Teaching the Tech Generation

The story about Provost Academy and the rise of online learning initiatives in South Carolina should be a pretty good indicator of the benefit that alternative learning methods have for today’s youth. Here is a stretch of text from the story. You can read the whole story online by visiting the site. Everyone has his or her own learning style.

Washington’s mother, Alice Peterson, said she knew her daughter was headed down the wrong path.
“I might have been in jail and she might have been in the funeral home somewhere,” Peterson said.
Instead, the cousins heard about Provost Academy, a free public online high school for South Carolina residents. They meet at Refuge Outreach Ministry in Lake City to take their lessons.
“It’s all around the kids’ needs and maybe schools should have been doing that for a long time,” Provost Academy Executive Director Darrell Johnson said. “Our school is very student-centered. It’s all about the kids and success. We don’t allow them to fail, either.”
Students spend an average of six hours a day working on their classes.
Graham said her online classes are harder than classes she was taking at public school.
“You’re by yourself and there is no one beside you; it’s basically you’re on your own,” she said.
“She know that she has her tutor online, she knows that she has her teacher there and she knows that everything is right there for her,” her father, Edward Graham, said. “… all she has to do is take the responsibility and go in and get it.”
Peterson said her daughter’s character and attitude have changed since taking her education into her own hands.