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Welcome to Bill & Mary Allsopp's Project Lab
Where kids learn practical engineering skills.

Project Lab is a volunteer program based in Little Rock, Arkansas, designed to harness the natural curiosity of youth.  Exposed to tools and technology, and freed from preplanned lessons, kids learn to teach themselves as they follow their impulses.

Over the last few decades, Bill and Mary Allsopp have found that many of their best and brightest students in this unstructured environment are underachievers in traditional school settings.   The Allsopps are now advocates for the type of students that do well in their classes:  the ones who are often restless,  impulsive and fail to pay attention in dull environments.   These kids are sometimes classified as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

 

The ADD Connection

"Over the years we had come to the stark realization that the youth that were successful in Project Lab were somehow different from their peer group....Over the years we worked up a crude list of commonalties that seemed to spell out the differences between the youths that were successful in our program and the ones that weren't. The list didn't make much sense, was disjointed and seemed somewhat uncomplimentary to some of the most wonderful people I had ever had the pleasure of working with. I could have been knocked over with a feather when I found the same list, with even many more identifying characteristics in Dr. Hallowell's book (Driven to Distraction). I had finally found the lead that we had been looking for and horrors upon horrors, the professionals who were pursuing the subject were not only calling "my kids" names but were trying to change them into the kind of kids that we had long ago given up as technically clueless. I couldn't believe it then, and I still don't. It has taken me three years to poke around with my new insight and each day gets more exciting. Because Thom Hartmann's explanation of Hunters in a Farmer's world fits "my kids" perfectly, I have adopted his concept  as totally valid. For "my kids", the concept is seamless and one that I have become proud to identify with...." - Bill Allsopp

 

[ Origins ] [ Hunters ] [ The Best Students ] [ Roaming Eyes ] [ Conceptual Thinkers ] [ For Teachers ] [ For Parents ] [ Books ]

 

 

The Explorer Webstar Members:
A community of "Explorers" who think Attention Deficit Disorder is a difference more than a disorder.

FREETH~1.gif (5783 bytes)Born to Explore! The Other Side of ADD
Bouncingbrains.com
Cathy's Explorer Pages
A Drum Heard Differently
Join the Mail List (the email group was terminated - if you are interested managing a new group, email Teresa)
Nurturing Our Spirited Children
Positively ADD - Parenting and Unschooling
Save One Starfish

 

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