Just Finished Reading: How Children Learn by John Holt (FP: 1967) [173pp]
Prior to my BA degree, part of which was in Educational Studies, my only interest with education was the fact I was going through it and wondering (at least sometimes) how exactly it was supposed to be working. I felt, more than a few times, that I was learning things despite the education system – from my own extra-curricular reading among other things – rather than because of it. So, when I came across Holt and other educational sceptics, I couldn’t help but nob at least at some of the points he, and others, made about educations (many) failings.
I have long wondered at the difference in attitude between a pre-school child and one who has been in the system for some time. Toddlers and small children are like the embodiment of curiosity on speed. Kids are into everything and what the know everything. Parents, no doubt the world over, live in constant dread of the word ‘why’ which seems to be a constant refrain from small children. But send them to school and, for many, they stop asking. Why exactly does this happen? Because asking questions in school is generally frowned upon and discouraged – simply because there isn’t time to answer questions when work & study needs to be got through on a scheduled timetable. So, in far too many ways – at least in the standard system - schools are where curiosity goes to die.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way as the author constantly points out in this intriguing short work. Left to their own devices children soak up knowledge like a sponge. Without the normal restrictions placed in their way be a rigid and regimented school system children will explore and delve into anything and everything they find interesting (which is essentially everything) and will keep on going until they’re satisfied (which is generally never). So, Holt recommends, the best thing a school can do it get out of the way and be around to offer advice and direction – but only when its specifically asked for: by the Child. In the real world, in the present educational system, this (of course) simply wouldn’t work. You can’t have 30-40 questing and questioning young children in a class being guided by a single overworked teacher. You certainly could have a rigid system with timetables to follow – with each child in reality learning and growing at their own individual pace – and with standard tests and exams to pass. It just wouldn’t work – not even a little bit.
Sceptical by nature (or maybe I just grew up that way learning as I go) I found this idea more than a little utopian. But, and it's a pretty big but, Holt actually talks a great deal of sense. Young children learn by doing and by following their own noses. They ask questions like ‘Why is water wet?’ or ‘Why is the sky blue?’ and adults, as a rule, either dismiss the question (and the child) or shrug and say ‘I don’t know. Stop asking stupid questions’, when the question is FAR from a stupid one. What the parent/adult *should* do is say ‘You know what, I’m not sure. Let’s both go find out, shall we?’ and treat it as the learning adventure it is. Life is full of learning opportunities like that. Give a child ‘permission’ to learn like that and watch them impressively go for it.
Using examples of learning through games and experiments, talk/conversation, reading, sports and art, the author outlines his experience of children learning outside the system imposed on them and how they often surprise the adults around them, many of which who have long forgotten how much FUN it was to learn at that age. No doubt anyone in Education has already heard of (and maybe even read) this authors series of books – one more to come from me – and thinks of him either wistfully (or as a utopian fool). But even those not in the ‘industry’ can find many useful gems here despite the books age. A recommended read, most especially to anyone with young children in their lives.
4 comments:
As a teacher, my job makes me very sad sometimes. A lot fo the time, actually. Not sure if we have ever really gotten into my exact job, but I am a special education teacher. I serve kids who have learning disabilities in reading, writing, and/or math, as well as doing social skills groups with kiddos with autism. I have been doing this for the last five years. For the seven years before that, I had a self-contained multi-grade level room for students with behavior disorders/emotional disturbances called the Bahvior Skills Program.
Creativity is hard to find. We have curriculum to follow that leaves little room for making learning actually fun, if you want to stay on track with the pacing guide. I completely understand why we have the pacing guides, so we can have certain content taught by certain points, and to make things the same across the board in the district so that if a child moves to a different school in the district, they do not miss content. But I will also say that some of my best lessons were spur-of-the-moment and not what I had in my lesson plans. For example, when I had my BSP classroom, we somehow ended up on the topic of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in NYC in 1911 and ended up spending the afternoon on the topic. The kids were so curious and angry that something so awful could happen. It remains one of my favorite memories of my career.
There's so much more I could say. I love my job nd I love my kids, but I hate that the people who make decisions for us have not been in classrooms for a very, very long time.
I feel rather torn about this. I was homeschooled, but my mom kept to a very strict routine and I did a massive amount of work, a lot of rote memorization, etc. I came out of all that extremely well prepared for college, whereas some families who took a more relaxed approach were maybe not quite as prepared. On the other hand, if it hadn't been for my overwhelming curiosity about the world, I think I would have hated it all, and I still got a bit burned-out as it was.
Some mix/balance of structure vs freedom is surely the way to go. Also, travel! We took a lot of trips when I was a teenager. They were like really big field trips and changed my life for sure.
@ Sarah: It's *so* good when you find a subject that everyone gets involved in - especially when you have the opportunity & space to be spontaneous about things. I don't remember much of that going on in my school life - certainly not before Uni.
It does always seem - probably because its TRUE - that senior managers, even those who have been through the system themselves, have little to no appreciation of what its like at 'the coal face' and have zero ideas of what their 'bright' ideas or directives end up doing.
@ Marian: I'm most definitely not a binary either/or kind of person. Most 'truths' lie somewhere in between the two extremes, so I agree that some mix of structure and freedom probably works best. Maybe one day a week for 'unstructured' learning or, if you want to 'push the boat out' maybe every or every other afternoon - at least as long as its found to work! Field trips are a great opportunity for unstructured or structure-lite learning...
100%. In grad school I had a professor who was one of the top guys in the field, but had not been in a classroom for so long that much of what he was suggesting was just not feasible for one teacher alone to do. I love being spontaneous with my kids. There was another point (still teaching in BSP) that I stopped using the district reading curriculum because it was not something my kids could relate to. We sat down and brainstormed topics they were interested in (Titanic and Ancient Egypt were tops, I was so happy) and then I taught skills using those topids and a myriad of others that they also wanted to learn about. We started making a model of Titanic from cardboard (unfortunately one of the kids who was most interested in it got really angry one day and smashed it). We also made Egyptian death masks and learned all kinds of cool stuff that they actually cared about learning, and I was still able to teach all the skills they would have learned in the curriculum.
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