Learning

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Mess and Mindcraft

As a child, I used to build the best cubby houses with my sister, Julie. We would collect anything that could be useful to construct the most elaborate structures. We would not always agree on our designs and would occasionally argue about what should go where and what the cubby was for -a fort, a hideout, a doll’s hospital, etc. We would spend a little time playing our make believe games in them and then deconstruct to build something more elaborate. Sometimes our cubbies fell down on top of us. Luckily there were not too severe injuries.

Dad finally got sick of the cubbies popping up in surprise places in the backyard. “Eyesores” he called them but palaces, space stations, pirate ships they were to us. He built us a strong, safe cubby house. We still imagined this to be all manner of things, but it was never the same as our own creation. It also stifled a lot of wonderful learning opportunities that we had building our own. In saying that, I still built a secret door through the fence into the neighbours and a lookout on the roof.

Building these cubbies helped us to learn how to share, solve problems, compromise and co-operate with each other. We would have some big arguments but we learnt from these. We took risks and learned that with risk comes consequence. Standing on the roof of a flimsy structure can lead to significant injury. I have the scars to prove it. I learnt many lessons the hard way.

Play is essential, vital, critical, and fundamental to every child’s social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development. Play is essential for learning and learning is the centre of everything we do at school. This is why we allow children to build cubbies and play with sticks. We know that there will be arguments and disagreements. These occur in all play situations with children whether it be in a game of soccer, football, handball or a game of chess. It is in this real life problem solving that the best, lifelong learning occurs. Just as we do not ban children playing soccer because they argue about the rules, we do not ban all children because some argue or have disagreements. Instead we help the children learn to solve their issues in an increasingly mature manner.

Just like my “Dad built” cubby, our adult designed steel and plastic playgrounds do not attract the same interest, passion and creativity from our children, as do a pile of sticks, logs, branches and planks of wood. Nor do they provide as many wonderful learning opportunities for children to be creative, constructive and to learn essential social skills.

Rather than them creating worlds on Mindcraft, give children some large cardboard boxes, planks of wood, branches and other “junk” so they can create their own imaginary worlds through their cubbies….and learn.

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False Rescues

Our children are the most important things in our lives. If our children were in danger, I am sure that we would all do whatever we could to rescue them, even to the point of giving our lives.

Have you ever taught your child to swim? We hold them up on the surface, tell them to kick their legs, move their arms and breathe deeply. We let go, they go under but we are there to lift them to the surface again.

Imagine you never letting go. Your child would never learn to swim and would always be dependent on you when in the water. Not letting go could put your children eventually in mortal danger of drowning if you are not around.
Letting go is an essential part of learning and growing.

We strive to have learning at the heart of everything that we do at Hackham East Primary. A “False Rescue” is when, in attempting to help a child, no matter how good the intentions, we actually stop learning.

All children must learn independence. Are they carrying their own bags to school and putting them in the appropriate place outside the class? Are they getting their own equipment out at the beginning of the day? Do they put their own lunch in the lunch bag, dress themselves? Do they do their own homework? I recall, as a child, leaving the completion of a project until the last moment. My mother jumped in to help me finish it on time, actually doing some of the research for me. This was a false rescue. Did it teach me that there were consequences for my poor organization or did it just reaffirm that mum would always be there to rescue me?

We can unintentionally rescue children from thinking. When a child asks a question, it is so easy to give an answer. By responding to their question with “What do you think?” we not only get our kids to think but also learn what they think. We learn about their knowledge, their assumptions and their misconceptions. We can then question them further to help them think through their own thinking. Their thinking will go deeper than just getting an answer from us.

We no longer “false rescue” students by cocooning them at playtime with rules and regulations. With high expectations instead, we want children to take risks, think for themselves and problem solve by allowing them to ride scooters and bikes, build cubbies and play with sticks. If there is an altercation such as who owns which cubby materials, we teach them to problem solve, reach compromise and come to agreements rather than make the rules and solve the problem for them and stopping the learning.

Letting go can be very difficult but it is all about learning. False rescues stop learning. Parents and teachers must work together, in partnership to help build strong, resilient learners.

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The Learning Pit

I am a big Doctor Who fan. He is always able to solve the unsolvable by seeing the unobvious and deducing the implausible. He may need some assistance from his female companion or his sonic screw-driver but he always works out what to do to save the day. Despite having two hearts his skills are not superhuman rather those of problem solving through logic, deduction, perseverance, persistence and asking the right questions.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Developing the skills and strategies in dealing with the unknown and the new is something that all children will need to be successful in the future. The world that our children are growing into will be very different from our own. Change is occurring so quickly in everything. Technology is changing every aspect of work and society. Manual and skilled jobs are being replaced by robots and automation. Our children will be working in jobs that have not even been dreamt of yet. Adaptability and an open, learning mindset is key.

How do we assist children to develop these skills?

One cannot be a nimble thinker and problem solver if one is fearful of being stuck, fearful of making a mistake or fearful of the discomfort of not knowing what to do. We want children to have a go and be risk takers but we too often cotton wool them to the extent that we rob them of their opportunity to learn.

The Learning Pit is a good metaphor for talking to children about the learning process and resilience.The Learning Pit Getting stuck is where the best learning takes place. When we are stuck we might get negative feelings like discomfort, frustration, helplessness towards our learning. We hear children say, “I won’t do it.” or “I can’t do it.” If we intervene at this stage and rescue by doing it for them they will learn that getting stuck is a bad thing, that the negative feelings are bad and they will continually shy away from a challenge. They will not develop persistence or resilience toward learning.

As a child struggles with a problem get them to ask questions to clarify and explore the options. Answer their questions with questions rather then an answer so that they are doing the thinking and solving the problem themselves. Ask them where they might be able to find help – internet, Youtube etc and let them explore. As they begin to get themselves “unstuck”, they will gain confidence in their own abilities and develop an “I can do it!” attitude. This will benefit them throughout their lives.

Doctor Who thrives on challenge. He doesn’t give up. He isn’t rescued. He persists and succeeds.

Stuck? Great! Good learning happens when you are stuck.

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Learning from Mistakes

I was listening to a TED Radio Hour podcast while travelling the 930km distance to my favourite place on Earth, the photo of which is the background image of this blog. The topic was about mistakes made by physicians. The mistake made by the speaker resulted in the death of a patient. We learn more from our mistakes than our successes. A physician would certainly want to learn quickly.

The TED speaker believed that it was important to speak publicly about mistakes, both from personal cathartic reason like that of a confessional and also so that others can learn from their mistakes.

I thought back over my thirty plus years of teaching and the many mistakes I have made. I do wonder what impact my mistakes have made on children’s lives. Thank God there have been no fatalities but maybe that is more luck than planning.

Darren was new to my class in about 1983. He didn’t talk a lot and didn’t have many friends but he was tough and took on any physical challenge with gusto. The obstacle course I designed was certainly challenging and included climbing through the shelter shed window and traverse hand over hand across the rafter and slide down the support pole. What I overlooked was the concrete floor. Darren was swinging across until he missed a hand hold and fell 3 metres landing flat on his side. He was so badly winded that I feared he had broken ribs. Had he hit his head he could have done serious injury.

I learnt to assess risk carefully.

I planned an exchange to Kangaroo Island and sought sponsorship from local businesses. Parents gave consent for students to go to neighbouring businesses with a letter of introduction from me and a prepared speech which had been rehearsed by the children.

All students were sent out in pairs and returned during the next hour with varying degrees of success – torches, cups, even cash donations. All students, apart from two returned in the allotted time. Nearly 2 hours later, and just before I called the Principal and then the police, the two boys returned very pleased with themselves carrying boxes of bounty. They had walked to businesses well over 4 kilometres away! To say I was relieved was an understatement.

This taught me duty of care. Any of the children could have been injured, knocked down by a car or even kidnapped. It was a lesson I was lucky to learn without mishap.

Another teacher and I were rehearsing for a musical production with 90 children after school. The students were predictably excited but as the time progressed a few children’s inappropriate behaviour became so disruptive that it began to derail the rehearsal for the other 60 children present. My response was one that I will never forget. Amongst all the noise, I told David, one of the boys mucking up, to “Play along with me”, pinned him up against the wall and yelled at him to stop. There was sudden silence and the kids fell into line. It achieved its aim… but at a cost. A group of children came to me to say how inappropriate my behaviour had been. I explained to them that it was a setup and that I was not being aggressive. What I did not know was that David never understood what I had said to him and therefore was very upset with the way I had treated him.

I learnt of the importance of always modelling appropriate behaviour. Regardless of whether it was a dramatic ruse, the perception is the reality. I inadvertently modelled that threat and violence was a solution to a problem. I did not model respect. I did not model an adult in control solving problems calmly.

Looking back, I can see how these mistakes helped me learn about myself and my responsibilities as a teacher and a role model. I would rather have learnt these lessons in a way that did not potentially put children at risk.

Perhaps others can learn from my mistakes rather than having to make their own. What can I learn from others’? Nothing if we don’t share.

Only make new mistakes!