Passion-Based Education

Something I have loved this semester has been learning about Passion-Based Education. I am a believer in the importance of people doing what they love, and I LOVE that this can be incorporated into the classroom!

A TedX Talk I watched explored some of the issues with our current education system and provided a framework for helping students do what they love. Matt Mellen described this model in three steps:

1. Help guide students to discover themselves and their true passions

2. Provide and teach applicable knowledge useful for their desired goals

3. Help facilitate opportunities and encourage students to pursue their dreams

In his talk, he explained how his passion for music was furiously challenged by the systematic and military-like education system that was pumping students out by the masses for economic gain. When he finally decided to follow his passion he was able to find meaning in his own life.

You can watch his talk here: 

As I have thought about Mellen’s talk, I began to think about the word success. What is success? Surely, Mellen’s teachers defined success differently than he did. Who was right? This is where passion-based education steps in. Because of our diverse cultures, there are multiple definitions of success. It is important to allow students to redefine success according to their passions.

An innovative new tool for incorporating students' passions into the classroom is called Genius Hour. During this hour, students work to expand their passions and are in complete control of "what they study, how they study it, and what they do, produce or create as a result." A student could work on anything from building a guitar to choreographing a dance!

Through this style of student-directed learning, students gain motivation to learn about something they are interested in. I believe this is the most effective way to inspire a love of learning!

In my experience as a student, I was not provided with many opportunities to explore my passions in the classroom. Fortunately, I was a "classic" student who did well on assignments and tests. For many of my peers, however, I saw how this narrow approach to education failed them when they were unable to perform according to the standards. I believe the education system is allowing countless students to fall through the cracks by withholding from them a beautiful life of creativity and passion.

As a future teacher I will aim to create opportunity in my classroom for students to express their creativity and individuality. I believe every student's ideas and opinions are valuable and that I have much to learn from each of them. As the education system continues to be transformed by this radical thinking we will begin to see unfathomable strides made in the lives of students who were once thought to be incapable of succeeding in school.