Students who do not fit into the traditional education system

Students who do not fit into the traditional education system

Posted on

Some students do not fit into the traditional system and have a characteristic feature that distinguishes them at school: they get bored and do not fit the mold. This mold is designed to carry out perfect harmony within the educational system. At West River Academy (WRA), we are pleased to receive these types of students because of their indomitable spirit.

In our day-to-day, as an educational institution, we receive emails, requests, and inquiries from parents who are concerned about their children. They worry they cannot fulfill themselves as human beings, as they are labeled within the traditional educational system.

These parents feel the pain of their children and their frustration at not being able to help them and ask with great sadness that we help them end this situation expeditiously; They ask us to advance years and certify degrees together so that their children can graduate from the educational system as soon as possible.

At WRA, we understand these family situations and discomforts very closely. This is why we are a solution for these demands; only it is impossible to do it the way said parents want. The good news is we have a much better counteroffer: Convert Life Experiences into Academic Credits.

Take a breath and stop to smell the roses

Knowing oneself, doing it at our own pace, and enjoying life are the fundamental pillars of our school. It is learning and educating yourself with your study plan and doing it in the order and rhythm you want: as each family feels and decides.

We do not recommend advancing years, certifying degrees together, and graduating early, because, being an institution established and legalized in the United States, this option can only be possible for early admission to the University or Technical School. Otherwise, it is not possible to advance degrees. And with our proposal, it is not necessary to promote years either.

We offer you to enter our institution with open content, we do not have a study plan, so your son or daughter will not have to get bored with pre-established content; instead, they can study what they want at the level they enjoy and not settle with the curricular design imposed by the traditional model.

Do your children love math and science? , at Khan Academy, the curriculum of studies up to Calculus II will be at your disposal. It’s even a great idea to encourage them to start with what they want to learn and realize that they could review and study previous content to reach their goal: at their own pace, in the order he wants, and as many times as he likes!

Do your kids love the arts and language? , in Kubrio, they will find endless artistic expressions, clubs, intensive courses, and study groups with this dye. In Kubrio, there is also space for the sciences, only that its members have taken it more towards the artistic, learning science through debates and creative expressions as projects. With people from all over the world!

Do your children love sports? In your town, there are thousands of options at different levels. The body is a machine that is forged, and sports need muscle memory, and this takes time. We have many students who train 12 to 18 hours a week. They are holistically focused on reaching their goals!

Do they love to delve into everything? They have 24 hours a day to choose what they want to learn. With video games, books, movies, and live. Why rush this extraordinary time?

At WRA, we focus more on helping you do what you love rather than on completing a list of knowledge to go from one grade to the next and then forget it. Each person has a gift that is accompanied by one or more interests. And that’s what we’re aiming for.

Mano levantando un birrete de graduación

How to certify without the official curricular design?

One of our benefits as an educational institution is being able to certify a school grade each year, respecting the official subjects, and adding, in the case of high school, some elective subjects. 

Parents can request a transcript of grades each year and thus certify each year from preschool. If the educational goal at home is to graduate from high school, they can wait for the last four years of high school and certify only those four years. 

The four years the student must accredit to graduate from high school must be equivalent in your country to the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades in the United States. And these four years must be completed in 4 different years.

Said transcription of notes will be the equivalent of what the student experienced. By making an annual summary or report of what you have learned, you will realize that you have covered every aspect of it: math, language, science, biology, etc., only with your curriculum, time, and depth.

 

Our proposal to students who do not fit into the educational system.

We live one year at a time. We don’t have a remote control that advances us years at will. We live them all and learn accordingly. At West River Academy, we encourage families to live their education through natural learning. It is unnecessary to advance years when you find a proposal so human and adapted to your day-to-day. There is no need to rush to live.

In addition, you can hear a very thoughtful podcast about this topic from Peggy Webb, Founder and Director of West River Academy:

 

We hope this article has brought the peace of mind and certainty you sought when contacting us. If you still have questions, schedule a free 15-minute consultation or read more on our blog.

Enroll with us if you don’t need anything else to start your educational freedom.

A Graduates’ Path to Self-discovery

A Graduates’ Path to Self-discovery

Posted on

The West River Academy Graduation Program students are a true testament to the philosophy that there is beauty in diversity. The young adults that we cross paths with have learned that it is okay to hit walls, question your identity, and feel imperfect. Because what you learn from that is how to bounce back, be authentic and embrace your uniqueness.

Marta Chan is an exceptional young woman in our Graduation Program Class of 2018. In one of her monthly report assignments, she reflects on a trip to Finland, growing up in Estonia and her journey to self-discovery.

“Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine… And it’s breathtakingly beautiful!” L.R. Knost has managed to put into words the description of how this month was for me.

I learned once again, that sometimes things just don’t work out as you planned. I thought I had already learned this lesson, but this month proved me wrong. Nothing seemed to go the way I wanted. I was really upset and irritated. But then, I started noticing all these unexpected little, wonderful things that happened in my life. I realized how I sometimes rush to get everything done and forget the reason why I’m doing these things in the first place. Writing my thoughts and feelings down into my journal, really helped me find some serenity and peace of mind.

One thing that was constantly on my mind this month, was my dad’s Chinese origin and his ancestry. It’s challenging for me to do family history from his side, because I do not speak neither Cantonese nor Mandarin Chinese. I’m learning the latter, but it’s rather difficult. It’s not so much the language that’s hard to learn but the notion and culture of the Chinese people. As I have learned more about their culture and traditions, I have recognized pieces of it in myself. I know my parents gave and still give their best in raising me and my siblings and I am really grateful for them, because they have allowed and encouraged me to become the best me. But at times I feel like I am disconnected from the Chinese “part” of me. When I was younger, I always tried to convince others (and myself) that I am a “true- Estonian”. And I remember being so upset when someone would point out that I’m “half- Chinese”, because it made me feel as if I’m incomplete and hence insufficient. But with time I came to realize, that’s not true! Rather than trying to define myself, I learned to know myself. Who I am? Who and What I love? What are my fears, my talents, my passions? What do I do to accomplish my dreams? These are the things that matter. These are the things that make me complete. Not perfect, far from that. But whole.

I learned that if we come to accept ourselves the way we are, it helps us move forward and better ourselves. The beauty in being a human is that we have both the ability and power to improve ourselves. Our backgrounds and situations do not play important roles in this. Our attitude does. My dear grandpa told me once: “A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t drive the car anywhere until you change it. And if you change it, you can go anywhere your heart desires”. I agree with him.

February Twenty-fourth officially marked the one-hundreth birthday of the Republic of Estonia. This gave me again a reason to dive into my family history and celebrate the people who built this country. Their sacrifices and diligence in hardships don’t cease to both amaze and impress me.

Screen Shot 2018 03 16 at 2.21.51 PM 48x36@2xOne of the highlights of this month was our family trip to Finland. We went there by a ferry. It was really cool to see the frozen Baltic Sea. All of the water was pretty much asymmetrical blocks of ice. Finland is really pretty! They have many lakes (about 168 000) and endless uninhabited boreal forests! But our first priority was to visit Helsinki Finland Temple. I believe it to be (along with the rest of the 159 operating temples our Church has) a sacred place and the house of God. It was wonderful to visit it and it really made me appreciate everything that has been created, even more than I did before. The time there also gave me a chance to rewind everything that has been going on in my life lately and steer myself back to where I want to be. In conclusion, this month I mostly analysed and studied myself. As ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Español