"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives." –Robert M. Hutchins

What is on our blog and forum:
A review and discussion of the article: "In the fight over education is anyone wining?"
Good Magazine, September/October, Education Issue
Article by: Gary S Stager, PhD

Call the Helpline for Hot Tips!
Did you know you can call the IEM Helpline for support preparing an ILP? Call us!
800-893-6199

Preparing an ILP?
What's your child's learning style?
Visit IEMinc.org and find out!

Check Out the Resources for Parents on the IEM Website.

More and more resources for parents are being added to the IEM website. You'll find information on many subjects, from how to approach and talk to teachers, to what to do if your child isn't fitting in.

Want to join-in on the conversation about everything from the pitfalls of standardized testing to the benefits of ILPs? Check out Randy Gaschler's blog and an open forum at the Parent Driven Schools site.

How to Create a Working Plan for Your Student's Goals

Remember when your child was an infant and needed regular trips to a doctor to chart their physical and developmental progress? If your child’s weight, height and growth were not on target, the doctor gave advice and action steps to take. An Individual Learning Plan (ILP) does just that for your child’s learning development.  The only difference is that you set a working time line with your child and his/her teacher to meet the identified goals.

As with any goal, developing a plan for your child’s learning development should be a working plan—always progressing and changing. When a doctor creates steps for a patient’s physical goals, it usually requires frequent visits to reevaluate what growth has been made. The doctor may even change the plan if growth is slower or faster than expected, recommend new types of vitamins, or suggest physical therapy.

Your child’s Individual Learning Plan is a document that puts their learning goals into descriptive words. The need to plan for progress needs to be outlined and organized. If creating an Individual Learning Plan sounds overwhelming, let us help you get started. The first step is to have a conversation with your student about what they would like to accomplish this year, next year, and in five years. The ILP needs to be an intentional commitment to developing a lifelong learner that will someday have a career, and become a productive member of the community.

Faced with a resistant learner?  A great book resource is available titled:  The Resistant Learner by Lawrence J. Greene (St. Martin’s Griffin, NY).  It contains scripts and worksheets ready to copy and use. It is like a personal coach to help you start the process with your student.  The discussion around each concern/issue is identified by chapter title. You could open the book to an issue that specifically addresses your student’s needs, read the ‘directions’ and begin to have a conversation.

Next, understand that the document is different for each and every child, and recognizes all of the players involved to make the goals happen. It is not written once and put in a folder to be forgotten.  Rather, it is written with SMART Goals:  specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.  The document is revisited periodically to chart the progress toward the goals and make adjustments as necessary.

Think of your child’s plan as a road map to educational success. If you look at a map of the United States you’ll see a lot of roads with many ways to reach the same destination.  Some roads are more desirable than others—but are they realistic? Can you drive through the Grand Canyon and visit Mount Rushmore all in one week?

The ILP can help the student, parent, and teacher move through a year of progress successfully. Take a step towards creating a great 2009 by investing in your life long learner—their livelyhood and economic outlook depend on it.

Free Tools to Support your Student’s Education

Parent Driven Schools is a grass roots organization and website providing tools and support for parents, teachers and businesses who want to create lifelong learners. This month, we’re connecting you to resource specialists-for free-plus interesting articles, books and blogs to support your student’s education.

Here are a few tools and resources that are available for everyone to use free of charge:

• Parent Helpline— get connected to a resource specialist who listens to your needs and helps identify resources. Call today! (800) 893-6199
• BlogtalkRadio—Join various experts live every Wednesday at noon PST for 15 minutes of ideas, information and resources that support and encourage making the voice and choice of the parent heard. The conversations go to automatic archive—so if your lunchtime is packed—save us to your ipod for later.

Do you have an idea, a resource or a success story you would like to share? Email and put in the subject "blogtalkradio" and we will connect your voice with others who are driven to support parent choice.

• Check out our Forum—Ideas, inspiration and article reviews highlighting organizations and individuals who are supportive of growing lifelong learners.
• In the Parent forum learn how to transform your resistant learner.
• In the teacher forum, share your preferred learning/teaching style with parents.
• In the business forum we’re discussing what employers want and need in the next generation of workers. Be a part of the conversation!

Straight Talk to Parents and Teachers from Main Street’s Employers

What are employers truly looking for in the next generation of employees? And, more importantly, are your students getting the right education to meet those needs? This month we’re bringing you straight talk from Main Street so that your child is prepared for a prosperous future.

The release of our Employability Report Card, surveying Main Street employers, is just around the corner.

This comparative review of reports, spanning back over 20 years, identifies an increasing need for education to adapt and meet the needs of employers.  One over-arching theme found over the last 20 years is a desire for both soft skills, and basic education skills. 

Whether students are coming from high school, a two-year or vocational training program, or have been re-trained due to layoffs (the most common element of employee workforce in these trying times), there is a strong need for the employee to be adaptable, flexible and ready to work hard.

An operational manager for a large Steel Mill in the southern area of the United States says:

"I have jobs. I cannot fill them. Those who are looking for work are looking for the same work conditions they left. My company is hiring, and we want to put people to work. We need American workers who believe they can do the work and are not afraid to try hard.

They will not start out where they left off in the auto industry and other industries that are facing change and downsizing.  I need them ready to read technical manuals. I need them ready to fix equipment. If they are willing to learn we are ready for them to work."

There you have it. The key to any successful employment is the ability to be a lifelong learner—straight from the mouth of a Main Street employer.

Fun Fact

If you think IQ is something you're born with, you need to hit the books. A Psychology Today article by Cornell University psychology professor Stephen J. Cecil reveals some fascinating facts about IQ. Among them:

Staying in school makes you smarter. It's not just that you know more facts. Each month you stay in school helps bolster your IQ.

Evidence of this goes back about 100 years, when the London Board of Education studied a group of low-IQ kids. They compared kids within families, and the more school kids missed as they aged, the lower their IQs were. This suggests that IQ isn't a fixed gift--it blooms if we nourish it, and withers if we don't.

(Fact courtesy of by Martha Brockenbrough on encarta.msn)