Wrapping Up 5302: Choice

Along with all of the online discussions, viewing, and reading, I have been making my way through the COVA eBook - Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning Opportunities, by Dwayne Harapnuik, Tilisa Thibodeaux, and Cynthia Cummings. I felt an early connection with this book when in the introduction, Dr. Harapunuik writes of the difficulties he experienced interacting with traditional schooling. I wasn't cut out for traditional schooling. I made it through my 10th grade year in one of the finest public education systems in the state of Pennsylvania before I jumped ship for my self-guided homeschool experience. I now have two sons who don't fit neatly in with the general population. I believe that these ideas about giving students choice and voice in how they learn would go a long way in allowing my children to find more connection, success, and happiness with the educational system. Right now one is already getting lost. How do we transition the old industrial-era model of instruction to the COVA model? How do we educate millions of students in a way that we know is more meaningful when we as a country barely fund the current model? We want trauma-informed care training and supports, restorative justice practices implemented, instruction based around COVA practices. To do them all, we need radical change to our systems and real funding for the supports that make these practices work in practice. I am excited to learn more about these practices and see these ideas spreading, and understand that this is the beginning of that transformation. I hope that my children's teachers are learning about COVA and applying the COVA ideals into their student learning experiences that they provide. I hope that one day, our students will truly have choice and voice. Until then, my boys and I will be doing the best we can on this learning journey.