Dear James,
Enjoyed your challenging post on the LO about Emergent Learning.
You ask: "Why can't we teach our own children how to learn?"
Great question!
I have three children ... ages 8, 3 and 19 months.
It's amazing to watch them learn with no help from me or Mom. Zacharie, at
19 months, has known for quite some time how to climb a chair to reach a
switch to turn the lights off, and on, and off, and on... He also knows
that it is a "light" and he knows t hat he isn't supposed to treat it like
a strobe.
He has learned how to climb on the toilet seat, get the toothbrushes and
drop them down the small drain in the sink. That takes precise aiming.
Everything he touches he explores with his fingers, nose, eyes,
ears...and, yes, mouth. Last night he choked on
a coin he found.
I guess my point, if I have one, is that perhaps our kids have no trouble
learning. That is part of the original equipment package. One wonders what
we are doing to remove the urge to learn from them. We compel them to
study things that are of marginal in terest to us, without showing them
why it would be of use to them. We equate learning with time spent in a
classroom chair, and a grade on a report card.
My 8-year-old daughter showed me her grades today...all excellent. I told
her that I'm glad she enjoys learning so much that the teacher has noticed
the quality of her work, and that I would love her no matter what the
grades were.
Another musing on this...
Perhaps kids don't need to use their imagination so much because we teach
them early on to accept what others have imagined. Modern media are more
prescriptive than evocative. TV tells you ... and shows you ... what to
think and how to think about something. Toys are cross-marketed with
movies and come with personalities already supplied. My favorite toys
have always been blocks, Legos, crayons and magnets. I'm not an engineer,
but I love things with which one can create one's own reality. On the
1970s...
I was so glad when the 1970s were over because of what I perceived to
be a dearth of creative expression. It's hilarious to see people
hearkening back to those ridiculous days. However, every era has its own
cheesy music and loopy fashions. I saw an infomercial on TV recently in
which the host said: "The seventies are bigger now than they were in the
seventies." She is so right.
Nostalgia = hearkening back to a time that never was.
If I have any solution to this "inaccessible paradigm" question it may
start with throwing away your TV set...make that all four of your TV sets.
Try reading Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death."
Anyway, thanks James.
Grace & Peace,
Scott Ott
--"Scott Ott" <SOTT@nkcsd.k12.mo.us>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>