Health and Education

University-Model High School for the Liberated Youth Did you know that George Washington Carver was the local “plant doctor” before he turned 13? Or that George Washington was a land surveyor in his teenage years? Or that Laura Ingalls Wilder began her teaching career prior to her 16th birthday? These teens were not much different than ours today. They were passionate about something, yet they had the freedom to pursue their passion. You’ve been hearing a lot from us about…the  Makarios Path to Self-Directed Learning ...How we  Approach Education at Makarios …breaking the  Repetition Cycle  so often found in traditional education...and the similarities between  Finland’s top-ranking education system and Democratic Free schools . And these are all great examples of this model’s success, but what about the high school student that has struck out on their own, or (gasp!) dropped-out of school? What about the high school student that has struck out on their o...

When I went off to a private, liberal arts college at 19, I was required to take a course on study skills. Why? The university model of education requires students to do the majority of the learning on their own, and most don’t know how. They’ve spent four years spending 35 hours a week in a classroom where the teacher tells them what is important and what will be on the test. Then they go home and cram to remember that information long enough to pass. Then they go to college and take 4-5 classes about 3 hours long. They think it will be a breeze (12-15 hours), but those courses are condensed. Instead of a year, they are learning the same amount of material in a semester. Professors don’t ‘teach’ the material, they use class time to reinforce what students studied on their own in textbooks and videos the prior week and answer questions to clarify understanding and show correlations between different pieces. The university model shifts the responsibility for learning from t...

Not long ago “at-risk youth” could be defined as a young person exposed to a daily onslaught of gangs, drugs, and violence within a single-parent, low income demographic.  According to the organization: At Risk Youth Programs, behaviors that result in “dangerous lifestyles” are often the result of stress that kids experience.  In recent years we have seen a shift in demographics of at-risk youth.  With the stress of school, extra-curricular activities, learning differences, and ever increasing mandates to test and measure progress, our kids are being medicated and go to therapy to “normalize” outcomes.  As a result, our education system in America has created an entire population of at-risk youth from every demographic! Our education system in America has created an entire population of high-stressed, at-risk youth from every demographic! At Makarios Community School we aim to reverse this trend by providing a safe and supportive environment for ALL student...