Learning is Always Fun

There is a misconception about early childhood education that always makes me laugh then cry. In fact there is a misconception about all of education that makes me want to tear my hair out and scream “elephant.” It’s a private joke.

Where did anyone get the inane idea that education has to be dull? When was the last time you learned anything while bored to death?

When people visit the Garden School, they are always stunned by the fact that children are having fun, so it can’t be a real school, and what they are learning can’t have any substance.

Let’s develop an image – a pun intended. I love images because they say more than any other kind of communication and they are fun. Let’s say you want to learn to use a modern camera. That camera takes all kinds of pictures and short movies. You have a lesson at the camera shop at 3:45. It’s paid for by your company, and you’re really excited to do this.

You have visions of going to the park with a group of people, your camera in hand, and shooting what will probably be award winning short, short, short. You even dress for it; you wear shorts and your favorite t shirt.

You arrive at the camera shop and the rest of the class is there in business suits, business casual and there you are in your shorts and you feel like an elephant. The class is led by a sweet smiling lady who says virtually nothing to a tiny classroom in the back of the shop where you sit in a desk five inches from the next guy. You are shown a film about cameras in general.

Then you are given a work sheet to do. You must look through the instructions manual that came with your camera and fill in the blanks on the work sheet. You didn’t bring yours, so you get a dirty look from Mrs. Sweetie. When you are finished, you may go to the bathroom and you are reminded to wash your hands.

When you return, you are given a pair of scissors and told to cut the two eye holes from paper camera in front of you. You cut yours too big and you are scolded by Mrs. Sweetie who now looks like an elephant.

In a long drawn out spiel that sounds more like an environmental address, you are told where you should never go to take pictures because you might disrupt mother nature. You are told that you may not dispose of any batteries illegally, how you must wash your hands before you use a camera that it is inappropriate to take pictures that are naughty, and the spiel goes on in the hot classroom about stuff you will never do until you begin to nod off. Once again, Mrs. Sweetie is on your case.

Finally, you are told to raise your paper camera to eye level and practice taking pictures of the guy next to you who leans into you like you’ve been married for years and drools on you. He’s toothless.

You have just visited the modern classroom. The equivalent episode in a child’s classroom is about as dull. Personally, I never could stand it. I was never in trouble, just bored to death. I was Mrs. Sweetie’s nightmare till we took the IQ test in second grade and every siren in the city went off.

Learning should ALWAYS be fun, and kids should have an exciting time as often as possible, because learning is fun. Teaching a child where to find an answer by showing him all the possibilities and how many ways that information can be used is what teaching is all about.

Not every child will like every lesson, and that’s the nature of things. And not every child approaches material in the same way. Some kids are auditory and like a story and others like visual, a picture. The job of a good teacher is to know that.

Today, we are going to try to make root beer. We are still looking for the kit. But making root beer is fun and it teaches the properties of yeast which is something we have used for thousands of years. Kids should know where to find yeast and be able to harness it. It’s a bit of world information they should have.

Most little kids don’t know what a bakery is much less anything about them. The idea behind this kind of discovery is to acquaint children with the idea that our world does not come out of a closet already made. Who, what, when, where, how much are all questions they should be asking about everything.

A school that’s alive with discovery will not have desks as the center piece. Desks isolate. Children don’t learn by isolation, they learn by doing. Movement is the vehicle for learning. Discussion is the human exchange, and excitement is the gasoline.

Mrs. Sweetie has been invited to the Garden School next week for our class on water pistols. We’re studying the properties of water – mostly air borne, and we’re doing a sub chapter on how fast or slow clothes dry.