Mother and daughter Gail Paquette and Kira Withrow join us to discuss what education is, what good teaching is, the state of modern education, and why one might homeschool. After telling us about their backgrounds, they discuss the culture in general and their experiences homeschooling in the 1990s.

About Gail: "Gail Paquette was a homeschooling mom in the 90's when the internet was in its infancy. She holds an MBA and worked in business development settings before starting a family. Homeschooling her two daughters eventually led to an early website (there were not many websites back then!), conference speaking, and a home-based school for other families' children. HomeTaught School in Austin, TX lasted for 5 years (1997-2002) before an opportunity to work for a CEO of a multi-state private school system in Salt Lake City, UT presented itself. Gail relocated to Challenger School's headquarters to work as a staff writer & editor, curriculum reviewer, and teacher trainer. Later she held roles as a Sr. Instructional Designer for American Express, and the Manager of Training at Intermountain Healthcare - the largest healthcare system in Utah.

"Gail is a life-long learner and teacher at heart. She left corporate training in mid 2017 to apply her teaching skill to fitness as a Personal Trainer, and today she owns the Fit2Flourish Studio in Park City, UT. She works with all ages and body types, young and "active agers" who enjoy the wealth of recreational activities inherent in mountain life."

Contact Gail
Fit2Flourish Pilates & Personal Training, Park City
Gail Paquette, CPT-ACE, STOTT Pilates Instructor
Follow on FB: Fit2FlourishPC
Fit2FlourishPC@gmail.com
801-897-2072
FB url: https://www.facebook.com/ParkCityFit/

Contact Kira
Website: https://atlas-tutoring.business.site/


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Show notes.
1. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484

2. Johns Hopkins University
a. "Science students learned the facts of their specific field without understanding how science should work in order to draw true conclusions." --David Epstein, Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

b. "Part of the problem, [Arturo Casadevall] argued, is that young scientists are rushed to specialize before they learn how to think. They end up unable to produce good work themselves and unequipped to spot bad or fraudulent work by their colleagues.” — David Epstein, Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

c. "But educators at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health assert that memorization alone does not a scientist make — above all, students must be critical, creative thinkers who are honest and responsible with data. In order to train scientists as critical thinkers, the R3 Graduate Science Initiative was recently created in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI), led by director Gundula Bosch, Ph.D." (from: https://biomedicalodyssey.blogs.hopkinsmedicine.org/2018/03/revolutionizing-with-r3-a-new-ph-d-program-seeks-to-train-scientists-as-critical-thinkers/)

d. "For their part, Casadevall and Bosch write that science education reform should result in scientists who are: (1) broadly interested, creative and self-directed, as were some scientists in the era of Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and Linus Pauling; (2) versed in epistemology, sound research conduct and error analysis, according to the "3R" norms of good scientific practice—rigor, responsibility and reproducibility; (3) skilled in reasoning using mathematical, statistical and programming methods and able to tackle logical fallacies." (from: https://hub.jhu.edu/2018/01/03/biomedical-science-education-reform-casadevall-bosch/)

3. "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ― Robert A. Heinlein. (from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12051-a-human-being-should-be-able-to-change-a-diaper)

4. On being "interdisciplinary," the famous basketball coach John Wooden (UCLA) was also an English teacher.
a. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wooden
b. https://www.espn.com/classic/biography/s/Wooden_John.html
c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wooden
d. http://www.coachwooden.com

5. Socratic method
a. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method
b. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-socratic-method-2154875
c. https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/810

6. Diderot
a. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot
b. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/


Pictures and bios courtesy Gail Paquette and Kira Withrow.