 I saw links to this Psychology Today piece all over the place today. Actually, I haven't gotten yet to the digests of my e-mail lists, but I bet it's there, too.
The piece is called "Kids Learn Math Easily When They Control Their Own Learning," and it's all about things that I know: Kids who aren't force fed math like it better. Almost all elementary level math will be learned by a child in normal, creative play if you let him and encourage fun with numbers. As long as a child is learning in a rich environment, anything can be learned in a small amount of time when they really want to learn it, even if that thing takes years of standard public school curriculum.
Yet, the other day, there I was at the breakfast table, a.k.a. schoolroom, with my daughter, slogging it out over fractions.
When I first started homeschooling her, I was so frustrated I hired an educational consultant to tell me what I knew already. One, she's a fantastically quick learner who sucks up anything she wants to. Two, she learns in an integral way - that is, she's not interested in facts or skills themselves, but how they relate to something that she loves or a project she's doing. Three, she is verbally quick and creative, but absolutely uninterested in doing things in any linear, organized fashion.
In other words, she's what's called a "visual spacial learner." For me, she might as well be called a Martian.
Well, OK, that's exaggerating. Because when it comes to learning.... continued>>>> |
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At a certain point in my years in education I was in the position of hiring teachers. Sadly, 90% of the resumes went into the reject pile owing to poor spelling, awful grammar, incomplete sentences and incoherent paragraphs on resumes. Of the ones hired, most were good, some had to be let go and a few were exceptional. Although I sometimes had a gut feeling about potential, I was rarely able to predict who would turn out to be the most inspiring teachers.
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