Welcome to ‘Why Does It Matter? Learning!’
Irina Ryland, your host and instructor, created this learning opportunity with two goals in mind:
- Providing a no-nonsense mastery approach to learning essential subjects and
- Helping student and parents answer the often-posed and often-heard question ‘Why does this subject/knowledge matter, why should I bother studying it?
Irina homeschooled her student through high school. He is now an engineering student. During those homeschooling years, Irina has not only faced the ‘why does it matter’ question numerous times, but also had to answer it at various ages and stages of her homeschooler’s education. Answers were arrived at through development of critical thinking skills, meaningful reading of important sources, and a cooperative search for meaning in an age-appropriate way.
Irina has taught writing, study skills and economics classes to individuals and small classes, both in-person and online. Mentoring homeschoolers through the beauty and challenge of education at home is a favorite activity. She holds a bachelor of science degree in economics and marketing, and a master’s degree in international management, both from the University of Maryland. One of her personal ongoing projects is adding to her fluency in Romance languages. Currently fluent in Romanian, Spanish and French, she is studying the beauty of the Italian language.
Classes here at ‘Why Does It Matter? Learning’ are kept very small on purpose, in order to allow for maximum exposure to the material explored and maximum individual attention to the students’ questions and thoughts. Let’s talk about your interests, dilemmas and goals and, together, let’s find out why it matters that we resolve and achieve them. Happy learning!
