilities well, they stayed in his book. If not, he scratched out their name.

Then came Pearl Harbor and we were in World War II. The United States needed officers that were ready for the chaos of war. The names of three officers remained in Marshall's Black Book: Bradley, MacArthur and Eisenhower. We have senior officers ready for war largely because Marshall made sure we had people who could deal with leadership under chaotic conditions.

Black Book in the School

We use "Black Book" techniques, too. We give students leadership opportunities and help them lead. With strong followers, they excel and gain confidence. At some point, many of the student leaders volunteer to be "Black Booked" and they are sometimes given responsibilities beyond the scope of their training. We might ask questions to help guide their thinking, but we give them a chance to try. Many succeed and become Junior Leaders and Assistant Instructors. It's amazing to behold.

Besides leading in class, a group of Junior Leaders, 3rd to 6th grade, accepted an assignment to put together a major event. They came up with the schedule, the potluck food lists, the decorations, and even put together the demonstrations and scheduled speakers. They were not told what to do. We just asked questions and defined problems - they came up with answers on their own. One father who is an executive trainer was concerned that it was a case of "over delegation" when he found out the children had very little guidance. The adults only assisted.

It was a fantastic event. The kids did a magnificent job, and they learned more about putting on a large event from their experience than they could have if we just told them what to do. One parent said it was an impressive event even before learning that the KIDS put it together.

WE'RE BEING PAID FOR RESULTS, NOT FOR WORK

Another consideration we keep in mind when we teach is that we're being paid for results, not for our work. It should not matter to a parent that we show up in every class and work hard teaching if the students didn't actually learn anything. Parents put children in class to learn. Adults sign up for lessons to learn. Few people care how hard we work if we don't produce results for them.

Likewise, we've learned that sometimes the best thing we can do to help students excel is to "disappear." Sometimes the instructor will declare "I'm not here. So what happens now?" It's amazing how well the students do. When they know what to do and they want to do well they can be amazing.

One mother commented that her daughter "has such a good teacher" when the instructor hadn't done ANYTHING in that class. In fact, her daughter had made sure class started on time and was leading class because the instructor "wasn't there." The children had been prepared so they knew what to do when the instructor was watching them when he was "officially not there."

ADULT SELF DEFENSE

The adult classes focus on real Self Defense. We've been teaching martial arts since the 1980s, and in that time we've had dozens of students attacked by violent criminals. So far, the students have won EVERY SINGLE TIME. The longest striking fight was 15 seconds. The second longest was 8 seconds. The rest were over in 1-5 seconds. Only fights ended with Jujitsu skills lasted longer. THAT's how well this stuff works.

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Spiritual Instruction

See Our Beliefs.

See Agathos Ministries.