There are basically two types of learners, rabbits and turtles. Rabbits learn fast but get bored easily. Turtles learn slowly, but love repetition and processes. Government schools are designed for turtle learners. The system demands that government school classes accommodate all but the bottom 10th percentile, which means in order for those barely above the 10th percentile kids to keep up, the curriculum must be scaled down to a level where they can at least maintain a D average. That also means that government school curriculum be of a format most likely to produce that D average in those kids. That not only is a recipe for disaster in rabbit learners, it also minimizes the results in most turtle learners.

It's not that turtles are any less smart that rabbits, but they simply learn differently. I have four kids, three of which are rabbit learners and one which is a turtle learner. In Math, I simply need to explain how a type of problem is done, and my rabbits race off and do it. (Then they get bored with having to do it over and over again). My turtle, on the other hand, needs much more than a simply explanation. He's looking for patterns to follow. He won't grasp the logic, or if he does, he forgets it almost immediately. Once he learns a pattern, though, and then has to repeat the pattern multiple times, he can apply the pattern and solve the problem It's not about how it works, but what method produces the answer. (I was always the kid that wanted to know why the method worked and annoyed the teacher, who really didn't care why.)

My turtle, is my most dependable homeschooler. He sets his assignments down on the table, then chugs away at them until they are done. Meanwhile my rabbits are pestering me about anything and everything except their homeschool, and almost always wind up spending at least twice as much time accomplishing the same thing. Even though their assignments are actually geared toward their learning type. My oldest, though, has proven the approach works. I reduced the repetition, and increased the challenge (to a reasonable, not a burdensome level) and he now finishes his homeschool quickly.

Educating a rabbit is a process of teaching them how to learn without getting distracted. Once they learn that, they're fine. Educating a turtle is a process of slowly building patterns and methods for accomplishing those tasks they'll need.

Oh, BTW, John Saxon, who developed the Saxon Math curriculum is a turtle. But he recognized that fact, and therefore his curriculum is not a subject developed by someone naturally gifted in that area trying to teach children not naturally gifted, but someone not naturally gifted in math, building a curriculum around those methods that worked best to enable him to realistically compete against rabbits. Saxon math works fine for rabbits, because the repetition (that usually bores rabbits) is conveniently placed in a recognizable place (the first 15 problems).

Unfortunately I see rabbits in government schools tragically lost in the system, either drugged into behaving like a turtles, or occasionally paraded for the few things they've managed to teach themselves in spite of the absence of Rabbit Education, only to be fooled into thinking that that is enough. Homeschoolers have to be very careful not to fall into the same trap, especially parents who are turtles.

Here, in a nutshell, is my approach to Rabbit Education. Rabbit learners love a reasonable challenge, but hate processes. Therefore turn processes into a series of challenges. How quickly and how well can they do a short series of problems? Set the challenge, dangle the carrot (the reward) and watch them go. Eventually rabbit learners will learn to set their own mini-challenges in order to get through the turtle process.

For Turtle Education. Simple methods, lots of repetition, but consistently push them to the next method. ("But, Daddy, this is hard!" "If it wasn't hard, you wouldn't be learning then, would you?")

Learning a new method is a pain to a turtle. Applying the method is a joy. It doesn't take them long to catch on that the learning part is unavoidable, but is followed by a nice, peaceful, repetitive application of the new method. The more they grow to accept the inevitability of having to learn new methods, they faster they'll learn, and the better they'll do.

Both rabbit and turtle learners fill the most prestigious roles in society, because those are the ones who figured out how to optimize their own potential. Recognizing which is which in your own children, enables you to help them optimize it, too.