Whoever sold us the idea that the best way to teach children about the world was to isolate them from it , that a child will learn best by sticking them behind a desk and by constantly providing them with direct step-by-step instruction on every possible topic through the use of books and pictures must have been been one persuasive human!
Now to know that when I left school I forget almost everything I was taught and that I never ended up needing practically any of it in my adult life, is such a eye opener.
learning by doing instead of being taught
Children spend half of their childhood trying to learn about real world matters, most of which is not very important for their futures .They do not learn about these worldly things, out their in the real world, where you would expect, instead learn these from a textbook behind a desk filled with pictures, which they only get to use one of their senses from this direct learning style approach and it is their sight.
lets say
A teacher gives a child a worksheet with a picture of a fish. What will they learn from that picture? It has 2 eyes ,a long body ,they notice the tail the fins and the gills, Even if they’re not able to verbalise its features, they will see them.
The teacher will do a prepared lesson of "the fish " - with more worksheets and pictures.
When their younger the lessons will be - , colour the fish, what fish is that, as they get older a new teacher will prepare another lesson on "the fish "
with more worksheets and pictures covering the fish anatomy , and the fish scientific classifications:
Kingdom:Animalia Phylum:Chordata Clade:Olfactores Subphylum:Vertebrata
and so on
But what is this all teaching them ?
What fish look like?
because we know Children just like we did , are not going to remember the anatomy of a fish or the scientific classifications of a fish as they go through their school years and they will defiantly very unlikely use that information in their futures
You see Schools try to throw ever bit of information, on just about every type of topic at children throughout the school years , to cover CONTENT. - not to truly teach and enrich a childs life, but by boring them making them lose their love of learning , The more they teach , the more time they cover in school and to cover time you need lots of content . Why do they need to cover content you ask? to meet the "big guys" requirements -the government
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn– Benjamin Franklin
Instead a child should truly learn about what a fish looks like " naturally" not synthetically.
and how do you do that ?
By giving your child a fishing rod and see what he can find out.
its not only a memory he will cherish but a great learning experience that was real enough to hold onto .By fishing he will not only use his sight sense, like he would in school -he will instead engage all senses, he will hear the sound of the fish splashing and he will feel the weight of the fish on the end of the rode and feel its slippery body through his fingers,he will smell the salty sea and that dreadful fishy smell , he will begin to ask questions and truly have a love for learning about :"the fish" and hey who knows you might decide to keep him for dinner introducing the taste sense, you may show your child how to prepare a fish to eat while discussing together the fish's anatomy , Your child may become passionate of fishing like my sons,where we enjoy weekly fishing trips. Consequently, the learning opportunities are far greater to naturally come to learn about " the fish " then in school where they would have the questions handed to them in worksheets and only engage a sense of sight through pictures.
It's not that I feel that school is a good idea gone wrong, but a wrong idea from the word go. It's a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life.” -John HoltWe literally take children out of a rich environment full of great learning opportunities, childhood memories and family adventures, for what ? to deprived them of the real world because one persuasive person came up with the idea of school.
It’s time to let them learn how they were designed to learn , from real life experiences
Real life experiences are invaluable to children’s learning. Why?
They:
- Increase motivation – wouldn’t you be far more interested in investigating a real fish rather than just looking at a picture of a fish ?
- Improve behaviour – the more your children are engaged, the better their behaviour is likely to be, this is because real life experiences is stimulating and fun
- Develop Communication & Language – experiences give children something to talk about. Having open discussions with your child and answering their curious questions is key
- Develop Understanding of the World – this is an area of development that depends on children experimenting and finding things out for themselves.
- Develop other areas - by going fishing you are in turn supporting other areas of learning. For example maths ( Shape, Space and Measure) your child will compare fish size, weight and length and talk about it.
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