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Marilyn Mosley is the Director of Laurel Springs School in Ojai, California,
which has an online program for students through high school level anywhere
in the world, and a homeschooling program that enrolls many gifted students,
including a number of young television and film actors. Also a ballet
student from age five, Marilyn joined the Plexis Dance Company in Ventura,
CA, and choreographs youth dance productions, sometimes included in Laurel
Springs graduation ceremonies. The following is from a phone interview.
"The thing I've noticed is that if people feel appreciated and acknowledged,
and their style of learning is valued, they flourish and they want to
continue, and their inherent love of learning really comes forth. Our
focus for all our students is to really provide a very loving, and secure
and safe environment in which to learn. The other thing that's really
important is to empower each individual to really find their passion.
Each of us has a different interest and love of learning. Joseph Chilton
Pearce, who wrote the book "Magical Child", said that if the
model of education matches the individual, then true learning occurs.
So our goal is to make sure that the curriculum a child is involved with
really matches the model of what they need to be learning, and want to
be learning. Then it's exciting. It isn't a chore; it isn't something
they're doing for someone else.
We do have a lot of gifted students who come to us, and oftentimes it's
because they feel they weren't recognized or supported in public schools,
and, worse than that, sometimes they actually experienced a negative environment
in which to learn.
One of our advisors is Frederick Hudson [of the Hudson Institute in Santa
Barbara, CA] and he believes that adults go through different passages
in their lives, depending on their age, and that if you're attuned to
these passages it can be an incredibly enriching process. His premise
is that in our jobs and in our life, you learn a subject or you take on
a job, you work towards a goal, and reach the height of your goal and
plateau out, and at that point most people stick with their job and go
into a dying process, where it's no longer exciting and alive to them.
He teaches people how to either transition to a new job, or rejuvenate
the process you've been doing, so that it doesn't become dead. His work
is so invaluable, and I use his information all the time.
In terms of some issues like self-esteem affecting students, what I've
seen is a general, overall malaise of the public school system. We have
a premise at our school that before you can really teach content, you
need to work on self-esteem and positive life skills. All the content
in the world is not as valuable as coming out of Laurel Springs feeling
good about yourself. So we try to create a curriculum that enhances a
child's self-esteem, and their life skills: their ability to really function
in the world.
The culture in general doesn't especially support giftedness and gifted
people. I would think it's not all that different for adults or children.
You sort of have to recapture yourself, and reevaluate who you are, so
you're not letting other people define who you are as an individual and
as a learner. I know that one of the things that's so healing about Laurel
Springs is that students regain themselves in the process, so they can
stand back and evaluate what they went through before, and understand
that part of the problem was simply that other people couldn't see them
for who they are, and therefore they were subjected to gross injustices.
But once you understand it's not you, it's other people and their inability
to accept greatness, it's almost easier. I think once you can navigate
your own learning, whether you're an adult or a child, you can make incredible
leaps, because you're not being held back or suppressed by people who
might just be very threatened by who you are, because you don't conform.
One of the most important values for our students is to realize you're
not alone, and that there was nothing wrong with you, but you were in
a system that blames the individual for not conforming.
John Gatto wrote a book called "Dumbing Us Down", and MSNBC
just did a show [including a segment on Laurel Springs] saying that's
what our system is doing, that kids are coming out of high school unable
to write and do math, going into college needing remedial work, because
the thought process is not toward excellence.
What happens in high school, and what people end up having to recuperate
from for years, is the peer pressure is immense, and it comes at a time
in a child's life when they're trying to grow up and individualize. So
they bond to a peer group out of a need for approval, and often times
these groups may not have the same needs and standards as they have, and
so they lower their abilities in order to join, or they're ostracized
from the group because you're different. And either way, you don't get
to be yourself. You don't get to experience the joy that you're okay as
you are.
There was a study recently with homeschool high school students that found
they had much higher self-esteem. They bypassed that middle period of
high school when most students are motivated by wanting to be accepted,
and they were able to move from their family connection to looking at
what their own life was about, what was their life calling. They felt
good enough about themselves that they didn't need to seek outside approval
from others.
With respect to my own growth, my family was and is very supportive. My
father was an artist, and my mother was always very supportive of me expressing
myself through the arts. I got to a point about eight years ago where
I realized that I needed to just dance for the joy of it, and that I didn't
want to dance professionally. Probably that's a stage of your adult development,
when you realize you don't need to do it for the outside world.
I think dance and creativity is an incredible gift, and that we all need
to express ourselves creatively. One of the first things we do with children
who come to our school, if they're really burned out from public school,
is we design a curriculum that is very creative. It's such a healing process
for them to get back in touch with their own inner, emotional creativity.
And I think that's true for us throughout life. I always think we're all
children at heart.
One of the things I've liked about the process of encouraging talent is
that it's always changing, and that once we can heal ourselves of our
past wounds, we can move on. And the future is completely open. There's
no stopping us, and there are all kinds of opportunities available."
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