Kids have a right to know the objective of the hours they spend in school. Sadly, often the message they get is misleading.
Students should know why they are going to school
- Developing the ability to read and write well
- Developing the tendency to read and write well
- Developing academic knowledge to become ‘good at school’
- Entirely mastering a given curriculum of study
- Mastering and then applying academic and non-academic knowledge to live (e.g., to ‘get a job’–which is different than ‘doing good work’)
- Gaining and using academic knowledge to do good work
- The ability to expertly create your own ‘curriculum’–learning literacy–this being hugely superior to mastering a given curriculumDeveloping and nurturing your creative capacities
- Developing the ability to think rationally and critically (to evaluate what you see and hear and read and separate truth from non-truths, for example)
- Developing the tendency to think critically
- Developing critical literacy (which requires both academic knowledge, creative expression, and critical thinking) in non-native places and developing critical literacy in one’s native place (e.g., protecting resources or rebalancing inequalities)
- Developing the ability to think and feel with and alongside others
- Developing and applying critical literacy (i.e., to do good work–helping people, restoring places, promoting equitable well-being, etc., which requires the ability to think and feel with and alongside others) in service of a given place and its people
- Developing the ability to ask and think about ‘great questions’ through sustained inquiry and curiosity
- Developing the ability to think (which requires critical literacy as well as the ability to ask great questions) and work with the people and places of a connected world
- Developing the tendency to work well (which requires critical literacy, empathy, and affection) with the people and places of a connected world
- Developing the cognitive capacity and thinking frameworks and mindsets (which requires wisdom) to wield all the available tools (including technology) and knowledge (including academic, vocational, technological, agrarian, cultural, etc.) to work well in any place with any people in a way that serves the sustainability, quality, and history, and affections of those people and places
- Learning what’s worth learning (for you, in your chosen place) by thinking critically and rationally
- Knowing what to do with what you decided was worth learning
- Developing and applying the critical capacity and tendency for doing what you decide is worth doing with what you decided was worth learning and knowing
Dutifully, students begin to envision where they want to be. (Truth be told, most students envision when recess begins, but play along with me.) Mental pictures of vacation homes and fancy cars, the trappings of “success,” dance in their mind. They get the message: if you want to get what you want, crack open the books and get down to business.
Bad news. This is backwards. Education must teach children how to make basic moral choices in life. The foundational three R’s should empower them to be Righteous, Responsible and Reverent, as well as competitive in the marketplace.
We as a guardian or parents should understand about our child’s mentality and need. We should not force any child to drive their craziness in a particular direction only. We should not put our ambition into the soft shoulder of our children just by saying that “I wanted to become a doctor but due to financial condition I couldn’t, so my son or daughter will make my dream come true.”
Let your child explore the opportunities around them. When they explore the opportunities then their brain is getting developed, and there is a particular age when these development takes place. The human brain begins forming very early in prenatal life (just three weeks after conception), but in many ways, brain development is a lifelong project. That is because the same events that shape the brain during development are also responsible for storing information—new skills and memories—throughout life.
From birth to age 5, a child’s brain develops more than at any other time in life. And early brain development has a lasting impact on a child’s ability to learn and succeed in school and life. The quality of a child’s experiences in the first few years of life – positive or negative – helps shape how their brain develops.
Starting from birth, children develop brain connections through their everyday experiences. They’re built through positive interactions with their parents and caregivers and by using their senses to interact with the world. A young child’s daily experiences determine which brain connections develop and which will last for a lifetime. The amount and quality of care, stimulation and interaction they receive in their early years makes all the difference.
A child’s relationships with the adults in their life are the most important influences on their brain development. Loving relationships with responsive, dependable adults are essential to a child’s healthy development. These relationships begin at home, with parents and family, but also include child care providers, teachers and other members of the community.
Very nice