What would happen if you threw a teacher's curriculum out the window and empowered dyslexic and ADDHD fourth through sixth graders to learn at their own pace, focused on their areas of interest and abilities. Then mix in some troublemakers, along with some bright-but-bored in need of a good challenge. This experiment in child directed learning actually occurred in the 1970s led by a renegade teacher who had struggled with his own dyslexia in school before this condition was recognize; and an optimistic school superintendent who was intrigued with the idea of teaching problem solving and life skills instead of facts, figures and formulas. Fast-paced stories of class projects run amok and students facing their inner demons will warm your heart and entertain you. Plus, they may provide food for thought on reaching kids through self-organized, experiential learning before they lose their love of learning and fall prey to negative peer groups. A follow-up book, Renegade Class, is now available. It is the surprising story of what became of these kids in the 40 years after leaving the experimental program; the story of what worked and what didn't.
About the Author: About the Author, Duane F. Smith The Author's unusual background and life experiences provide a unique perspective on traditional education, its potential and shortcomings. Having been born dyslexic, he found his own schooling a challenge and, barely finishing high school, left to join the Army. There he was to experience a life-changing event...teaching in an experimental program prepared for the Army by the University of Maryland. It left him convinced there was a better teaching method for teaching dyslexic and ADDHD kids, than the one-size-fits-all Socratic Model, ubiquitous to education. After the Army, he went to Ashland, Oregon and to renovate old houses into college rentals. Meanwhile, in an attempt to understand why school had been so difficult for him, he enrolled in a psychology class at what is now Southern Oregon University, and one class led to another. Eventually, he received a Master's Degree, with an emphasis on early childhood development. In his late 20s, on a challenge from a frustrated teacher, he had met socially, he left an assistant to run his growing construction company, deciding to teach for a year or just long enough to test some of his theories. Here he would meet Henry O. Pete, an extremely innovative school superintendent. They soon united in their belief that the Socratic method of teaching was no longer meeting the needs of many of their students. Together, they developed an experimental program, kids who were struggling in the 4th through 6th grades. In this program the kids worked at their own pace and in their areas of interest. When, after five years, Henry was hired to be the founder of a Community College based on their same experimental theories, Duane decided not to follow Henry and left teaching to culminate his business career by building a unique inn in Ashland, Oregon. After two decades as an innkeeper, and 40 of following the progress of the students from the experiential program, he began writing. Renegade Teacher is about what worked in the classroom and what didn't. Then, Renegade Class is the story of what became of the kids from the program, over the next 40 years.