What Will L&LNM Learners Look Like?

The August 2016 edition of Psychology Today has an article about self-directed learning. It talks about autodidacts, learners who "as soon as school or work stops serving their life goals...ditch the well-trodden path, bust out the map and compass, and cut cross-country to virgin territory..." 

That is the kind of learning that L&LNM promotes. We want to celebrate the autodidacts and support them in their efforts by guiding them to resources they may not be aware of, questioning them, and asking them to explain their ideas and thoughts. We want to see them go out in the world, ready to learn something that they are passionate about. We know that those who go out and learn what they want to learn and fight battles they want to fight can be happy in life. 

In an earlier post, when we were entering the XQ Super School Challenge, I described what L&LNM super school students would look like. I am presenting them again in this post because whether we became an XQ school or not, we like our ideas and plan to carry them out anyway. So here they are. I welcome comments and suggestions or just a Like here and there. 

Two typical L&LNM students:  


Bosque Farms Dairy Project Isleta Pueblo member Daniel joins the L&LNM super school learning community working on the Bosque Farms dairy project. They are looking at the dairy community that was once a WPA project. 

Daniel and his group will be researching, analyzing data, computing, writing, and developing professional presentations and grant proposals as they work on the project, ending with a report summarizing the issue and recommending possible solutions.

As Daniel works on the project, he talks about it with his dad, who has a business growing horse hay. His dad says, "When I was a kid, your grandfather and I delivered hay to all of the dairies. There is only one left now but I know where all the dairies used to be."

Daniel starts to think...what if the dairies did make a comeback in Bosque Farms? What would be the potential for his dad's horse grass business?  Daniel has decided he would like to try to build his family’s business. He talks with his dad and the people of his pueblo, thinking that another sub-project could be built around the issue and the pueblo could start up an L&LNM learning community to study it.

Albuquerque's Road Rage Project Student Profile

Kelsey has joined the learning community looking at the Abq road rage problem She would like to study psychology when she goes to college. As she starts the project, she is especially interested in what happens to a person when they experience road rage, and how they can learn to control that rage. 

Like Daniel and his group, her group will be researching, analyzing data, computing, writing, and developing professional presentations and grant proposals as they work on the project, ending with a report summarizing the issue and recommending possible solutions.

As Kelsey learns more, she realizes that she would also like to help victims recover from traumatic road rage events. She continues to work on the main project, and she starts another sub-group, a focus group, to work specifically on helping victims of road rage.

That's all I've got today. I'll just end this post with a heartfelt Go New Mexico!