I am a big fan of child led learning. Many school principals and I have squared off over this issue. For some reason they just don’t like it when they come to you to complain about how your child doesn’t want to work on the assignments given to them and you say in return… “Well, perhaps it is boring them to tears. Have you tried reaching them by finding out what THEY want to learn about?” Often this is met with a sigh and look of pity about my apparent naivete. But I know it in my heart to be true. I know it because when the words “let’s go the library” are uttered in this house my children scream in happiness like wild banshees. Why? Because they are in charge. They get to follow their passions. For some bizarre reason adults think that kids shouldn’t have that right. But I delight in seeing what my children are interested in and then doing what I can to facilitate that learning.
My nearly ten year old son has been on a big time history kick for long while. Part of our recent trip to DC was to facilitate his learning about American history and the political system. At the library this week he got books about September 11th, The Perfect Storm, military tanks, and his biggest passions currently… Titanic and WWI. They boy can spend hours poring over books about these topics and on the rare occasions when he watches TV, it will almost always be the military channel.
This weekend we took the kids to the local science center, COSI. I spent hours in this place as a kid and now my own kids do too. The husband kindly took the two youngest kids to the play center and my oldest son and I got our boarding passes with White Star Lines for our journey on the RMS Titanic. Unfortunately they do not allow photos in the exhibit but it was quite awesome. On our boarding passes we got new identities as passengers who were actually on the Titanic. I was a 48 year old chicken farmer and mom of 5 from Sussex who was jilted by her husband and decided to go to the US to live with an older daughter. My son was a two year old child who was kidnapped by his father and was running to America.
We walked the halls of Titanic… seeing the first class and third class state rooms, looking at people posing as passengers and White Star Lines employees, seeing artifacts that were at the bottom of the ocean for decades. There was even a complete replica of the grand staircase. As you entered the dining Hall the music from the movie Titanic was playing. It was an awesome experience and my son was in heaven. At the end of the exhibit we perused the names of the passengers. My son, Master Edmond Roger Navratil, survived the sinking… I did not, Mrs. Edward Ford. All of the stuff he learned that day will be with him forever because he is passionate about it. Maybe what he learned is not important in the eyes of government or prospective employers but it is important to him and what is more important in life than to persue our passions? NOTHING.
This is one of the things I really love about my son’s school and why we pay the high tuition– it’s child lead learning. I agree completely that topics should interest the kids, and teachers can teach science, math, etc through those topics. Controlling students is just another way that society undervalues children, in my opinion.
This is another huge reason why we are so happy that we’re able to homeschool. Institutional education didn’t cut it for me as a kid. I was bored. I was unchallenged. And the material didn’t interest me. Now my 5 year old son has the opportunity to do math all day if he wants to (and he often does). He was able to engage his passion for soccer by watching the world cup. He can read about whatever he wants. He can draw pictures of the things that are appealing to him in the moment. A field trip can be anywhere we go. And there is no one standing over him telling him that he has to do yet another 1-10 dot to dot or learn what words start with the letter ‘P.’
It’s amazing (and a bit sad) that so many never make the realization that you have. That the passions of children count for something. They matter and should be encouraged and nurtured, not swept aside in favour of “education.” Your kids will be all the better for having a Mom who understands that, and defends it.
This is something I’m dealing with right now. We’re about to start homeschooling my oldest, and my inlaws are throwing a fit about it. The school here really isn’t good enough, and I think my daughter will do better in a more flexible program where she can really delve into her interests.
This is very interesting. I have never thought of it this way. I would have liked to have done it this way because I do not agree with most of the subjects that they are teaching in school.
As a kid that was unschooled, I loved child led learning. I do have to say though in public school that can’t happen right now. Laws don’t allow it. My husband is a public school teacher and he wants to do fun things with the kids but can’t, he has to make sure they can pass tests or the school can lose funding and he can lose his job.
We need to let teachers teach again. Hopefully someday people will see this system isn’t working.
Thanks for the post! I couldn’t agree with you more. The school system most people are living with is based on the old idea that schools should create workers for our societies. So instead of letting the kids pursue their passions and ambitions, the system tells them to get better at something they really have no interest in. The purpose: To make a good future employee of some big company/institution.
I wrote a blog about the same subject a few weeks ago. It’s called Empowering Kids to Nurture Their Talents and can be found here: http://www.fafutoys.com/blog/2010/06/23/203/
Look forward to reading your future blogs!
Great post! I think now that Federal Standards will be mandated in schools, public education will be even further from child led learning. That’s why we’re homeschooling!
My husband has been reading quite a bit of John Taylor Gatto recently and your post reminded me of his ideas–the fact that we are literally “dumbing down” our society inside the very classrooms where real learning should actually take place. And the fact that Americans (of all social and ethnic spheres) were actually more literate before compulsory education was put into place by such powerful forces as Carnegie and Ford who only wanted to keep the plebs from infiltrating their “high” society. Good for you for letting your children educate themselves with what they are really interested in. And maybe you’re right–future employers might not care that your children are enthralled with the history of the Titanic, but one thing’s for sure, your children will be more well-rounded because of your facilitating their library trips, etc., and you know what? Maybe they won’t need a future employer. They’ll be self-confident, mature, and empowered enough to start their own companies! These kids can do anything!
I couldn’t agree more! The best parts of my schooling were all about having teachers who were observant enough to pick up on my personal passions and help me fuel them. Almost all my real learning occurred after hours on my own time.
I agree that child-led learning is the way to go, however it is naive to expect the school to accommodate that, with what they have to work with. That’s one of the countless reasons why we’re homeschooling our daughter.
If you are unable to homeschool, for whatever reason, then what you’re doing outside of school hours is awesome. I went to public school and loved to spend “family time” outside of school at museums and the library.
Thanks so much for this post. Encouraging different ways of schooling our children, to me, is extremely important. I know when I was growing up, my years of school mirrored many of the above posters- I was a straight A, unchallenged Honor student and, by the time high school came around, I had dropped out completely. You know it is bad when you never go to high school a day in your life, you take the GED test, and receive an Honors designation.
Being an autodidact as a kid is certainly far from a bad thing as it can be made out to be by the anti-homeschoolers.
I have been using flash cards, finger paints, crayons and such on my one year old, and she is well above and beyond most kids her age. I did not sit back and hope the daycare would do it all for me.
We also have higher hopes and aspirations through collegiate learning, but in the most accessible of these to the general public, learning is still quite stifled as in the previous grade levels. The information can even be inaccurate beyond the “Columbus was the first to discover America” type craptacular spiel one might encounter in the lower grades. You would think at some point we would be given more opportunity but we are not. Options grow even more limited as one matures, and obviously with the economy as it is those options dwindle even further. Want to learn a language other than the one of choice that year (Spanish for example)? Maybe you would prefer a root form of it, such as Latin? Nope, they are not teaching it this year, better luck after you already receive your degree. Or, hope that, like Jefferson’s father, you are wise enough to teach it to your children when they are 9.
But why do we not as parents stand up together and say, this is not working, we pay for this slop and we wish better for our children, no excuses? You cannot compromise with children’s education, and you cannot make a one-size-fits-all program for them either. Einstein failed math!
I can say that one class I had in college had three teachers and they basically asked every kid what they were intending to major in and incorporated those interests into the study. If teachers in lower grades could do that, we might have more ingenuitive citizens ready and able to create jobs as Obama tried telling a bunch of gradeschoolers (as if they can do that with such pathetic tools as given them and as if that would solve the problems we have today).