skullaria wrote:
I just had one of those wonderful opportunities to have a mind to mind talk with two little boys, one my own, 11, homeschooled, and the other my nephew, 12, who is in public school.

My own son does not get the luxury of a 'summer break' because we incorporate education everyday into his daily activities. His cousin, who stays with us a good bit of the time, always has the choice to participate, or to go play videogames.

99% of the time, he will choose to participate, especially in science and art.

So today, the topic was Frankenstein. I suddenly found myself on the couch between 2 very interested little boys as the topic went from Frankenstein, cardioversion, to Hiroshima, over to wood frogs, then diabetes effect on frostbite, cloning, Dolly, stem cells, the role of bees in our food chain, and just what is 'genetically modified' food.

The conversation was EVERYWHERE, but there was solid scientific information and INTEREST being passed and absorbed.

After an hour, I finally got up and left as they tried to pull me back down. As usual, I felt it best to leave them with their interest high, and the boredom factor at zero.

But I sit here reflecting on the experience, I once again find that the best way to educate a child is to simply talk with them. I've learned to meet them on their own level in attention span and vocabulary, while expanding both, and to never pull punches when it comes to discussing science. Children should be encouraged to watch the news. If it is disturbing, help them process it - for it IS the world that THEY live in too.

Once again, I am convinced that the arts should not be taught 'alone' - they should not be isolated from science and technology.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of working with a class of 9 year olds in a local school. We were working on photoediting. They had been out a week before photographing wildlife in this area, my job was to help them edit the pictures prior to being exhibited at the Festival of Nature. I teach computing in a university and was quite nervous about the "alien" species called the "9 year old". A class of 18 year old undergraduates can mess up an entire lesson with computer crashes and endlessly asking "what should I do next?" or just sitting there, staring back at me. Depressed is perhaps the right word. I've wondered if somehow it's me and tried to change to make it more interesting for the students. Seemed to me therefore that the 9 year olds were probably just going to sit there puzzled by the software, crashing the computers, and asking to go to the toilet. Still, I was doing it for a good cause, so what the hell...

Boy, was I wrong.... !

These kids were totally focused, engaged with the technology, with their nature photos, with the possibilities for art using digital cameras and then photoediting software, and the work they did was creative, imaginative, just brilliant. A 15 minute intro to the software and they were off... Instead of hanging on my every word as expected, they politely waved me away, concentrated on the work, collaborated, played, experimented, tried one thing after another, and only called me back over when they had a question. Rather than producing a whole set of naturalist images, they went off in directions all of their own, and the results were wonderful. Some of the best in the exhibition.

For me it was, quite simply, one of the most enjoyable teaching experience of the last 10 years.

What do we do between 8 and 18 that causes so many students to lose interest, to be afraid of trying things for themselves, afraid of combining their academic intellect with their artistic side? In short, what turns so many 8 year old talents into exam-passing zombies? Well, I think it's partly the constant stream of tests in which you pass or fail. Also the way we dismiss the arts in favour of literacy, science and mathematics (which of course are important, but not exclusively so.)

Also, as you say, the way we separate out subjects in some kind of industrial model especially as children get older. I agree with your conclusions, but possibly I would turn the argument around to say that it is maths, science and literacy which should not be taught on their own. They must include creative work too. But that's the first thing to go when a new national test is devised.

I also think whether it's in private or public education we need to attend to this problem urgently, because it's getting worse. Ken Robinson's wonderful talk at the TED conference last year nails it for me. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

Congratulations on finding a connection with children that encourages their true talent. If I can only find a way to relight that fire when they come to me at 18....

RE: Talking With Children About Frankenstein