Funny. One of my very first posts on this blog told the story of my youngest son, Yonatan, starting first grade. All the hope, dreams and questions marks that came along his first steps in school, my 3rd time doing these first step with my child.

Well, he graduated! It’s crazy how time flies and I am quite amazed at the fact that this blog exists for so long (even though I haven’t written in it too frequently lately)’.

Yonatan has always been a unique self-learner. For the second half of his last year in high school, he got the COVID closure, which was the best thing that could have happened to him at this timing. Back to the roots. Back to self-teaching.

He definitely didn’t like every topic in school. However, when he got 95 for one of the topics that traditionally was a weak point for him, I couldn’t help but wonder. He had a perfectly good explanation: I found really good and quite interesting summaries online. As for math, for years he got help from a private tutor trying to keep up with the class. Once released from the classroom, he flew into the material, using methods he got from his tutor, and simply expanded and deepened his knowledge, achieving a score of 100.

It’s that freedom from the constraints of the classroom that gave him the greatest boost throughout high school. It makes me wonder how many more students can do it. How many more can benefit from being set free from the 4 walls of the school? What are “we”, as a school-classroom-based education system are doing wrong and how can we make it better?