Children’s learning

I’ve had various analogies in my head over the years, with regard to children’s learning and knowledge.  The one I’ve had for the longest is that of an ice-berg.  Any parent will relate to the experience of a child coming out with something that you respond to with ‘how on earth do you know that?’.  Whatever a child chooses to let us see of their knowledge, I am certain that there is way, way more there that we will never know about and, in my opinion, have no right to know about.  That knowledge belongs to the child and they can tell us about it if they wish.  On a bit of a tangent, I do feel that enforced testing is a real infringement on a child’s rights to their own knowledge - like invading their minds - unless, of course, a child has chosen to be tested in order to gain a qualification or certificate to prove their knowledge.

The analogy that has been forming in my head lately is that of rare wild animals.  We know they’re there, but, in an ideal world, we don’t know the details and we leave them well alone unless they come out of their own accord for us to observe them from a distance.  Or if we leave food out for them during the winter, they might venture out to eat it.  What happens when we actively interfere with the natural living of wild animals?  Well, they often get ill.  Sometimes they get too frightened to continue reproducing.  If we disturb nests some animals and birds will abandon their young.  Even if we’re interfering with the best of intentions, we can seriously upset the delicate balance of their lives which can have disasterous results.  Is this what children’s learning and knowledge is like?  It’s there, going on all the time, without our interference.  Just happening.  Every now and then a child needs help from someone more experienced and asks for it.  Or sometimes the knowledge just pops its head up for us to see - what a privelege!  But when we interfere without invitation, who knows what we’re doing to it.

We should just be here as providers of opportunities and as signposts to our children, and nothing else.  We should offer them experiences, allow them the chance to discover interests - easy to do with television and the internet being so accessible nowadays, and fun to do with trips to museums/castles/whatever, and cosy and loving to do by sharing books and magazines.  We should be open to them deciding not to do the things we suggest.  And we should be available to our children to answer their questions and signpost them to other ways of learning about things that interest them. 

Finding the happy medium that means we’re doing what our children need us to do but not interfering beyond that is easier said than done, but it’s a standard to aim for