I feel that schooling can help or interfere with children's personal growth, depending on how schooling is presented. I do not think that a sit down and copy this method of preschool is helping personal growth, but not going to preschool at all can interfere with personal growth. I believe that schooling helps personal growth by providing an environment where children can interact with peers and age appropriate materials and activities. I also believe that if children are not given the opportunity to interact, it can interfere with the development of social skills, leading to problems later.
Like adults, children learn in many ways. There are visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners, in children as well as adults. I believe that young children learn a lot from hands on activities, whether they grow up to be kinesthetic learners or not. I think they learn by doing, whether it works or not the first time. The more opportunities a child is presented with, in my opinion, the more he/she will learn. Children, being quite literal beings, do not have the same experiences and vocabulary that we as adults have and I think this makes auditory learning difficult at a young age. Last week I did a listening experiment with my class of 5 year olds. I asked them to tell me how to make a sandwich. I told them I was going to following their directions exactly and I could not think of anything on my own. By the time I had spread peanut butter on a closed package of bread I think the point was made. Giving oral instruction assumes that the person listening knows what it is that you’re talking about and has some general knowledge of the topic. To explain reading to a child who doesn’t know that letters make sounds is very difficult, no matter how many times you sound out ten, they won’t really get it.
I am a visual learner and once I’ve written something down, I won’t forget it. Thankfully, I can write a grocery list and remember what’s on it even if I forget to take it to the store. I’m sad to say that happens often! If I don’t write it down it’s much more likely that I will forget.
I hope that in nine years of teaching someone has learned something! Professional teaching aside, I recently taught a 13 month old to sign “thank you.” I started by using the sign for thank you whenever I said thank you or wanted him to say thank you. Next, I moved his hand to his mouth and then down, saying thank you out loud while making his hands sign it. As this progressed, I would wait a second after saying thank you, before I signed it, giving him a chance to do it. In a matter of days he was signing thank you every time the word was used in his presence. At 13 months I don’t know if he knows what thank you means, but he does seem to understand that it should come after mommy gives you food!
I agree with you completely. Telling a Kindergartener to sound out a word, when they do not know their letters and the sounds they make to start with is a little difficult. I believe younger children need a more hands on approach. For example, give them an alphabet puzzle to work on while introducing the sound each letter makes. Teachers should put learning at a level their children can reach.
ReplyDeleteYou made some good points. I like how you made me think in the interfering part of learning. I didn't think about it until you said something. Having no interaction with children does hinder them from knowing how to interact with other children. I like how you said that they need to have more hands on activities and age appropriate material. I really didn't think about auditory learning would be hard at this age either, but you made a good point that they do not have the vocabulary that we have nor the knowledge we have to be auditory learners. I like the way you think!
ReplyDeleteGood post. I think that learning styles probably change as you get older. I think more hands on for younger children is a good idea. I think that your story about teaching the 13 month old was a good one.
ReplyDeleteI liked your story about the peanut butter sandwich. That must have been really funny to watch. You made a good point about assuming the other people know exactly what you are wanting them to do. I also liked the point about learning styles differing between children and adults. The hands on approach works really well with children. And an adults vocabulary being much larger than that of a child, so auditory learning would be more difficult. It all makes sense!
ReplyDeleteYou just open my eyes with how school can interfer with a child personal growth. Children sitting down and doing nothing will not benefit a child at all. If that is the case, children can stay home and let their parents teach them. Teachers have to be able to make sure that their students are getting what they need to learn.
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