I was at a meeting and the talk was about a church summer camp and the kids that attended. One elderly gentlemen described a little girl who was very keen to be in the kitchen with him-he is a baker and they were baking cookies.
"She stayed by my side the entire day," he exclaimed. "It was a wonderful day. A great day!"
After a thoughtful pause he said, "well-she ought to have been playing with her peers, getting along with them."
"Why?" I asked. "She was happy hanging with you-you had a great day. What is so wrong about that?"
"It was the best of days," he said reluctantly. For some reason he couldn't reconcile with himself that it was a natural and wonderful thing for the little girl to prefer his company to the company of her peers.
"She must have learned so much from you," I told him encouragingly.
"It's true," he acknowledged in amazement. Companionship,friendship,baking skills,a job well done!
This is the kind of scenario that we need more of. Kids need peers but they need the company of caring,knowledgeable elders maybe even more. She was happy to do a real-life, meaningful and USEFUL activity rather than the contrived 'craft' that had been prepared for them. Self-directed kid? I think so.
Showing posts with label community centred learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community centred learning. Show all posts
Friday, August 07, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
School should not replace home and community
At a recent graduation I attended one would imagine from all the fanfare that the best years of one's life happen on school grounds; "All the happy memories-tra la la."
Most people, on closer reflection, would beg to differ.
I think it is a shame that life is forced to revolve around the school scene-such a limited experience.
The school experience has become so ingrained in our day to day that it may be the only common ground kids (and adults to kids) have in which to communicate through. Even amongst kids of the same age, if you do not attend the same school, then you are a perceived as a threat at the worst, 'not in' or 'other' at the best.
Kids are engaged in many different pursuits ; music, art, books, movies, sports, and they talk about these things, yet the taste of school is palpable across the board, contaminating speech and thought.
And where family and community neighbourhoods should hold the strongest position, school has taken a death grip. School has replaced both home and community. And this has produced a debilitating effect on what should be the most important links.
Why do we settle for so little? Kids spend more of their waking hours at school than at home with the family or out in the community.
But young kids especially need to spend more time in the presence of those who care about them; who like them who want to be with them. And they need this more than the company of peers.
Imagine if there was a body of such people in the community, a pool from which to draw from; people who had the time to mentor the young?
We need to begin to prioritize families and community. Mentoring and learning made available to everyone at all times as well as a tailored education (as opposed to 'one size fits all') should be every person's right.
"We have time and again missed the lesson of the Congregational principle: people are less than whole unless they gather themselves voluntarily into groups of souls in harmony. Gathering themselves to pursue individual, family and community dreams consistent with their private humanity is what makes them whole;only slaves are gathered by others.
And these dreams must be written locally because to exercise and larger ambition without such a base is to lose touch with the things which give life meaning: self, family, friends, work and intimate community."
John Taylor Gatto
The Congregational Principle, Dumbing us Down
Most people, on closer reflection, would beg to differ.
I think it is a shame that life is forced to revolve around the school scene-such a limited experience.
The school experience has become so ingrained in our day to day that it may be the only common ground kids (and adults to kids) have in which to communicate through. Even amongst kids of the same age, if you do not attend the same school, then you are a perceived as a threat at the worst, 'not in' or 'other' at the best.
Kids are engaged in many different pursuits ; music, art, books, movies, sports, and they talk about these things, yet the taste of school is palpable across the board, contaminating speech and thought.
And where family and community neighbourhoods should hold the strongest position, school has taken a death grip. School has replaced both home and community. And this has produced a debilitating effect on what should be the most important links.
Why do we settle for so little? Kids spend more of their waking hours at school than at home with the family or out in the community.
But young kids especially need to spend more time in the presence of those who care about them; who like them who want to be with them. And they need this more than the company of peers.
Imagine if there was a body of such people in the community, a pool from which to draw from; people who had the time to mentor the young?
We need to begin to prioritize families and community. Mentoring and learning made available to everyone at all times as well as a tailored education (as opposed to 'one size fits all') should be every person's right.
"We have time and again missed the lesson of the Congregational principle: people are less than whole unless they gather themselves voluntarily into groups of souls in harmony. Gathering themselves to pursue individual, family and community dreams consistent with their private humanity is what makes them whole;only slaves are gathered by others.
And these dreams must be written locally because to exercise and larger ambition without such a base is to lose touch with the things which give life meaning: self, family, friends, work and intimate community."
John Taylor Gatto
The Congregational Principle, Dumbing us Down
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