Aaron, four, sat on the carpet under the arch between the
dining and living rooms scribbling in a pad while his brother, Chris, seven,
sat by the coffee table learning his multiplication tables. Their mother, Lynn,
sat on the sofa turning flash cards toward him.
“Nine times three.”, she would say. “Twenty seven.,” he would reply
and await the next challenge. At some points, he’d hit a snag and have to pause
a few seconds. “Twelve times 9.” (Pause)
It was then that Aaron would chime in with the answer, “One
Oh Eight.” he would say without lifting his head from drawing figures. He did
not try to answer each question, but he often jumped in when there was a pause.
Chris would bite his tongue until he couldn’t take it any
longer. Then he would say, “Look, I’m the one who’s learning this. You’re only
four. I’m seven. You’re not even supposed to know this yet.”
What this tells us is that children, like adults, learn when
they learn. They learn when they are exposed to things, from math to hunger.
And learning opens the door to more learning and more growth. The real question
is, “What can we expose our kids to that will help them grow and develop into
the people they can become.?”
Fast forward to 2011. Educator John Hunter is presenting to
an audience at a TED conference recounting his journey as a teacher and as the
designer of the World Peace Game (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game.html)
In his game, now some thirty years old and current with the
times, Hunter brings challenges to nine year olds that far and away transcend
multiplication tables, and it is clear that his students are up to the
challenge. No one says. “You’re not supposed to know this yet.” Which brings me
posit this question: Have we limited our children’s personal growth and
development by setting artificial barriers to what they should know and by when?
Some might reply that these are ‘gifted’ children, above the
norm. I concede they are. But I also believe that there are many others just
like them who have the same abilities but who were not blessed with a nurturing
home environment where they could flourish. For them, such challenging classes
can elevate their performance and increase their desire to participate in
school for just those reasons. They can be exposed to serious issues and not
lose who they are. They can, instead, become more than they might have had they
not learned.
One boy in the video particularly stood out when he
reflected on what he learned. He said, “One of the things I learned was that
other people matter. In this game, one person can’t win, everyone has to win.
And I think that taught me a lot about cooperating with other people, being
generous, and having an attitude that, if you work together, you can achieve
anything.”
Before adding your comments, please look at the clip from
the video, a documentary about
this special program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCq8V2EhYs0
. Ask yourself, “Can I as a parent learn from this and start different
dialogues with my own children?”
As a grandparent of a 2 year old boy and 2 month old girl, I
have to consider what I can do to elevate our dialogue together. After all that
I have done, or not done, to this planet. I owe them that.
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