The silent room must be silent at all times.
I learned how too read when I was 9
because I started when I was 7 and I would read 'Bob' books.
I just got jealous of my sister because
she learned how to read when she was 6
and I wanted to learn how to read because
she learned how to read.
Never really took any tests.
My tests for reading were starting to read a book that I wanted to read.
If I could read it that was a good thing.
If I couldn't that was a bad thing.
If I could read the whole book through without any help
kind of like a test, I don't know.
You can do it in your own time.
You don't have to go right away, like, you must do this math class
you can just say, like, 'hey can you give me a worksheet
let me do the math?' something like that.
Or go and ask a staff member
can we do a class every Tuesday for reading or spelling.
You have a lot more responsibility and you have to do it yourself.
You don't go and say, 'Alright, after this I have this...'
and have to go to either one and if you're late
you go to the principal's office.
We don't even have a principal, so.
I took a PSAT prep course
and then we took the PSATs and
that was pretty interesting, like, usually when I was in public school
I wouldn't really involve myself in the conversation, the topic in the class.
But when I'm here, I actually
get involved more.
And I talk more.
With me, I have to be able to
express myself to be able to
learn and listen.
That's definitely different here.
It's just more comfortable with the teachers here.
It's just on a completely different level.
My brother has tooken a class.
My brother's tooken math class.
Really
Do you know what they're learning?
I've taken some math, I've taken some social studies
and I'm thinking about taking some Spanish
My mom wants me to learn Spanish so I can be the translator.
I've been to Bolivia.
Math, well I remember when I first started
I was 5 maybe
And I started my plus tables and I was like,
whoa, this is really hard.
Now I'm getting into the algebra and it's like jeez!
Sometimes I do it twice a week sometimes I do it three times a week.
I can pretty much stop and go whenever I want.
Pretty simple.
Typically I do it for an hour.
You say, "I want to do this class."
"I want to take it for an hour on this day."
People sign up and most of the time you don't get classes over 5 people.
If I'm taking math, it's just me and Christa is teaching it.
And it's one on one, move with me.
And I am telling you if there were 50 other kids doing it
I would be learning the same thing for a month.
I started classes, I believe,
near the end of the year, so two years ago.
With coding, I actually started it this year.
So I haven't been doing it a year yet.
Coding is so cool because you can
rather than just play a game or do stuff in a game
you can actually make your own game. It's like the ultimate creation.
You can pretty much make your code do anything you want.
Coding is a game in itself.
Sometimes I'll be playing a game
and I'll get so wierded out because
instead of actually playing the game I'll be thinking of how it works.
And in the end I'll end up getting myself killed
because I'm thinking, "Oh look how this bullet...
You could probably use a variable to make this bullet, its speed..."
I get all into that and meanwhile I'm getting shot to death by someone.
It's crazy.
When I'm coding I've been able to sit at the computer for probably
I remember from when I woke up on a weekend until the sun went down
I was just sitting there figuring out how to code.
When you first come to Fairhaven
you pretty much spend, it varies from person to person,
I basically spent a year not taking any classes, just doing anything I wanted.
I detoxed for like about a year because
I'm so sick of the public school think, they make you do everything
and when you're in a school system that's so free and open
you have to take advantage of it awhile.
Get your body acclimated to what it actually what it wants rather than what others want it to do.
Something gets violated when you force yourself really to learn things that you don't even want to learn.
You probably would force yourself to do it because your parents told you so
or you just want to get good grades.
But you violate something in yourself and give away yourself to doing something that you don't want to do in life.
Your being, it's like your soul, your essence
is torn apart in a way.
It's basically what would happen to your body if someone was punching it
trying to shove the knowledge into you.
I kind of believe personally
that if you are trying to learn all these other things that other people want you to learn
you're kind of giving permission to yourself to do something in life you don't like.
I don't think the actual act of teaching is what's poison.
I think the actual act of forcing it upon someone.
If you go to the person and want them to teach you..
Like in my coding class,
Michelle, the person who's teaching me
I actually think I know more than she does at this moment.
If we could all just brainstorm with each other
if we wouldn't have the creativity beaten out of us at an early age.
I am a fan of algebra, it's fun.
It's just really cool figuring out how you can make an equation this long turn into something this big and have and answer.
It's enthralling.
I walked up to my dad and asked him this question in algebra
and he for the life of him couldn't remember even the basics.
How to transfer... he couldn't remember anything about algebra.
If your heart isn't in what you do you'll never learn it.
You can tray over and over but you'll forget it.
Kind of like cramming for a test.
You remember everything for the test but after that you're done.