A Passion to Learn

By Raymond D. and Sandra S.

Instilling a passion to learn early in kids lives can make a huge difference in their success and their enjoyment in life.

And helping kids find that passion can create a vitality and sense of purpose that can enrich our own lives.

Ray and Sandy share their personal stories of getting through their school years without finding a passion that made sense of their educational paths. Today, schools are less and less able to provide the experiential education that could spark kids passion for learning. Budgets, curriculum mandates, time-consuming coursework, and testing all combine to make it more and more difficult for teachers to expose their students to experiences that could fire their ambition and create a passion for learning that could help them achieve their goals.

The stories in this book provide a taste of what is possible. The book also challenges readers to consider their own ideas and find a way to get involved. Ray and Sandy offer a format for developing experiential-education projects so they are viable and self-sustaining.

Its a win-win! Students develop a passion for learning and adults are rewarded with vitality and purpose that can carry them through their active pre- and post-retirement years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491725818

Raymond D.

Ray and Sandy Loewe have been involved with education throughout their careers. Sandy is an educator and Ray built a business helping families figure out how to pay for college. Ray graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and an MBA, and Sandy’s undergrad degree in education culminated in a Master’s in education. Both Ray and Sandy’s passion is the idea that today’s students would be well-served by exposure to experiential education in a variety of disciplines so they can find a passion that can make their educational choices more meaningful. Sandy’s experience as a teacher and later a county superintendent of schools has demonstrated that these experiences are unlikely to be provided by the school systems. Their joint commitment is to find a way to fill the void with creative and passionate people and ideas.

Book preview

A PASSION TO LEARN

Copyright © 2014 Sandra S. and Raymond D. Loewe.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-2580-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-2581-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903136

iUniverse rev. date: 02/19/2014

Contents

Background

Ray’s Story

Sandy’s Story

More of Sandy’s Story

Project Ideas

Overview

Viewing Live Surgeries

Challenger Learning Center

Art Appreciation

Wisdom from Centenarians

Saving a Species: Africa

Saving a Species: Costa Rica

Summer Career Camp for Sixth-, Seventh-, and Eighth-Graders

The Projects That Make a Difference Action Plan

Our Challenge to You

Additional Resources

About the Authors

I will always wonder what I might have been able to achieve had that passion for learning been stimulated earlier in my life.

—Ray

Background

Ray’s Story

Have you ever come across an idea or made an observation that gave you pause to think, If I had been exposed to this as a young student, it may have changed my life?

I have. During my teens, when the discussion of college would come up, I was usually told, You’re good at math so you should be an engineer. True, I could do math, but I really had no insight into what an engineer did. Despite that, I listened to the advice and pursued a degree in electrical engineering.

During the first year of college, I wrote off boring classes, rationalizing that these were the basics I had to learn to get to the good stuff. But the second and third years