Insights galore!

From: Keith L. Pentz
Email: KLPentz@aol.com
Date: June 05, 2008

Comments

Reading your posts has been quite delightful and encouraging. I often feel like I am the last person out here with ideas that support a nurturing, child-friendly, brain-compatible way of dealing with learning. I can tell by some of your various comments that that may also be an underlying/subtle part of what you are experiencing, too.

One thing I often tell groups to whom I am presenting is that we in our field must be stronger and more proactive advocates for what we know to be right. The brains of young children may be able to pick up on some heavy duty concepts and ideas--but at what cost. Just because a young brain (2 or 3 year old) can learn 26 letters and the phonemes that go along with those letters does not mean that it's appropriate or reasonable to expect a child to do so. If pushed to extremes we can expect many more "failures" and "dropouts" if the pressure continues. When learning is not "fun" or playful or in a meaningful context, we run the risk of not internalizing what is important and only maintaining a surface level of understanding.

I want to offer a couple more quotes because I think they help to bring together some of this broader connection between "how" and "what" children can and do learn (even adults, too!) Loris Malaguzzi, one of the originators of the Reggio Emilia schools and philosophy, talked about, "Nothing without joy." Carlina Rinaldi, another key figure who is back overseeing the Reggio schools, once stated in a conference I attended, "Our curriculum is not found in a book. Our curriculum is the child who comes through the classroom door."

Joy, pleasure, fun, happiness, excitement--all of those terms must apply for both the child AND the teacher. It really is for both. If we as teachers or caregivers do not possess or encourage that joyfulness, the chances of if occurring in the classroom are practically nil. I have recently become so bold as to suggest to persons in my audiences who have lost their joy to consider leaving the field--or find a way to "renew" that joy. Negativity and negative thoughts trigger the wrong responses in children and hinder their learning.

Rinaldi's quote is one that has haunted me for these many years since I first heard it. How do I determine what is important and the "curriculum" for the individual child? If the child is the currciulum, how do I go about determining "who is the child" in order to make an informed decision? Putting all this together, what can I do to mindfully engage each child?

So, you can see that I wrestle with these concepts regularly. I think, too, about how do I apply what I know to the adult groups with whom I work. If learning is about "joy" for everyone, then I had better figure out how to make some rather mundane and "less than fun" types of instruction more meaningful.

A friend told me how she went about doing software training to business persons in world-based financial institutions (she has been to numerous brain workshops herself and has trained various age levels). Her work required her to deliver very tedious and "boring" content to individuals who often did not want to be in yet another training. What my friend did was turn the learning into a game based on setting up a "triage" just like on the show M*A*S*H. She told me she played the show theme song in the background, used toy soldiers with painted on wounds, created a M*A*S*H oriented setting with other props, and proceded to ask the participants to think of the accounts they were working on on the software screens as soldiers needing special care--a type of triage. The toy soldiers she gave to them to use (think manipulatives here!!!!) became toys and play objects to these adult men and women in banking and other financial groups. My friend mentioned that the participants actually "played" with the soldiers before "settling down" and getting serious about the task at hand. (Isn't that just like what we experience in ECE classrooms daily?) When the activity was finished, the participants remarked how easy it was to remember the different types of accounts, where to place the data, how to record the data, etc. My friend always received great reviews when she used that game.

My point here is that all of us--adult or child--can and do learn exceedingly well when the task before us is placed in a play context or turned into a "joyful" experience.

A couple more questions to ponder--

How do we turn the mundane into "joy?" I know a couple of people have mentioned already the idea of offering the choices that I indicated were so important and also a variety of experieneces to children. I am looking here for some specifics--how have you or how have you seen something mundane or tedious taught in a playful or joyful manner?

How do you "renew your joy?"--(if it ever needs renewing).

I look forward to more stories, insights, and comments as we continue our forum.

Be safe, be well, be joyful!!

Keith