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Allan R. Wallace trains visionaries.
Allan is Rector of Bastiat Free University and Junior Partner Ministries. He is also author of Speculation Rules.... (more...)
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perhaps self-teaching is an easier definition for independent, self-directed learning
An enduring American legend is incorporated in the picture of Abraham Lincoln studying by the light of his fireplace.
All of the fancy descriptions aside, autodidactism is studying and learning according to your own lesson plan.
You may have just learned to read, or you may posses many degrees from formal colleges, if you decide to study a new area on your own you are an automath.
You might even informally join with others to share and debate what you are studying and still be an autodidact.
You can become self directed and therefore self educated - give yourself permission to once again enjoy learning.
Contents at a Glance
- Let each book you read lead you to the next book you would like to explore.
- automaths surround us
- start at any age, any time, any where
Let each book you read lead you to the next book you would like to explore.
Direct your own learning according to your own plan
"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer
Choice is central - you can specialize just as you would in a formal school, or you can become a generalist tying together all the specialists' myopic visions into an overall theme.
Your love of automobiles may lead you to study their construction. Their construction may lead you to engineering, metallurgy, sculpture, and environmental issues. These may lead you to other disciplines. A jack of all trades is developed, and perhaps a master of one.
"All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education." - Sir Walter Scott
Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950
Amazon Price: $18.71 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $24.95
Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment
Amazon Price: $14.93 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $21.95
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Amazon Price: $16.17 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $26.95
Og Mandino's University of Success
Amazon Price: $13.60 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $20.00
Self University: The Price of Tuition Is the Desire to Learn : Your Degree Is a Better Life
Amazon Price: $24.95 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $24.95
automaths surround us
Even the high school coach that is assigned to teach psychology may use autodidactic methods to enhance his understanding.
Autodidacticism allows you to form your own viewpoints.
The great economic philosopher, C.F. Bastiat, was unable to finish college. He studied instead at home, developing his ideas and sharpening them during his walks and discussions with a neighbor and friend who at first disagreed with him. In part that is why his arguments are so easy to understand, and so elegantly simple. If you have not heard of Bastiat it is because business schools find it easier to ignore Bastiat's essays since they can't refute them.
You can read and study Bastiat if you wish. You don't have to ask permission to learn anything you want.
There are many self taught standouts like Bastiat in history. There are many changing society today.
You can be another.
start at any age, any time, any where
When to start student directed learning?
Proving You're Qualified: Strategies for Competent People Without College Degrees
Amazon Price: $16.95 (as of 05/17/2008)
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Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 05/17/2008)
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The Call to Brilliance: A True Story to Inspire Parents and Educators
Amazon Price: $12.21 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $17.95
Leadership Is an Art
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 05/17/2008)
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The Rapture Of Maturity: A Legacy Of Lifelong Learning
Amazon Price: $17.56 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $21.95
diplomas and degrees are losing value
As education becomes a "right," and as bureaucracies shrink with the ending of the industrial age, formal education loses value.
What is the case is that technologically empowered cohort exists taht is larger than Generation-Y alone. Passionate knowledge workers united in flexible teams based on relationships and reputation form the Netcohort. Individualistic knowledge workers are no longer bound by age, location, or nationality.
Being part of the Netcohort requires knowledge, adaptability, integrity, and an eagerness to contribute. None of these attributes require a formal education.
If the option to collaborate with a college dropout like Bill Gates (he has four honorary degrees) or an MBA is offered to you, who would you choose?
Self education, persistence, and a reputation for results works just fine in the Netcohort.
Distance and national affiliations are becoming less important. To re-pose the question above, if you had a chance to have Richard Branson (supposedly a poor student, although he has also received an honorary degree) on your board, as opposed to a local business school professor, who would you choose?
Obviously it is success outside the classroom that is most attractive when considering expanding your project team.
Register and monitor courses at no charge!
a free university that exists to re-ignite your love of learning
If the pleasure of reading was stolen from you during required schooling - take back that pleasure today. The more you read, the faster and easier it is to read. The faster and easier it is to read, the more enjoyable reading becomes.
Reading is the key. If you enjoy reading there is no knowledge that persistence can not unlock.
If you want to create a formal lesson plan, feel free to borrow one of ours.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byLet's Create New College Models - Perhaps A College Degree Substitute
Think of Wikipedia, Mozilla, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson. Trust, authenticity, and accomplishment is more powerful than mere certification.
Certification is no longer required in some areas for participation and success. Wikipedia, the Mozilla Foundation, and other cooperative social ventures seek willingness, knowledge, and skill from participants; there you can build a reputation. Neither Gates nor Branson have college degrees, except honorary degrees received in acknowledgment of their accomplishments.
A new college model does not even need Bastiat Free University or an equivalent; except in some instances as a form of middleman. Following is a rough outline of one innovative higher education model.
Self-teach yourself by reading sixty or more related non-fiction books and record your learning by doing an in depth review of each one in a blog. Put the blog's URL net address on your resume. Adapt the BFU course directions if you want a bit more structure. To consider yourself a knowledgeable renaissance person in your field, keep learning.
Lets put a bit more clay on to this sculpture.
* Find a mentor in the field you wish to enter; someone that won't mind asking and answering questions.
* Get your mentor to review each entry so you can improve it.
* Create multiple choice questions and/or review points on each chapter you have read and add those to your blog post.
* Correct the entry, then have your mentor acknowledge your work in the comments.
Pay your mentor well, but remind him he will profit not only by all the direct work he does with you, but by others being able to judge the excellence of his efforts to assist you. Negotiate everything you can think of upfront until you both are satisfied.
Ask your mentor to emphasize where you have failed to improve. This is not like archaic institutional schools where the goal was a high grade. If you are desiring to learn -- failure with insightful correction is a much better teacher than steady success. For that reason you should seek opportunity to exceed what you think is possible. Stretch yourself; discover your strengths and weaknesses, we all have them.
You will have done more thorough work and learning than in most college degree programs. Anyone wishing to verify your knowledge can read the blog you created. You will also be able to review your learning by referring to what you have written.
Show depth and flexibility by also blogging on books, seminars, and courses outside your immediate area of study. These will probably not need your mentor's acknowledgment.
This will not help you win a cubical in a warehouse like bureaucracy - but that is probably not what you wanted anyway. Any opportunities you discover will be with compatriots that want to work with people of determination and achievement. That can be a very good thing.
Diplomas are losing value as they become common and as bureaucracies shrink. A diploma is a dead document representing past compliance with inflexible regulations. Your blog can be a living document that displays your continued growth. You can do this even if you already have a degree.
If you decide to start a company and change the world where would you look for fellow innovators; to those with a five year old degree and experience in a cube farm, or to those striving constantly for understanding and wisdom and then acting on what they learn?
So would I.
With your help we can develop this college substitute model; perhaps adapting online poker room technology for interaction and adding freelance hiring software for overseeing the mentor relationships. A first step might be a forum and a minimal structure for cooperative development.
Great so far - what else do you have for me?
If you want to explore self directed education from other viewpoints, take a look at these featured lenses.-
We Be Ignorant
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Well educated specialists are as informed of their narrow areas of expertise as modern science allows. It is natural to think of how sophisticated our modern knowledge is, and to proclaim the vast areas of ignorance of not more than a decade or a cent...
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Start My Own Business Ideas
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Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt Shakespeare
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Bastiat Free University - student directed learning for visionaries
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Bastiat Free University is developing a place to learn. Starting before kindergarten, college degrees are marketed as a way to get a better job, more income, or a promotion. Bureaucrats are selling meal tickets to future bureaucrats. But college deg...
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Elliott Wave Theory - videos, books, and free tutorials
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Discover investment entry and exit points and start pulling that trading trigger with confidence. Use Elliot Wave analysis as a stock, bond, and futures trading technique in both up and down markets. The profitable dimensions of Elliott Wave tools can...
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Netcohort Institute - training visionaries to help change the world
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We are entering an age of the technology empowered individual. It's your age -- The Netcohort Age. You will be forming The Netcohort Institute to help yourself and your fellow students relate successfully to this age's new unstructure.
We do not have to stop learning when we finish required schooling
In what areas are you an autodidact?
From science to mythology. famous automaths have shaped our lives. It is possible for you to shape the future by your own self-directed learning or by supporting those that are currently being self taught.
The real changes to our future will come from the Netcohort and their interactive and flexible teams. Part of what makes these life-long learners stand out is they are absorbing knowledge 24/7/365.
Just like when we were kids; it's natural learning. "Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual." - Arthur Koestler
