Learning the Basics

The other night I had a quick chat with a mom who was inquiring about a We Learn Naturally Program for her son.  I have met this mom outside of We Learn Naturally and I have a lot of respect for her.  After chatting, I realized that her questions are what every parent is wondering before taking a self-directed learning leap; how do they learn the basics?

You've read it before; babies learn to walk, talk, etc. without direct instruction from a parent or "expert".  So it shouldn't be surprising that kids can also learn all they need to without specifically being "taught".  However, if you are like me, you still struggle with hang-ups. 


As an adult, a parent, and a teacher, I believe in self-directed learning.  I fully understand how kids can be self-taught readers and writers.  In fact, as a kindergarten teacher, I saw it first hand and it was beautiful!  And yet, I still have days that leave me wondering...yes but "what about math?"   I truly have a math hang-up in the context of self-directed learning and self-willed curriculum.  That's OK.  It just means that I have done a lot of thinking about it and I'm happy to share my conclusions with you. 

The work force our children will be a part of is expected to be even more dynamic than it has been thus far for our generation. Sir Ken Robinson does a nice job of explaining how this change necessitates the shift from industrial revolution style education to our modern educational needs in his talk Changing Education Paradigms.  To relate this back to math, people who like following the steps to get a nice neat answer are just not sought after in today's economy. 



Math, as we learned it, is not really all that useful anymore.  In fact, even our public schools understand that (at least in the province of Ontario); they are teaching "new math" to students.  The focus is on problem-solving and discussion based learning that highlight the multiple solution paths to get the answer (and sometimes even multiple solutions!)  Do you remember your math homework as a kid?  Completing the textbook problems and then working on the assigned word problem questions at the end?  Well, kids today are spending much of their time in discovery mode; working on those difficult math word problems, but in groups.  As someone who loved math the old way, it took me a while to get my head around this "new math".  Once I understood it, I realized how it was actually far superior to the ways in which we had been taught.  The rote memorization was replaced by depth of understanding. 


Taking it back to Sir Ken Robinson's Changing Education Paradigms, I think we can all agree that today's world doesn't need human calculators.  We have an app for that.  What we need are people who understand math at a deeper level.  People who can create the apps or solve other big problems in our world.  Hmmm...Now that is an interesting concept to me.  Not everyone needs to have the same math exposure to be useful or successful in our world.  In fact, the ones who pursue math the most are probably the ones that are most interested in math anyway and those kids need depth of understanding of the key concepts that interest them most, not following memorized steps.  Humph.  My math education is obsolete.


Despite the positive changes, I think there is still room for improvement in the way students are learning math in the public system and the only way to address it, from my perspective, is to actually make it more self-directed.  By allowing children to follow their interests and natural skill sets, the kids who are naturally curious about math will spend more time contemplating those big math questions and the kids better suited to other lines of work will be free to pursue that learning.  All kids will pick up the necessary math they need to function in the world, and they will have a better chance of picking up what they need and retaining it if they pursue it naturally as opposed to having the concepts artificially placed in front of them.  In fact, Benezet's work with Math Training indicates that allowing students to develop their brain in areas that are more interesting to them appears to have better results than teaching math to students, at least from grade 1-5. If you are curious, check out this blog by Peter Gray   Peter Gray does a nice job of describing how giving kids space to discover how to learn effectively instead of telling them what to learn has better results for achieving success.


I'd like to end with a personal reflection. When I look at my kids learning, I am inspired to stay on this path.  Never having been taught a stitch of math, my two year old has started counting to 20.  Rote counting at first, but now she is understanding that there is meaning behind each number name.  Counting to 10 has never been so exciting.  My five year old regularly adds and subtracts, creative sorting by attributes, and he has started playing with the beginning concepts of multiplication and division.  He's a math guy in the making I think.  He is currently obsessed with Lego Mixels and that has lead to him counting money and working to understand the fractions involved in coins so that he can buy more of these creatures with his allowance.  My kids are absorbing math because the world they live in is simply more interesting when you understand the numbers.  I just show them the world and give them opportunities to explore in the directions they are most interested in, and then they just learn what they need to learn to get them where they want to go.


I have a math hang-up because it is scary to let go of old paradigms!  We think that covering all the bases with traditional instruction will help kids get to where *we think* they should go.  But if you can let go, and I hope you can, they will go so much further.  They will be spending their time doing the things that matter most to them.  Oh, and one more tidbit; for those of you who disliked math growing up, self-directed kids don't really have those hang-ups.  When they have freely taken charge of their own learning, kids are naturally confident in what they can achieve.  How beautiful is that?  No matter the task or it's perceived difficulty, they are resourceful and bright and use their strengths and skills to get the job done. 


So I'm going to try my best to not give my kids any of my hang-ups.  They can pursue whatever captures their mind, on their own timeline.  Whether they choose to spend their day focused on reading, writing, math, or catching a seagull, I'm going to trust them.

Yes, this kid actually caught a seagull after his mom dared him.  I think this is hilarious.

The Orchid and the Dandelion

A few years ago I came across an article in the Atlantic about parenting and genetics called "The Science of Success".  The general idea, sometimes referred to as the Orchid and the Dandelion, describes the interplay between nature and nurture in terms of the effects that parenting and environments have on the ways in which our genetics are expressed. 

When I first read this article, I woke my husband up just to tell him about it!  I was so excited!  This made so much sense to me as a parent and a teacher!  This is going to revolutionize the way we interact with children and look at mental illness I proclaimed!  That was five years ago and I still think this theory is a game changer.






The theory, which is still being tested, says that the "children who suffer most from bad environments also profit the most from good ones" (quoted from the article linked above).  This makes sense to me.  As a public school teacher, I recognized that many kids do just fine in the structure of our public school system...but I have also witnessed some children STRUGGLING in school.  The environment just isn't set up for some kids.  Sitting in chairs when their bodies want to move, digesting material that doesn't interest them, held to a standard they feel they cannot reach, compared to their peers and feeling ashamed for performing less than the top of the class.  I have taught so many orchids in the public system and it's heart breaking!  I feel I should add that I taught in a good community with loving families.  These were "good kids".  In the end, this was just not an environment set up for orchid children to blossom. 



Recognizing this, I naturally started to wonder, if these kids are the orchids of the class, what do they need to blossom?  My conclusions were simple yet difficult to implement in our current institutional framework; freedom, respect, love, and nature.



As I thought more about the orchid hypothesis (a.k.a plasticity hypothesis, the sensitivity hypothesis, or the differential-susceptibility hypothesis if you want to Google it by a different name), is that these orchid children actually magnify for all of us the environments that everyone blossoms or struggles in.  Really, all children reach their full potential in an environment that provides freedom of choice, respect for personhood, and unconditional love.  A dandelion will also become a healthier, more robust plant in good soil with ample water and sun.  Shouldn't we want all our children to reach their full potential?  The orchids show us when we are on the right track. 




At We Learn Naturally, we seem to be attracting some parents whom I suspect are orchids themselves.  They are intelligent, gentle, loving parents who are aware of how the learning environment impacts  their children.   We have also spoken to parents of "orchid" children.  There is a feeling of relief as they share their story and articulate how our program offerings fit with the needs of their children.  The trickier part is actually convincing the parents of dandelion children to make the leap.  How do you show parents of kids who are essentially doing just fine that life could be even better?


I'd love to hear your thoughts!








P.S.  I really love dandelions.  This flower is a beauty in all stages of it's life, nourishing for bees and bugs (humans too!), a prolific bloomer, and a steadfast multiplier.  What's not to love? ;)