Reasons Why I Started The Great Leap Academy

I am not a professional educator nor do I have a business degree. I came up with the premise for this business before I knew much about it. I am simply a mom who homeschools and sings and really hopes to make a difference in this world. I have traveled to many different countries and this has helped me learn the ins and outs of what a real world education looks like. The decision to start an enrichment school business was born of a magical, spur of the moment epiphany and I was encouraged to make it a reality by the shortcomings I saw in today’s society and with traditional schooling. These shortcomings are:

1.      Society deems that going to college is a must when it shouldn’t be.

In today’s society it is often implied to our young people that it is impossible to succeed in life without a college degree. This could not be further from the truth. While college is one way to be successful, there are so many other ways to achieve success as well. If your child strives to become a doctor, then college is a must to make that dream a reality, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if your child wants to be something else such as a farmer, an artist, an insurance agent, or an actor then those are all attainable without a college degree. There are plenty of mid to high paying jobs available that do not require a college degree and do not want to limit my child’s future with just one path for him to choose from: college or nothing. College is not meant for everyone and there are so many other options out there.

2.      Irrelevance within traditional schooling.

Part of the problem that I have with traditional schooling in today’s society is the teaching of mostly irrelevant or useless information. An example of a subject that is irrelevant to be taught in school is Filipino. Don’t get me wrong, I want my child to learn how to speak Filipino, but I accomplish that by speaking to him in Filipino and going to different historical places. To me that is the best way to learn a subject, by immersing yourself in it and making it a part of your daily life. For me, studying Filipino for 10 years is a waste of time.  Being forced to learn what “pandiwa” and “pang-abays” are will not be relevant in your adult life.

Unless a child aspires to be an engineer, architect, or mathematician then I see no reason for him to waste years of his life studying subjects such as Trigonometry or Geometry. It makes more sense to cater the learning to the subjects that most interest the child and it is easy to determine what children are interested in during the early stages of their lives. As a homeschooling mom I encourage my son to study what interests him most. If I can tell that he likes dinosaurs more than constellations, then I focus on dinosaurs. If he does not seem interested in learning about the parts of a flower then I try teaching him the parts of a car instead.  My style of teaching is based on the things my child is interested in as well as other important factors such as character formation, financial literacy, literacy in reading and writing, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, learning to use a calculator, learning how to pay bills and write a check, and other general life skills. Basically, I make sure he learns the basics but allow him to do in depth studies on the subjects that he finds interesting. I find this to be more efficient and easier than forcing him to spend an entire semester studying something he finds boring.

3.      Traditional schools kill a child’s creativity.

 (Photo Credit: https://abeerelkotb.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/reflection-on-video-4-school-kills-creativity/)

During his famous TED talk in 2006, Sir Ken Robinson discussed his beliefs on why traditional education kills creativity. According to him, traditional school is built to be a one size fits all program which forces children to all think the same way. To me all children are different and should be allowed to express themselves and learn in their own way. Some children are visual learners while others are kinesthetic learners. The style of learning that works with one child isn’t necessarily the best style of learning for the next child. There are many different forms of intelligence, such as being nature smart, musically smart, reasoning smart, word smart, etc. Just because a child does not make the honor roll doesn’t mean that he is not smart, it just means the school is measuring everyone on one form of intelligence which is different from his. Traditional school does not afford children to be able to share different forms of creativity or imagination or grow their kind of intelligence. Our children are the future leaders of our country and we need them to be able to think outside the box, and traditional schools do not encourage them to do so.

4.      Most enrichment centers in the Philippines are focused on one program and they are far from one another.

This is a problem to most parents, especially during the summer. When a child wants to be involved in different activities, or two siblings have different interests, each center is far from the other. For example: one of your children wants to take up ballet but the other child wants to take up painting and music. Well, the ballet school is 1 KM from your home, the painting classes are 5 KM from your home, and the music school is another 3 KM from your home. All this driving around from place to place is time consuming and not cost effective. This is one of the many reasons why my partners, consultants and I developed the Great Leap Academy.

The Great Leap Academy is the first enrichment school to take different kinds of research-based, internationally-recognized enrichment programs and put them all under one roof. Coming to our center is like being able to shop for different programs based on your child’s interests or weaknesses. At Great Leap Academy you will find a roster of programs including:

·         Music Together - from the U.S.

·         Ikids Mental Arithmetic – from Malaysia

·         Mighty Math – from Singapore

·         Mighty Science – from Singapore

·         And so much more!

Here at Great Leap Academy we believe that it is essential to expose children to many different enrichment programs, which is why we offer a full suite of supplemental classes that consist of:

·         Math

·         Science

·         Music & Movement

·         Drama

·         Ballet

·         Sports

·         Reading & Language

Our in depth classes are taught by specially trained teachers who give each child in-depth, focus experience learning. You will be amazed by how much your child will learn and how much fun they will have doing it! Our balanced approach provides opportunities for your child to grow, develop a positive outlook, acquire a love for learning, and become confident during their well-spent time at The Great Leap Academy.

The Great Leap Academy also offers a one on one tutorial program which supports additional learning to homeschoolers and after-schoolers. This program can help your child succeed in either traditional school or homeschool. Parents can choose from many different lesson types for these sessions and a lesson plan will be curtailed to your child’s specific needs.

I realized that there should be an enrichment program like this in the Philippines, and since there wasn’t, I made one. It was a problem within our society and I set out to solve it. Overcoming problems is what helps us to evolve. Finding a solution to a problem is what led us to create The Great Leap Academy. I hope you will join us. :)