tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-159329192024-03-28T07:54:30.498-07:00Teacher TomTeaching and learning from preschoolersTeacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.comBlogger4193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-87088233525197488562024-03-28T07:53:00.000-07:002024-03-28T07:53:44.262-07:00Even Our Words Can Be Loose Parts<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3344sYA8G3w5Ysvr-ndzgyZCpfcv9fhg8uPxEJ00ly6YKcTyFPfBcm1kGWCv4e5ncdf-trHI9LatmjKdtoB_MMTJc0XpYRoKjJiLYmBvfIq9owYaqbpfVzJ_J8tbXQ5Tufn14/s1600/IMG_3896.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3344sYA8G3w5Ysvr-ndzgyZCpfcv9fhg8uPxEJ00ly6YKcTyFPfBcm1kGWCv4e5ncdf-trHI9LatmjKdtoB_MMTJc0XpYRoKjJiLYmBvfIq9owYaqbpfVzJ_J8tbXQ5Tufn14/w480-h640/IMG_3896.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i>"No climbing to the top!"</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When our daughter was in kindergarten, her school installed an amazing rope-and-steel climbing structure. The kindergartners were forbidden from climbing to the very top, which meant that adults were always hovering around the thing, "reminding" the children when they got too high. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">One day, I asked her if she was loving the new climber. She replied, "It's kind of in the way. No one plays on it." When I asked her why, she just shrugged, "It's just not fun."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-theory-of-loose-parts.html">Yesterday, I posted some thoughts on The Theory of Loose Parts</a>. Appropriately, it is an idea that has emerged from the field of architecture about how the best learning environments are those in which we have permission to shape and manipulate our surroundings, and the things found within our surroundings, to suit our needs, ideas and curiosity.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It's a theory that's generally thought of in terms of the physical environment, but no matter how loose the parts, no matter how flexible the space, if the environment does not grant <i>permission</i> to engage freely, then the children, as loose parts theorist Simon Nicholson puts it, will still be cheated.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">That's what happened at our daughter's school. The adults, in their concern about safety (or perhaps liability), had sucked the joy out of it. They would have been better off not installing the thing at all. Or installing a shorter one. Or, the way we did it at Woodland Park, not have a climbing structure at all, but rather provide the materials -- scraps of wood, shipping pallets, car tires, ropes -- from which the children could build their own "climbers."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And at our school, that's what the children did. None so high as the one on our daughter's kindergarten playground, of course, but always just the right height for the children creating it. Not only that, these impromptu structures were never in the way because the moment the kids were done with it, the parts were on the move, being put to other uses. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But this didn't happen just because we provided the parts. It wasn't even just because they were "loose." This kind of self-motivated loose play can only happen when children know they have permission to follow their curiosity.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">At our daughter's school, the adults specifically forbid a certain type of exploration, but much of the time we let children know they don't have permission in more subtle ways. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For instance, if you listen to the things adults are saying to children at play -- "Come here!" "Slow down!" "Be careful!" -- we hear mostly commands. Research finds that 80 percent of the sentences adults speak to young children are commands. And an environment full of commands is not an environment of permission.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We also hear a lot of school-ish questions, "What color is that?" "How many marbles do I have in my hand?" "Do you know what letter that is?" Implied in these types of questions is the idea that the adults know better than the children what to think about. But even more open-ended questions like, "What do you think will happen if you put one more block on your tower?" tend to steer children into adult approved "places" in which the parts are no longer loose. When we ask questions, we compel children to divert from their own course and onto the one we've chosen for them.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are times for commands and questions, but if our goal is to create the kind of loose parts environments that allow children to learn at full-capacity, then we are well served to consider even our words as loose parts. When we strive to replace our commands and questions with informational statements -- "That color is red," "I have marbles in my hand," "This is the letter R" -- we are offering children information, facts, that they, like with any loose part, can use or not use.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Instead of the command "Get in the car," we might state the fact, "It's time to go" and let them do their own thinking. Instead of the command "Be careful!" we might say, "The ground below you is concrete and it will hurt if you fall on it." Instead of school-ish questions to which we already know the answers we might instead simply speculate aloud, "I wonder why the sky is blue," leaving it there for the children to consider . . . or not. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, we might also choose to just not say anything at all which is when our "third teacher," the environment, often does her best work.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We will be discussing this and much more in my course, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a></i>, a 6-week deep dive for educators, parents, and other caregivers who want to transform their classrooms, homes, and playgrounds into the kinds of "third teachers" that give children the </span><i><span style="font-size: medium;">permission</span></i><span style="font-size: large;"> to engage with the world through their curiosity, to experience the joy of self-motivated learning, and to become critical thinkers. Registration is now open for the 2024 cohort, <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">click here to learn more</a>. I'd love to see you there!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/s636/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="636" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/w400-h331/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you're interested in transforming your own space into this kind of loose parts learning environment, you might want to join the 2024 cohort for my 6-week course, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span> This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive; in which novelty and self-motivation stand at the center of learning. In my decades as an early childhood educator, I've found that nothing improves my teaching and the children's learning experience more than a supportive classroom, both indoors and out. This course is for educators, parents, and directors. Group discounts are available. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To learn more and register, click here</a>.</i></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-25702714397024778882024-03-27T06:56:00.000-07:002024-03-27T06:56:29.729-07:00The Theory of Loose Parts<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBRLrXCehtmUcjdhNO3XA4O4OBnqNeTcJHRx3BpJrbBHRq6eNX1mgBPhHqccmPk4E6D_aERNtSbYwPtlzUA_McN4j4zTDdzOPxNFXRhMp-7HQuQNmeBhsG2xLggTHt5Tazcng4/s1600/25775DAD-90E8-4A35-BAB1-F8E183DA4AD0.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBRLrXCehtmUcjdhNO3XA4O4OBnqNeTcJHRx3BpJrbBHRq6eNX1mgBPhHqccmPk4E6D_aERNtSbYwPtlzUA_McN4j4zTDdzOPxNFXRhMp-7HQuQNmeBhsG2xLggTHt5Tazcng4/s640/25775DAD-90E8-4A35-BAB1-F8E183DA4AD0.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div>In 1971, architect Simon Nicholson wrote an article for a magazine called <i>Landscape Architecture </i>entitled “How Not to Cheat Children: The Theory of Loose Parts.” Perhaps it wasn’t the first time that the phrase “loose parts play” was used, but it was this manifesto that in many ways kicked things off. In the half century years since its publication, the idea has grown, first slowly, and then suddenly in recent years as more and more early childhood educators have embraced Nicholson’s theory a part of their play-based programs.</div><div><br /></div><div>That the theory emerged from architecture is fascinating to think about. It echoes the work of Reggio Emilia founder Loris Malaguzzi who was at about the same time postulating that children had three teachers: adults, other children, and <i>the</i> <i>environment, </i>the environment being the primary purview of architecture. Nicholson’s theory, as he phrased it in that original article:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.</blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Nicholson was not talking exclusively about early childhood, but about educational environments in general. He included playgrounds and classrooms in his discussion, but also places for all ages, like museums and libraries. His big idea was that we are most inventive and creative when allowed to construct, manipulate, and otherwise play with our environments. He argued that when we leave the design of spaces to professionals, we are, in effect, excluding children (and adults) from the most important, and fun, part of the process. We are, in his words, “stealing” it from the children.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even if we haven’t consciously adopted the theory of loose parts play, every early childhood professional, even those working in otherwise highly structured environments, knows this to be true. None of us would, for instance, build a block structure for the children, then expect them to learn anything by merely looking at it and listening to us lecture. We know that the children must take those blocks in hand, must both construct and deconstruct, must experiment, test, and manipulate. We also know that their play, and therefore their learning, is expanded as we add more and varied materials to their environment.</div><div><br /></div><div>The theory of loose parts applies the principles of the “block area” to the entire environment (which is, not coincidentally, the focus of my 6-week course, <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning"><i>Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</i></a>) encouraging us to let go of our ideas of how a learning environment is supposed to be and to instead fill it with variables, things that can be moved, manipulated, and transported. This, as Nicholson points out, is where creativity and inventiveness live. It’s important to remember that his theory continues to be a radical one, even as aspects of it are becoming more mainstream. This is about more than tree cookies and toilet paper tubes and clothes pins. It’s about more than old tires, shipping pallets, and planks of wood. At its core, the theory of loose parts is a theory about democracy, about self-governance, and the rights and responsibilities of both individuals and groups to come together to shape their world according to their own vision.</div><div><br /></div><div>The world is always ours to shape and when we are not shaping it, it is shaping us. Nicholson’s insight was that our environment is too often a kind of dictator, one that is restricting rather than expanding our possibilities. As we work with our “third teacher” it’s important that we keep this in mind and always ask ourselves, “Is this stealing the fun from the children?”</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/s636/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="636" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/w400-h331/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you're interested in transforming your own space into this kind of loose parts learning environment, you might want to join the 2024 cohort for my 6-week course, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span> This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive; in which novelty and self-motivation stand at the center of learning. In my decades as an early childhood educator, I've found that nothing improves my teaching and the children's learning experience more than a supportive classroom, both indoors and out. This course is for educators, parents, and directors. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To learn more and register, click here</a>.</i></span></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Thank you!</span></i></div>
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-44455934260153284052024-03-26T07:04:00.000-07:002024-03-26T07:06:42.141-07:00Why Do Orcas Sink Boats? The Same Reason Kids Put Underpants on Their Heads!<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabuIXPN6l5rT8hs0Y24XL905atf3J-vovEnR9lqsy9sEAZkPe6z5IYfuS5Bqa_8ROaPxse7ZPELTnDpW6TbAIlxslFoumPGnFUz83WudfQU_mYrsyGc1RImuC9XK-5OczI9HuDXQww3zxcbrCX7f6TELqiUUSJR-uyuKHZXAKDBqkZWRmqshA/s4032/IMG_3822%20(1).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabuIXPN6l5rT8hs0Y24XL905atf3J-vovEnR9lqsy9sEAZkPe6z5IYfuS5Bqa_8ROaPxse7ZPELTnDpW6TbAIlxslFoumPGnFUz83WudfQU_mYrsyGc1RImuC9XK-5OczI9HuDXQww3zxcbrCX7f6TELqiUUSJR-uyuKHZXAKDBqkZWRmqshA/w480-h640/IMG_3822%20(1).jpg" width="480" /></a></div><span><div style="font-size: x-large; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">For the past few years, orcas off the coast of Spain and Portugal have been ramming and often sinking smaller boats. Back in the 1980's, pods of orcas in the Pacific Ocean made a fad of wearing dead fish on their heads. The leading theory for these behaviors is play.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The orcas don't <i>need</i> to ram those boats and bite at their rudders, although I imagine them cheering one another on. There's no apparent reason for orcas to wear a dead fish on their heads, and the same can be said for young children laugh themselves silly while sporting, say, underpants on their heads. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In my course <i><a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating Natural Habitats for Learning</a></i>, one of the key things we will be exploring is how our classrooms, playgrounds, and homes can become the kind of environments in which young children know they have permission to play.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's far easier said than done because so much of what school is about, so much of what playgrounds are about, is proscribed activities. You can climb this structure, but not that tree. You may slide down, but not climb back up. You can build with those blocks, but nothing higher than your head. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>And most manufactured toys come with "scripts" designed right into them. </span><span>The fire truck is, well, a fire truck. </span><span>That doll is from a Disney movie. </span><span>Princess costumes, vehicles, action figures, tools, weapons, and pretty much anything made for kids "instructs" or "directs" the child's play. A creative child will, of course, find other ways to play with these toys . . . That is, if there isn't an adult nearby to tell them they're doing it wrong. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But even when the adult stays out of it, researchers find that young children tend prefer the boxes the toys come in. The wrapping paper. The twist-ties and rubber bands and other packaging material. This tendency, what we call "loose parts play," frees children from the scripts and expectations, allowing them to fully engage in the deep, genuine learning that takes place from exploring without artificial constraints.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The best habitats for learning are those that embrace the promise and genius behind loose parts learning. There is far more learning in the recycling box than the toy box.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">If this sounds like the kind of learning environment you want to offer to the young children in your life, please consider joining the 2024 cohort of <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning"><i>Creating Natural Habitats for Learning</i></a>. <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">This 6-week course is a deep-dive into the impact of the environment on how and what young children learn, including the theory and practice of loose parts. It’s a course for early childhood educators, directors, and parents of young children who are interested in creating environments that inspire self-directed learning. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Meanwhile, if you find yourself in a small boat off the Iberian coast, just hope the orcas are playing the dead fish on the head game that day, because otherwise it's liable to be a bit rowdy!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">******</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/s636/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="636" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/w400-h331/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you're interested in transforming your own space into this kind of learning environment, you might want to join the 2024 cohort for my 6-week course, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span> This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive; in which novelty and self-motivation stand at the center of learning. In my decades as an early childhood educator, I've found that nothing improves my teaching and the children's learning experience more than a supportive classroom, both indoors and out. This course is for educators, parents, and directors. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To learn more and register, click here</a>.</i></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-23436972616523150002024-03-25T06:59:00.000-07:002024-03-25T06:59:47.011-07:00Change the Environment, Not the Child<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj91R1Zor9CjG1sdtLUuLCswxT6-Uw-Zfnaq5PNNOZsL-vnBxOvsqLv5MdlTq2l6Co_EbCgy2rAv2AqknxXWyY_4NRMYAmvYYng10NmhHtonZvtdZqV1BkolF_g6fJ9HwfdmgsC/s1600/IMG_2573.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj91R1Zor9CjG1sdtLUuLCswxT6-Uw-Zfnaq5PNNOZsL-vnBxOvsqLv5MdlTq2l6Co_EbCgy2rAv2AqknxXWyY_4NRMYAmvYYng10NmhHtonZvtdZqV1BkolF_g6fJ9HwfdmgsC/s640/IMG_2573.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span">I was recently leaving a downtown store. When I came to the exit door, I saw that it had a handle. I grabbed and pulled. The door didn't budge. I then, counter-intuitively, pushed and the door swung open. This is a prime example of a failure in design: a handle means "pull" and a push plate means "push." Indeed, every time you see a sign on a door reading "push" or "pull," you're looking at a design flaw that someone has clumsily attempted to correct.<br /><br />Design flaws are all around us. My local supermarket began offering discounts to "members." To take advantage you open an app on your phone, then hold the bar code under a scanner which is located beneath the checkout screen. There is no beep, no green light, or any other indicator that your code has been read, which means that every single person who uses it winds up fuddling around, trying their phone at different angles before finally, in frustration, engaging the cashier in the following conversation:<br /><br />"Did it work?"<br /><br />"What work?"<br /><br />"My app thingy."<br /><br />"You mean your discount code?"<br /><br />"Yes."<br /><br />"Let me see . . . Yes, it worked."<br /><br />And you thought the "Paper or plastic?" question got old.<br /><br />This too, is a design flaw that a simple beep or bell or light would fix. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Every time you see that pedestrians have worn a path through a lawn instead of sticking to the sidewalks, you're seeing evidence of design not working. My father was a transportation engineer who was fond of pointing out how design flaws were causing the traffic jams we were experiencing. He would say, "I'm sure it looked beautiful on the drafting board, but the engineer forgot to consider how actual people behave."<br /><br />When I first started teaching, I set up our classroom as I would have a living room, thinking in terms of seating and "traffic flow," making sure the passageways were wide enough, that there were no places where one could get "trapped," and so forth. The reality I discovered once actual children were on the scene was that I'd created a race-track that said, quite clearly, "Run in circles," and that's what they did. After weeks of scolding the kids about running inside, I finally re-arranged the furniture and the behavior disappeared.<br /><br />One of the aspects of the Reggio Emilia model for early years education that I think about often is the concept of the three teachers: 1) the adults, 2) the other children, and 3) the environment, which is where design comes in. Quite often, I've found that repeated troubling or trying behaviors have little to do with the children themselves and everything to do with an environment that forgot to consider how actual children behave. Things hanging from above tend to tell children, <i>Jump</i> or <i>Swing</i> or <i>Hang</i>. Long open areas say, <i>Run</i>. Echoey spaces say, <i>Shout</i>. Dark and confined says, <i>Giggle</i> and <i>Whisper</i>. Bright and busy creates a different vibe than muted and uncluttered. And design flaws are not limited to the physical space. Sometimes the aspect that needs tweaking has to do with the schedule or the expectations or even the school's philosophy, all of which I consider to be part of the children's environment as well.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">This is the thinking behind my 6-week course, <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a>. It's a tool to help educators, parents, and directors to think comprehensively about how your classrooms, homes, and playgrounds as a "third teacher" (see below). It's amazing how much as well-considered, adaptable, child-centric learning habitat can free you up to be the kind of educator or parent you always wanted to be.<br /><br />Of course, it's not always about design flaws, but whenever I find myself forever correcting the same behavior over and over, I begin to suspect that's what it is. Instead of looking to change the child, I start by wondering how I can change the environment. It's amazing how often even a small change, like moving the furniture or replacing a handle with a push plate, can make all the difference in the world.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/s636/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="636" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJO17GcIxxMM5OjkL_ET6UZrop-PO1yzOs9HSdsUglMntjkJ1JKsz2XbT1aGkxRtCfFxG0CZi9SLrmoAp5BDy6jewsY7piKkujVX3qKUekrh2WuFOfc7GbatGu-T0vKD0a3mcRI7y1LeqVR4eTsiCp8AW1odVaJDHicPsyHeUW_7jLdJ9Mw02/w400-h331/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-23%20at%207.37.18%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you're interested in transforming your own space into this kind of learning environment, you might want to join the 2024 cohort for my 6-week course, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span> This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive; in which novelty and self-motivation stand at the center of learning. In my decades as an early childhood educator, I've found that nothing improves my teaching and the children's learning experience more than a supportive classroom, both indoors and out. This course is for educators, parents, and directors. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To learn more and register, click here</a>.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><br /></i></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Thank you!</span></i></div>
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-75440596948927224612024-03-22T07:07:00.000-07:002024-03-23T10:04:41.544-07:00"How Many Times Have I Told You Not to Run in the Hallway?"<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ODhh0TEm4TXFq_8LnSr7acGiYW2ULYui2GwkOeYV-iy7Q574VWI8e14RLl2xyAFWtahOHTRfsEETCjr_FFrdsrx8xa4jUog97oI9GH_7r69u3CFp4W1Pl15o4Jm9vyNJ2R-hbUuxIxmKnLjDFJ9TxCbKFwavNuH6LroG9Df1jPBFwOdvtNmE/s4032/IMG_3945.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ODhh0TEm4TXFq_8LnSr7acGiYW2ULYui2GwkOeYV-iy7Q574VWI8e14RLl2xyAFWtahOHTRfsEETCjr_FFrdsrx8xa4jUog97oI9GH_7r69u3CFp4W1Pl15o4Jm9vyNJ2R-hbUuxIxmKnLjDFJ9TxCbKFwavNuH6LroG9Df1jPBFwOdvtNmE/w480-h640/IMG_3945.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A friend recently purchased a new home. The first thing she did was paint the walls, because, as she said, the old color depressed her.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-eabba092-7fff-2263-41e4-92216b37fe97"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all know that our surroundings can have a significant impact on how we feel and even behave. And this is even more true for young children.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A long unobstructed hallway “tells” children to run.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A mobile hanging from the ceiling says to jump, or climb, in order to reach it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Furniture arranged in a circle suggests a race track.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room that echoes, urges children to shout.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHvjsojX4l2TFK8J4ovmSdg-3GHBrU_ovupNknZjv_LoCUCkpJfrljo1uWBNUUxfqchATPKNkQsf3pYjLQgkNLwjDh1bgOBZkKrL6D4K9Owof7IVSRTzAZv8gLAEE7jjv6GcPR91_WOBZtNFZproZTq0HKRLkH6QbTYoz3TYhQLm8XjsbaWB1/s4032/IMG_3946.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHvjsojX4l2TFK8J4ovmSdg-3GHBrU_ovupNknZjv_LoCUCkpJfrljo1uWBNUUxfqchATPKNkQsf3pYjLQgkNLwjDh1bgOBZkKrL6D4K9Owof7IVSRTzAZv8gLAEE7jjv6GcPR91_WOBZtNFZproZTq0HKRLkH6QbTYoz3TYhQLm8XjsbaWB1/w400-h300/IMG_3946.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sand and water say, "Dig!" and "Build bridges!"</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In frustration, we say things like, “How many times have I told you not to run in the hallway?” because, indeed, we’ve said it countless times, while the hallway itself is telling children just the opposite. No wonder they often look so confused when we scold them.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our classrooms, playgrounds, and homes are in constant communication with the children, but the best learning environments are ones that engage in a </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">two-way dialog</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As an educator, I begin my day before the children arrive, working with my environment – “the third teacher” – to make sure that we are on the same page. When we can offer children the kind of safe and beautiful place in which they are free to engage, in which the messages they receive are consistent, and where learning – not behavior – stands at the center, we are offering children what I call a natural habitat for learning.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">******</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-small; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj325d4vSqaqmJOCsSwSfIawbw9heme0-JPjA03oV2cxgz11lhxnBbGNSw_WX2hDGtxNO1QIccfT5a7Y2b1KymGsQQJBs_SgRNOn6O3frYkb9UHfAleCX31OicjwJd8NOJRzariwbmRENs11MRg0Oe6hRxojWzHT0OWfWUgYX83nRjfY_bt76yQ/s535/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%2010.28.21%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="535" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj325d4vSqaqmJOCsSwSfIawbw9heme0-JPjA03oV2cxgz11lhxnBbGNSw_WX2hDGtxNO1QIccfT5a7Y2b1KymGsQQJBs_SgRNOn6O3frYkb9UHfAleCX31OicjwJd8NOJRzariwbmRENs11MRg0Oe6hRxojWzHT0OWfWUgYX83nRjfY_bt76yQ/w400-h268/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%2010.28.21%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you're interested in transforming your own space into this kind of learning environment, you might want to join the 2024 cohort for my 6-week course, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span> This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive; in which novelty and self-motivation stand at the center of learning. In my decades as an early childhood educator, I've found that nothing improves my teaching and the children's learning experience more than a supportive classroom, both indoors and out. This course is for educators, parents, and directors. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To learn more and register, click here</a>.</i></div></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-33557986338177161262024-03-21T07:09:00.000-07:002024-03-23T10:03:02.314-07:00"That Microscopic Utopia that is a Moment of Kindness"<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiew28Ad2Jv7Ac5gtyv1MulpCfRFQWRtw70TlFCyb-iqgL0PkXkT58jTTdfP-xBN_1Dt12gkZGcd-WO9HPsldqfUtAKyD4UsS_OZSPfTFtoCsP32ZnTicavV7FQ7Y_edVQs6jA_/s1600/IMG_5360.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilcMQ1PhPFvml2rgZ08kNyyglDHPzaLgz6UkxL8h5_t7jv0RZ60BnZzGW6jog7glP6M0TPYwQgqj1xhJUOdOUO7dSSCW6lwBwl8QTMFquHvX0-zbHQzPpNE0GuNDWAowb0yr6C/s1600/IMG_8733.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilcMQ1PhPFvml2rgZ08kNyyglDHPzaLgz6UkxL8h5_t7jv0RZ60BnZzGW6jog7glP6M0TPYwQgqj1xhJUOdOUO7dSSCW6lwBwl8QTMFquHvX0-zbHQzPpNE0GuNDWAowb0yr6C/w480-h640/IMG_8733.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The boy was on his knees, sobbing. I don't know why, but I also did nothing because there was already someone caring for him. Two people, in fact: girls, his classmates, children who rarely played with him, but down there with him nonetheless, hands lovingly across his shoulder, on his knee, talking soothingly into his ear.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I first started writing this blog, I did it for myself, but as people started reading and responding, as I began to see my words and ideas impact people, and especially as I began to see that the profession of early childhood education is full of people who see the world, or the prospects of a world, the way I do, I got the idea that maybe I could make a difference in how children everywhere experience childhood.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, I'm a utopian. Yes, I've experienced the reformer's zeal. Call me naive, but even as I look around and see that there have been as many steps back as there have been forward, I remain convinced that a more beautiful world is possible. The news discourages me, but my job, the time I spend amongst the newest humans, convinces me that utopia is possible.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiew28Ad2Jv7Ac5gtyv1MulpCfRFQWRtw70TlFCyb-iqgL0PkXkT58jTTdfP-xBN_1Dt12gkZGcd-WO9HPsldqfUtAKyD4UsS_OZSPfTFtoCsP32ZnTicavV7FQ7Y_edVQs6jA_/s1600/IMG_5360.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiew28Ad2Jv7Ac5gtyv1MulpCfRFQWRtw70TlFCyb-iqgL0PkXkT58jTTdfP-xBN_1Dt12gkZGcd-WO9HPsldqfUtAKyD4UsS_OZSPfTFtoCsP32ZnTicavV7FQ7Y_edVQs6jA_/w300-h400/IMG_5360.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In her memoir <i>Recollections of My Non-Existence</i>, Rebecca Solnit, writes of "that microscopic utopia that is a moment of kindness." People use the word "childish" to refer to adults who behave in petulant, self-centered ways, but these microscopic utopias are also, even mostly, what I've discovered during my decades on my knees with children. Another book by Solnit is <i>A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster</i>, in which she shines a spotlight on the countless examples of temporary, but real, utopias that predictably emerge in the aftermath of earthquakes, fires, floods, and other traumatic events. While we focus on the pain and suffering, we too often miss the kindness that is our greatest and most childish glory.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The utopias, heavens, and nirvanas of our imaginations are perfected places, impossible in a world in which our fellow humans so often find themselves on their knees, sobbing. But what I've learned from my years with children is not a destination, but rather an act of one human caring for another in their time of need. Actual utopia is created in moments of kindness.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj325d4vSqaqmJOCsSwSfIawbw9heme0-JPjA03oV2cxgz11lhxnBbGNSw_WX2hDGtxNO1QIccfT5a7Y2b1KymGsQQJBs_SgRNOn6O3frYkb9UHfAleCX31OicjwJd8NOJRzariwbmRENs11MRg0Oe6hRxojWzHT0OWfWUgYX83nRjfY_bt76yQ/s535/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%2010.28.21%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="535" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj325d4vSqaqmJOCsSwSfIawbw9heme0-JPjA03oV2cxgz11lhxnBbGNSw_WX2hDGtxNO1QIccfT5a7Y2b1KymGsQQJBs_SgRNOn6O3frYkb9UHfAleCX31OicjwJd8NOJRzariwbmRENs11MRg0Oe6hRxojWzHT0OWfWUgYX83nRjfY_bt76yQ/w400-h268/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%2010.28.21%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i>Just a heads up that we will be opening registration on Saturday for the 2024 cohort of my course <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a>. This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a 6-week deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive; in which novelty and self-motivation stand at the center of learning. In my decades as an early childhood educator, I've found that nothing improves my teaching and the children's learning experience more than a supportive classroom, both indoors and out. This course is for educators, parents, and directors. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To learn more and register, click here</a>.</i></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Thank you!</span></i></div>
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-22500089853437268172024-03-20T07:06:00.000-07:002024-03-23T10:02:04.798-07:00Novelty is the Essence of What it Means to Learn<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZnK9D8drlg9QV21L1fvrDTYC4V9DLGM5Qtnvxrb93Rxvh_ECXdLq9ScBFHGO2TBEPlwyX3iWeR53PV78qw6gadX2pFnHrWFjgD9-MswEqFZjFssU2N9j7eGcXklHNUYJlz3BW98HwQokogirFNutdsLM3VVrTl3GdvS6Aayaetk7YDBIWKw/s1920/MV5BNjc3MWI3YmItMDViNS00Nzk4LTgxNDItZTA0ZGIzOGM1MzE0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTU1MzE3NDk@._V1_.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1920" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZnK9D8drlg9QV21L1fvrDTYC4V9DLGM5Qtnvxrb93Rxvh_ECXdLq9ScBFHGO2TBEPlwyX3iWeR53PV78qw6gadX2pFnHrWFjgD9-MswEqFZjFssU2N9j7eGcXklHNUYJlz3BW98HwQokogirFNutdsLM3VVrTl3GdvS6Aayaetk7YDBIWKw/w640-h480/MV5BNjc3MWI3YmItMDViNS00Nzk4LTgxNDItZTA0ZGIzOGM1MzE0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTU1MzE3NDk@._V1_.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Kleo</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span">I often watch the <i>Great British Bake Off</i>, a competition show that good-naturedly pits amateur bakers against one another. I don't bake myself, but I find the show relaxing. After 13 seasons, there are no surprises, the jokes are predictably corny, and the contestants, hosts, and judges seem like kind, bland, well-intended people. Each episode runs about an hour. It's been years since I've made to the end of one before dozing off. In other words, it's a program I choose to watch when the goal is an early night.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Recently, however, I chose to watch a German revenge thriller called <i>Kleo</i>. I've never seen anything quite like it. It is complex and strange. I was so eager to know what was going to happen next that I was up half the night.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">In other words, the first show tends to turn my brain off, while the second definitely turns my brain on. In the most basic vernacular, I would say that I've grown bored with the baking show, while the thriller offers me something new. There was a time when I found <i>GBBO</i> more stimulating, when I might watch several episodes back-to-back, but the novelty has worn off.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div>In Christine Caldwell's book <i>Bodyfulness</i>. She writes:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote>"Researchers have found that the learning process begins when the nervous system, which monitors our inner and outer environment largely below our awareness, senses a contrast . . . This novelty wakes up certain parts of the brain, which then focus attention on the new stimuli and gather sensory data about that new thing . . . if it creates a contrast with what we are used to, then our conscious brain lights up and we start focusing our senses toward that new experience. We consciously take in the new experiential data, and if we feel sufficiently drawn to it or emotionally invested in it, we will commit this new experience to memory, which is another way of saying that we have just learned something. This also explains why we have difficulty learning things that we don't care about."</blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Novelty is an under appreciated aspect of how humans are designed to learn. I often think about how I learned to drive a car. As a 16-year-old, I really <i>cared</i> about learning to drive. The first time I got behind the wheel of our family car, however, I nearly drove into a ditch. In the beginning, the novelty, or contrast with what I was used to, was rather extreme. I had to concentrate on everything -- which pedal to press, operating the turn indicator, my speed and direction. But as I committed these new experiences to memory, as I learned to drive, I found that I needed to commit less and less conscious attention to the routine tasks to the point that I could carry on conversations, fret about homework deadlines, or anticipate the weekends. Some people have become so "bored" with the process that they text message or watch videos while driving. It's such a problem, in fact, that we spend millions a year on public service campaigns designed to remind people to pay attention as they drive.</div><div><br /></div><div>We are constantly surveying our environments in search of novelty. Our first filter is whether or not the new thing poses a danger. After that, however, our next filter is whether or not this new thing is in some way relevant to us. Is it interesting? Confusing? Exciting? Useful? Is this new thing or stimuli or experience or person something I want or need to understand or learn more about? If so, then learning is a natural self-motivated process. </div><div><br /></div><div>If our brains determine it is not relevant, however, which is the case with a large percentage of the crap we're taught in school, then learning becomes a heavy lift for both teachers and children. Since we've decided that the hierarchy gets to decide what the children must learn, and by when, we drain the process of the natural motivation triggered by novelty and relevancy. We then have to refill it with a system of rewards and punishments. We scold teachers to to make otherwise boring stuff "relevant," pitting them against Mother Nature. And worst of all, when a child can't learn what we want them to learn, we set them to tasks of mind numbing repetition and rote memorization.</div><div><br /></div><div>School is not typically set up around the concept of novelty. On the contrary, our idea of school tends to be one of predictability and uniformity. Even our curricula tend to be based on the idea of slowly building learning one step at a time, meaning that we rarely create the contrasts that our brains are designed to seek out as opportunities to learn. This is probably why children seem most "alive" (often interpreted as misbehavior) when the tedium is interrupted by field trips, substitute teachers, or broken water mains. It also probably explains why recess is many children's favorite part of the day: this is the one part of their day where they are free to pursue novelty, not as a break from learning, but as the essence of what it means to learn.</div><div><br /></div><div>What if instead our schools were set up as environments in which novelty was allowed to fulfill its natural role in learning? What if our classrooms, playgrounds, and other learning environments were beautiful, child-centric places in which children were free to explore, through their curiosity, the contrasts that motivate them? These are among the questions we will be asking ourselves in the 2024 cohort of my course for educators, parents, and directors called <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a> (click the link to learn more and register). What if we allowed learning to be the natural self-motivated process is was meant to be?</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj325d4vSqaqmJOCsSwSfIawbw9heme0-JPjA03oV2cxgz11lhxnBbGNSw_WX2hDGtxNO1QIccfT5a7Y2b1KymGsQQJBs_SgRNOn6O3frYkb9UHfAleCX31OicjwJd8NOJRzariwbmRENs11MRg0Oe6hRxojWzHT0OWfWUgYX83nRjfY_bt76yQ/s535/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%2010.28.21%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="535" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj325d4vSqaqmJOCsSwSfIawbw9heme0-JPjA03oV2cxgz11lhxnBbGNSw_WX2hDGtxNO1QIccfT5a7Y2b1KymGsQQJBs_SgRNOn6O3frYkb9UHfAleCX31OicjwJd8NOJRzariwbmRENs11MRg0Oe6hRxojWzHT0OWfWUgYX83nRjfY_bt76yQ/w400-h268/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%2010.28.21%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i>Just a heads up that we will be opening registration on Saturday for the 2024 cohort of my course <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a>. This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a 6-week deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive; in which novelty and self-motivation stand at the center of learning. In my decades as an early childhood educator, I've found that nothing improves my teaching and the children's learning experience more than a supportive classroom, both indoors and out. This course is for educators, parents, and directors. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To learn more and register, click here</a>.</i></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-44526926994943289992024-03-19T07:44:00.000-07:002024-03-23T10:00:24.293-07:00What I Learned from Candyland<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_PSrB7PuTkvYZDWUGkQroJKKs7Pj_Ivvj4PZIdPAnXYihMriEJ6KTeL2BHrRAwkd6qZBSICV_n7FdR2isquZ0sevmwBDc6wvErksmOgNApd8dg9-EeorCi6XnBkVWD3UIaLK/s1600/IMG_9251.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_PSrB7PuTkvYZDWUGkQroJKKs7Pj_Ivvj4PZIdPAnXYihMriEJ6KTeL2BHrRAwkd6qZBSICV_n7FdR2isquZ0sevmwBDc6wvErksmOgNApd8dg9-EeorCi6XnBkVWD3UIaLK/s640/IMG_9251.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I was a preschooler, I'd beg my mother to play the board games with me -- Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Hi-Ho Cheerio -- games in which skill was not pitted against skill, but rather luck against luck.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mom was a good sport, but she was grateful when my younger brother was finally old enough to play with me. Any adult who has ever played any of these games knows the feeling. They are all frustrating, meaningless, pointless exercises in which the draw of a card, the roll of a die, or the vagaries of a spinner can, from one moment to the next, send you right back to the starting line. In theory, these games can go on forever, and, for adults, they often feel like they do.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To mom's credit, she never complained, although I understand now why she was so eager to teach us card and other games in which skill, strategy, and experience played a part. And that's probably why my memories of playing those games are all positive, explaining why I, as a parent, fell so easily into the the mistake of introducing our daughter to these games in which the thrill of winning is replaced by fervent prayers against bad luck.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Some games of Candyland would last literally for hours. Time and again, one of us would, turn-after-tedious-turn, move our little gingerbread markers toward the ultimate goal only to, crushingly, be sent back to square one. It was the myth of Sisyphus in microcosm, the players doomed to roll that damned boulder to the top of the hill only to have it, each time, roll back to the bottom . . . <i>for eternity! </i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">These board games wound up in the preschool, where they made regular appearances in the classroom, although my instruction to the other adults in the room was that they didn't have to play the game with the children unless they, and the children, really wanted to. I only asked that they keep an eye on the game parts so that at the end of the day we could return them all to the their proper boxes. Occasionally, an adult would take on the challenge of participating, only to discover the same grind of meaninglessness that both my mother and I had encountered. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One day a group of four-year-olds set themselves up for a round of adult-less Candyland. One of them had played the game before, so took on the role of explaining the rules and managing the turn-taking. I was only half paying attention, but was surprised when, moments later, a winner was declared. What good luck, I thought. Then a few minutes later, another winner, followed by eager chatter about playing again.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This time I paid attention and quickly understood. They were simply ignoring the bad luck. No one had to go back to square one, no one had to miss a turn, and everyone was allowed to take the shortcuts. They even played a round with only one gingerbread man pawn, all of them sharing in the journey to the candy castle. They even moved the piece together, each of them pinching a little arm or leg or head to move it forward to the next colored square.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the big game of life, no one wins or loses. In the end it's always a draw. It's always the myth of Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the hill until the game is over. That's how my mother and adult me had experienced Candyland, but as I watched these kids play with one another, I realized why children keep coming back: playing with others is the only way to make and find meaning in life. It is the play, not the winning or losing, that matters. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">These kids understood, in their hearts if not their heads, that what they were doing was not trivial or frivolous, and it certainly was not meaningless. When we play with one another it is the only time that we truly come together as free people. These children had chosen to play together and choosing to play together, whatever we play together, is the the definition of human freedom. That is how we make our lives have meaning, which is the only way anyone has ever won.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefbNeOHTVJY2CCXhjE76PrDNKAhPSSIo751TeaV2KSJZTCFyfyhyBNyuD8Ce8DFecomKww2y9AYsAWHMlOMTs6MDaBPawqJyN2AIg34APGICoBwxwtaM-lJbo96Shh2njAB4wbp95KZqLXIEODOXINQ1Lr3IdPc8CMzWCyr4ASNQ4Mhr-oSOB/s1433/Image%207-9-23%20at%207.11%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="1433" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefbNeOHTVJY2CCXhjE76PrDNKAhPSSIo751TeaV2KSJZTCFyfyhyBNyuD8Ce8DFecomKww2y9AYsAWHMlOMTs6MDaBPawqJyN2AIg34APGICoBwxwtaM-lJbo96Shh2njAB4wbp95KZqLXIEODOXINQ1Lr3IdPc8CMzWCyr4ASNQ4Mhr-oSOB/w446-h188/Image%207-9-23%20at%207.11%20AM.jpg" width="446" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i>Registration is now open for the 2024 cohort of my course <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">Creating a Natural Habitat for Learning</a>. This is </i></span><i style="text-align: left;">a 6-week deep dive into transforming your classroom, home, or playground into the kind of learning environment in which young children thrive. This course is for educators parents, and directors. You don't want to miss this chance to make your "third teacher" (the learning environment) the best it can be. I hope you join me!</i><i style="text-align: start;"> <a href="https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/april-2024-creating-a-natural-habitat-for-learning">To register and to learn more, click here</a>.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-74947544604357859762024-03-18T07:14:00.000-07:002024-03-18T07:14:18.949-07:00"You're a Bad Teacher"<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_yrkBSnIJ2UkGlJ9Y_OevBxnGG9MLkwXDbZbDWS6FdSmROwexdToRKTkKWwVbk5rLAJg-P9ma3K4mJCRXiK6Srkw4OZm2aNud6ZsVNH6grDs7gTyiQU0V331Hhd_U73RvHPt/s1600/IMG_0294.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_yrkBSnIJ2UkGlJ9Y_OevBxnGG9MLkwXDbZbDWS6FdSmROwexdToRKTkKWwVbk5rLAJg-P9ma3K4mJCRXiK6Srkw4OZm2aNud6ZsVNH6grDs7gTyiQU0V331Hhd_U73RvHPt/s640/IMG_0294.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div>A five-year-old boy once accused me of being a "bad teacher." He wasn't mad at me. It wasn't intended as an insult. He was grinning as he said it, but he offered it more as a statement of fact than a joke.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've had children tell me that I'm "supposed to be a boy," "you smell stinky," and "you're a big, fat guy." Learning the unvarnished, unblinking "truth" about yourself, at least from one person's perspective, is one of the "perks" of being a preschool teacher, but I'd never been told I was a bad teacher. </div><div><br /></div><div>"What do you mean? I'm not a bad teacher."</div><div><br /></div><div>"You <i>are</i> a bad teacher."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Why am I a bad teacher?"</div><div><br /></div><div>"You never teach us anything."</div><div><br /></div><div>"That means I'm a <i>good</i> teacher. I get this place ready and then you all come here and teach yourself things."</div><div><br /></div><div>He was in the midst of a project he had been working on for a week. To an outsider, it probably just looked like he was gathering junk from the playground and putting it in a big heap, but we all knew by now that he was building a machine. He hadn't yet decided what this machine did.</div><div><br /></div><div>"But <i>you</i> are supposed to teach us."</div><div><br /></div><div>I thought about this for a moment, watching him fit the guts of a defunct clothes dryer into his machine. "Maybe you're right. What should I teach you?"</div><div><br /></div><div>"I don't know." </div><div><br /></div><div>"Do I get to pick what I teach you?"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Yes, you pick."</div><div><br /></div><div>I said, "Did you know that my fingernails are dirty? See?" I held my hand out to him. "Now you know that. I taught you."</div><div><br /></div><div>"You didn't teach me. You have to teach us about something like . . ." He paused to think. "You have to teach us about science."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Okay, Did you know that everything is made out of atoms."</div><div><br /></div><div>"I already know that."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Gravity is the force that keeps us from floating away."</div><div><br /></div><div>"I already know that."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Dinosaurs are extinct."</div><div><br /></div><div>"I already know that."</div><div><br /></div><div>"What can I teach you about? You already know everything."</div><div><br /></div><div>"I do. I know everything."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Well, that's good because I don't know everything. Maybe you should be the teacher."</div><div><br /></div><div>He quietly worked on his machine for several minutes before saying, "I don't know everything."</div><div><br /></div><div>I nodded, "But you know a lot. How did you get to know so much?"</div><div><br /></div><div>This was a question that required his full attention. He stood on his pile, his eyes rolled upward, his forehead furrowed. Finally, he said, "I taught myself."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Wait a minute, you taught yourself?"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Yes, I taught myself."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Then I guess I'm a better teacher than you thought."</div><div><br /></div><div>He laughed. "You're a bad teacher."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Well, at least you're a good learner."</div><div><br /></div><div>"I am a good learner," he confirmed while shifting a wheel-less wagon bed into place.</div><div><br /></div><div>I said, "Maybe you're building a learning machine so you can teach me."</div><div><br /></div><div>"It is a learning machine, but I can't tell you how it works. You can use it when I'm done." He then peered at me earnestly and added, "And then you will learn."</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-81365560416259003442024-03-15T07:11:00.000-07:002024-03-15T07:11:41.541-07:00"Listening is Where Love Begins"<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdY7ssZ-hKVBDEiNrchYhhBLOOA-aDJKd8t73aG9TPvCpUZmn8Ou1Au0dNXwKjncoVqQwTxIDNUUxWpJW9Ygam-RYmLWedCIsVJOt64NK7ksljAww7gsRdQFFwHc-6t3ByeK1/s1600/IMG_1675.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdY7ssZ-hKVBDEiNrchYhhBLOOA-aDJKd8t73aG9TPvCpUZmn8Ou1Au0dNXwKjncoVqQwTxIDNUUxWpJW9Ygam-RYmLWedCIsVJOt64NK7ksljAww7gsRdQFFwHc-6t3ByeK1/s640/IMG_1675.jpg" width="478" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div>Mister Rogers:<br /><br />"More and more I've come to understand that listening is one of the most important things we can do for one another. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGjUX_usDopTp0yyDXbH19IjWaacGCV8SMGbdn82RX-J3jeu6Dqk7nZqq45TaPdkZd7JyyiJAR4MQdB6qDGNOCHcpoRIcOUNKASU_Smdrx2NW5cd1ICOG9s2rtBxB6dp3iBctM/s1600/IMG_0912.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGjUX_usDopTp0yyDXbH19IjWaacGCV8SMGbdn82RX-J3jeu6Dqk7nZqq45TaPdkZd7JyyiJAR4MQdB6qDGNOCHcpoRIcOUNKASU_Smdrx2NW5cd1ICOG9s2rtBxB6dp3iBctM/s400/IMG_0912.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Whether the other be an adult or a child, our engagement in listening to who that person is can often be our greatest gift. Whether that person is speaking or playing or dancing, building or singing or painting, if we care, we can listen.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53PvrNAP-AXiirPN1_NMOsmxylZ7gM3Im0ZQksk0ARpvFHoKk8H61dq8Kxy2wzLDvkz0pwz7POHtDxGprVDDhqoMfl8k_rStVQ47CGE_FGOhq3kYINeXI3_7u-Oe75eB9l2HQ/s1600/IMG_1341.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53PvrNAP-AXiirPN1_NMOsmxylZ7gM3Im0ZQksk0ARpvFHoKk8H61dq8Kxy2wzLDvkz0pwz7POHtDxGprVDDhqoMfl8k_rStVQ47CGE_FGOhq3kYINeXI3_7u-Oe75eB9l2HQ/s400/IMG_1341.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstSwfF7BgZpWQVK2Bm6oLNMnDVujdzYp6B0mB_EdlsEnUfL2Pa6z2obiN6i1DBeOoWt4LzEXZIhqciluxXk5oZUGkiVeiwgdQiCYSGcv1JI24wmktYCffKzbuKWio0efcYBRT/s1600/IMG_1170.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstSwfF7BgZpWQVK2Bm6oLNMnDVujdzYp6B0mB_EdlsEnUfL2Pa6z2obiN6i1DBeOoWt4LzEXZIhqciluxXk5oZUGkiVeiwgdQiCYSGcv1JI24wmktYCffKzbuKWio0efcYBRT/s400/IMG_1170.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Listening is a very active awareness of the coming together of at least two lives. Listening, as far as I'm concerned, is certainly a prerequisite of love. One of the most essential ways of saying, "I love you" is being a receptive listener.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvjSPqZ_XBSwccnVtXTVHyYMX_I-mnqmlrEPQ9zbwWukKG_rrPwMb7xD4s0G2x8QKk8JTbcEtslc4EVvC9D26_rLZC3xAyBYnoRiMPxQt3QLY5c_aAP-IWS4K7DHN-SQs-Rbb/s1600/IMG_1396.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvjSPqZ_XBSwccnVtXTVHyYMX_I-mnqmlrEPQ9zbwWukKG_rrPwMb7xD4s0G2x8QKk8JTbcEtslc4EVvC9D26_rLZC3xAyBYnoRiMPxQt3QLY5c_aAP-IWS4K7DHN-SQs-Rbb/s400/IMG_1396.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEpRDFVSfU6ZXjg1jqfzg9ca9T0DFvrLl2j7V1lQrcRYd0_xLmslkKD5FRy46pPp1ifdfujl9EwbC2PJhT9nbMuwAtM97fwQ29a8_JpOEwecBuzd3K2rvQajSsfJbG7s2o1veB/s1600/IMG_1343.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEpRDFVSfU6ZXjg1jqfzg9ca9T0DFvrLl2j7V1lQrcRYd0_xLmslkKD5FRy46pPp1ifdfujl9EwbC2PJhT9nbMuwAtM97fwQ29a8_JpOEwecBuzd3K2rvQajSsfJbG7s2o1veB/s400/IMG_1343.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br />(And) when we love a person, we accept him or her exactly as is: the lovely with the unlovely, the strong along with the fearful, the true mixed in with the facade, and of course, the only way to do it is by accepting ourselves that way."</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-65642118412497958532024-03-14T07:13:00.000-07:002024-03-14T07:13:30.185-07:00Decision-Making is Stressful<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3WYEdfsf9wVJ9hqc3iRzK5JDqNrMT4TCb01mb0tRRiC0zxJRV6wiRWaJE4klXJDf09q3Uz4QZzQza9D9k_Bc0ESIlEmJvCofRGyHs6u8XYyds64t7EQ_L-biipUS7JXVoQa_/s1600/IMG_5710.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3WYEdfsf9wVJ9hqc3iRzK5JDqNrMT4TCb01mb0tRRiC0zxJRV6wiRWaJE4klXJDf09q3Uz4QZzQza9D9k_Bc0ESIlEmJvCofRGyHs6u8XYyds64t7EQ_L-biipUS7JXVoQa_/s640/IMG_5710.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span">The boy stood outside the door. </span>I smiled at him from the inside as his mother tried to coax him forward. He smiled back at me, but didn't move.</div><div><br /></div><div>His mother asked him, "Don't you want to go to school?"</div><div><br /></div><div>He nodded that he did, still smiling. Indeed, he appeared relaxed, almost like he was just taking his time, breathing, pausing before launching into his morning.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Then let's go," his mother urged, taking a step toward the door, but he still didn't move. She gave me an apologetic look, then turned back to her son, "Are you coming?"</div><div><br /></div><div>He nodded that he was coming, still smiling, and still not moving toward the door.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Well, I'm going inside," she said, "It's cold out here. You can come in when you're ready." She shrugged at me as she descended the stairs. The boy looked after her until she was out of his line of sight, then he began scanning the brick face of the building, taking it in as if he had never noticed it before. He looked straight up at the sky. </div><div><br /></div><div>There was no reason to rush. In fact, they were early, among the first to arrive. His mother lowered her voice, "I don't know what it is. He loves coming to school. It's all he talks about."</div><div><br /></div><div>I answered, "It looks to me like maybe he's savoring the moment."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Maybe that's it," she replied, "but if it is, he's the master of savoring moments. He does this all the time. He did the same thing at the grocery store yesterday. When I ask him what he's waiting for, he tells me he's waiting to know what to do."</div><div><br /></div><div>I asked her, "Is he waiting for you to tell him what to do or something?"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Obviously not," she laughed, "You heard me. It's like he's waiting for an inner voice."</div><div><br /></div><div>By now others were arriving, stepping around him to get through the door. Still he stood, smiling, breathing, waiting for his inner voice.</div><div><br /></div><div>After several minutes, his mother did what some parenting books suggest: she gave him a choice. "You can walk in by yourself or I can carry you."</div><div><br /></div><div>In a flash, his sanguineness left him. His body visibly stiffened, his eyes rounded. Then he burst into tears.</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps he had, all along, been submerging his real feelings behind smiling and stillness, but two-year-olds typically don't try to hide their feelings. More likely, it had been his mother's gentle insistence that he make a decision that had suddenly stressed him out.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think, as adults, with all of our practice making decisions, we tend to forget how very stressful it can be to make decisions, even seemingly small ones. After all, only a few months ago he was a baby. We don't expect babies to make decisions. It's something we must learn how to do. And without practice it can be hard.</div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, among the living things, it seems that humans are unique in terms of decision-making. A flower becomes aware of the sun and turns toward it. My dog barks at sudden noises. The rabbits that live in my neighborhood react to the same sudden noises by hiding in the shrubbery. Flowers, dogs, rabbits, they don't make decisions, they react to their "inner voice." And while we humans certainly remain at one level instinctive animals, we are the only living creature, as far as we know, that can override our instincts, and actually make a decision about how to behave in any given circumstance.</div><div><br /></div><div>And making decisions is stressful. The onus to choose among one or more courses of action is something we must practice. We talk about the impulsivity of young children. If we ask them why they did this or that, they usually can't tell us because there was no point at which they made a decision -- they just reacted according to instinct in the same way they instinctively react to a breast by suckling. But the uniqueness of humanity is that we have developed a kind of consciousness that is capable of ignoring our inner voice and choosing how to behave.</div><div><br /></div><div>It must be incredibly confusing to be a very young child, stuck between the natural imperative of instincts and the learned social imperative to make decisions. </div><div><br /></div><div>In many ways, decision-making can be considered the essence of our lives. </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, we all know the stress of making big decisions, like choosing a university, buying a home, or getting married. Making these decisions are often so stressful that it impacts our eating and sleeping.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, most of us have figured out ways to reduce the stress of day-to-day decision-making. One strategy we all use at one time or another is to make a decision once, then stick to it as a way to avoid the stress of on-the-spot decision-making. We call these habits. It is stressful, however, when something happens to thwart us. We choose a brand at the supermarket and stick to it, but are thrown for a small loop when our favorite is out of stock. We make schedules, then get stressed out when something comes up. We're suddenly made anxious when our normal route to work is blocked by construction. Even our little decisions, and the gyrations we go through around them, shape our lives, often profoundly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Young children have not learned the trick of habits and so are forever faced with decisions that we consider inconsequential. No wonder they cry.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is only one way to learn to make decisions and that is through practice. This is why play is so important for young children. It is the mechanism by which children can grapple with the dilemma of decision-making. Through play, we learn, in a relatively safe way, about the consequences of our decisions, we learn how to consider others in our decision-making, we figure out those habits that make our lives less stressful, and also what to do when our expectations are thwarted. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is pain, fear, and loss: these are the stressors we share with all living things. But the stress of decision-making is ours alone. And it is our blessing and our curse.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-49619498651924543382024-03-13T06:38:00.000-07:002024-03-18T10:39:39.530-07:00Life is Suffering<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDoorzYyejIauTVdcc7L1ArkU3VGejDG1wD5FINqwXG1Ql9skPiNU23GVoVBFbpZd1gscpsuJZ1qc-kkm94vZUF8cOVat6EWmrfn6toB2SUoa8D11NtFuxMeCHpqC5CNj3QUG5/s2048/fullsizeoutput_337b.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDoorzYyejIauTVdcc7L1ArkU3VGejDG1wD5FINqwXG1Ql9skPiNU23GVoVBFbpZd1gscpsuJZ1qc-kkm94vZUF8cOVat6EWmrfn6toB2SUoa8D11NtFuxMeCHpqC5CNj3QUG5/w480-h640/fullsizeoutput_337b.jpeg" width="480" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Awhile back, I was experiencing a little lower back pain, concentrated on the right side. After a series of massage appointment, the pain was gone, but, irritatingly, now there was pain on the lower left side. Again, I booked a series of massages, this time focusing on my whole back. Soon, all my back pain was gone. That's when I noticed that my knees ached. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I saw where this was going: each time I alleviated one pain, it left the space for another to rear its head. When I was a child, this wasn't true, but since I've been an adult, something always hurts . . . Except when I'm working with young children. The pain, wherever it's located, returns the moment the last child has gone home.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Both Buddha and the Stoics have said, in so many words, that life is suffering. But we don't need the ancient philosophers for us to know this. I think we can all agree that there is enough suffering to go around. And while "life is suffering" may strike many of us as depressing, we can't ignore the truth of it. Everyone suffers. And I suspect, in the spirit of noticing a new pain each time an old one is eliminated, that everyone suffers equally.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The best part of having posted on this blog for so long (15 years!) is when a reader tells me that I've changed their mind or blown their mind or given them a new way of thinking about things. I know that when I read, my hope going in is that I will emerge a changed person. If nothing else, I seek to walk away with a new perspective from which to view the world.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When we're in school, we're taught that good writing starts with an outline, one that germinates in a premise, which we then support, followed by a conclusion. I don't write that way. Indeed, most mornings, at best, I have a quote or an idea or a story to get me going. I sometimes have an idea of where I'm going to wind up, but often, in the process of writing, the idea I started with leads me to something entirely different.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/are-teachers-alright.html">That happened yesterday</a>. I had come across a series of Gallup polls of K-12 teachers that indicated that our profession is in trouble: we're burnt out, disrespected, and robbed of our agency as professionals. I thought I was writing a post about how something must be done about our increasingly toxic workplaces. But then, as I bounced back and forth between articles and the post, I saw that, despite it all, the people in our profession come second only to physicians when reporting an overall sense of wellbeing. We teachers tend to love our jobs.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I think we can all agree that life is suffering, so the question is, How do we live? There is a lesson in the story the surveys tell about us teachers.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of us, most of the time, I think, do what I did with my lower back pain. We take measures to alleviate our suffering only to find that the suffering emerges elsewhere. Some of us go from doctor to doctor. Others from guru to guru. Still others chase riches or fame or power in the hopes that if we just have a little bit more we can make the suffering go away. <a href="https://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/are-teachers-alright.html">In yesterday's post</a> I shared the conclusions of a study (and there are others) that indicate that if our goal is a sense of wellbeing, then we are best served by focusing more on other people, and specifically on helping them reduce their own suffering.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is exactly what teachers get to do. As Aristotle stressed, a happy life must involve engagement with others, not just with the self. It's not surprising that physicians likewise report high levels of wellbeing.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, a sense of wellbeing doesn't mean the same thing as the alleviation of suffering, because that is impossible. But when we help others, when we serve others, when we stop focusing selfishly on ourselves and turn our attentions outward, that is when our own suffering tends to recede into the background. It's still there, but it matters less.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In Leo Tolstoy's short story <i><a href="http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2736/">Three Questions</a></i>, a king who suffers searches his kingdom for answers to his three important questions:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: medium;">(H)e had it proclaimed throughout his kingdom that he would give a great reward to anyone who would teach him what was the right time for every action, and who were the most necessary people, and how he might know what was the most important thing to do.</span></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And in the end, a hermit helps him to his answers:</span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: medium;">Remember then: there is only one time that is important -- <i>Now!</i> It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are . . . and the most important affair is to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!"</span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The most important time is now. The most important person is the one we are with. And the most important thing to do is help them. These, to me, are the answers to the question of how to live. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is what teachers do.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Thank you!</span></i></div>
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-73031298243743906892024-03-12T06:20:00.000-07:002024-03-18T10:41:30.982-07:00Are the Teachers Alright?<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdj4jUc9PJ5eGcd3qj06-hsbE53UagXcvcjGN0mN-GmbPOs3U-yupf8d5KWeqSsnlbsRBKLs5UnzitGUYLC0htC1RyIFXpSglWZLrMuvqkN74QbGzrYyxS87epKOWBNdxMgWk0kGaZgSERpC400DwNniJCPmQvo0762009g3IXAEPz4y3eI648/s4032/IMG_4269.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdj4jUc9PJ5eGcd3qj06-hsbE53UagXcvcjGN0mN-GmbPOs3U-yupf8d5KWeqSsnlbsRBKLs5UnzitGUYLC0htC1RyIFXpSglWZLrMuvqkN74QbGzrYyxS87epKOWBNdxMgWk0kGaZgSERpC400DwNniJCPmQvo0762009g3IXAEPz4y3eI648/w480-h640/IMG_4269.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/393500/workers-highest-burnout-rate.aspx">Teachers in the US have the highest "burn out" rate of any other profession</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/393500/workers-highest-burnout-rate.aspx">Over half of all teachers are looking for a new job</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/180455/lack-teacher-engagement-linked-million-missed-workdays.aspx">A majority of teachers report not being engaged in their jobs, leading to 2.3 million missed workdays</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/04/09/most-teachers-are-not-engaged-in-their-jobs-gallup-finds">Teachers aren't engaged because they don't feel like their opinions matter</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Despite all this, of the professions surveyed, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/170522/teaching-may-secret-good-life.aspx">teachers rate their overall wellbeing very highly</a>, second only to physicians. Teachers say they get to "use their strengths and do what they do best every day."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">Teachers are also a happy bunch. They are the most likely of all professions to say they "smiled or laughed a lot yesterday," and the most likely to report experiencing "happiness" and "enjoyment" yesterday. What's more, teachers rank No. 2 in saying they "learn or do something new" each day.</span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Does any of this resonate with you? These surveys were focused on K-12 educators, so maybe it's different with preschool teachers. Maybe we have a bit more autonomy and agency in our jobs, but I doubt it. Over the past decade, I've had the opportunity to meet teachers and preschool directors from all corners of the country. Everywhere I ask, "What's the number one challenge you're facing?" Almost every one of them says, "Finding teachers."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And no wonder, right? Not only are we notoriously underpaid, but we're prone to burn-out and disengagement. At the same time, there is the "happy bunch" phenomenon. These same people I talk to always tell me that they love their jobs, despite its challenges. And that doesn't surprise me. It's not an accident that we rank right up there with physicians in terms of wellbeing: everyone knows that the secret to happiness is to serve others, laugh, and to continue to learn. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those who have studied such things tell us that the typical child laughs some 400 times per day, while the typical adult might laugh 15 times on a good day. Laughter is an indicator of pleasure, delight, and surprise. It means we are learning. It means we are fully in the moment. We get to laugh with children for a living. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In her book <i>Flourish</i>, philosopher and publisher Antonia Case writes:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The American psychologist Tim Kasser asked university students to write down their goals for the months ahead. They were also asked to rate how happy they’d feel on attaining these goals. Their progress towards these goals and their current feelings of well-being were tracked in student diaries. Interestingly, students who pursued materialistic goals — like money or fame — tracked absolutely no gains in happiness after progressing towards these goals. In fact, their sense of well-being was no higher than it was in those who failed to make any progress at all. “The implications of this for a materialistic orientation are deep,” writes Kasser. “First, when people follow materialistic values and organize their lives around attaining wealth and possessions, they are essentially wasting their time as far as well-being is concerned . . .” Kaser found the students who sought non-materialistic goals like personal growth, close relationships and community contribution displayed very steep gains in well-being as they progressed towards these goals. Kasser is in good company here: the Greek philosopher Aristotle also stressed that a happy life must involve engagement with others, not just with the self.</span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We should make more money. We should have full benefits. We should have more agency. Our opinions should matter. All of this is true and would go a long way toward attracting more young people to our profession.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At the same time, especially when things are difficult, when we're feeling down, when we're feeling burnt out, there are blessings to count. We make a difference. We know we do. We see it every day. We feel it every day. We get to live lives of purpose and meaning, surrounded by laughter.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, we must continue to speak out for better compensation and more respect, but we can't only do it for ourselves. We must do it on behalf of others: our colleagues, the children, and their families. This is what gives life purpose and meaning.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Life as an educator can be hard, but life itself is hard, there is no escaping it. That's not the point. Engaging with and for others is. Living a life of purpose and meaning is the surest path to a life worth living.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-36406591225020470452024-03-11T08:36:00.000-07:002024-03-11T10:15:50.653-07:00This is What My Dog Knows<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimKh8HCK_aKU9K308VQ_LcT_n89Aho8cHwic3bHCSLhb6LGiyN7L36-ZXUokw7XYoRtZ3Xol4f3PJigGHneIAdXsQSMiJiyQ2qqV_ZcRE4IC0eLDh5ZX_SKakiKrdmEpT3nAFN/s4032/IMG_6346.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimKh8HCK_aKU9K308VQ_LcT_n89Aho8cHwic3bHCSLhb6LGiyN7L36-ZXUokw7XYoRtZ3Xol4f3PJigGHneIAdXsQSMiJiyQ2qqV_ZcRE4IC0eLDh5ZX_SKakiKrdmEpT3nAFN/w480-h640/IMG_6346.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">What is she thinking about?</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't understand. Not even the most fundamental things come to me easily. I seem to be totally unaware, for instance, that the building we're passing is grilling meat because if I was aware, of course I'd turn and go inside . . . <i>And eat the meat!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I never seem to know that now, right now, is a perfect time for going outside and walking around, because exercise is good. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm ignorant of the impending invasive danger possible from the vehicle that is idling in the road outside our house. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't know that there is a family of noisy, cheeky, thieving mice living in that hole in the ground. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I fail far too often to respond to wounds in my relationship with my wife that must be healed, again, right now, and the way to do that is through, compassion, forgiveness, and physical contact, preferably cuddling. And our dog has to constantly remind me of this.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>I love them</i>, our dog Stella seems to think, <i>But my goodness are my people dense</i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>In our arrogance, we've come to believe that human intelligence has emerged at the top of this planet's hierarchy of intelligences, that ours is the best and most profound way of knowing. But if we take even a small thoughtful moment to look behind the simplistic dominant-submissive narrative that many of us use when discussing canine intentionality, we find that our dog's behaviors demonstrate a genius for cross-species sociability. That their's is an intelligence that embodies the collective ideal. Self-actualization for domesticated dogs is about mood enhancement, not just for themselves, but for everyone. </span><span>The dogs I've known care far less about individuality or getting their own selfish needs met, and far more about the wellbeing of the pack. </span><span>And while they may not possess the kind of self-conscious awareness -- the knowing what they know or that they know -- that humans do, they are the masters of unselfconscious love.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've often asserted that domestic canines stand as one of the most important human inventions. And they are human inventions at least to the degree that we've selectively bred these formerly wild animals, even our working dogs, for their sociability and their capacity to love us.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've lived with many dogs and while they've each had unique personalities, interests, and aptitudes, they've all reminded me, daily, that there is so much in this world about which I'm ignorant. At one level, it's their superior ability to hear and smell that gives me pause. What is she following with her nose to the ground? What is she hearing outside the door? But it goes beyond that. She notices the birds sitting on the wire or the butterfly in the bush. She responds to both friends and strangers in ways that make me believe that she must know something about them I don't. I've read that our dogs can hear our hearts beating. I imagine they always know when someone is insincere or lying, even if they might not know exactly what they are insincere or lying about.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like so many things, our ability to know that we know and what we know is one of our greatest strength as a species, yet within the soil of this superpower lies the seed of our destruction. When we make the mistake of believing that knowing-that-we-know makes us superior to other intelligences, then it tends to blind us to the great genius found in unselfconscious knowing: the knowing a seed has about growing, a bird has about nesting, and a dog has about connecting. We dismiss these things as mere instinct, as thoughtless, automatic responses to internal and external signals, but anyone who has ever loved an animal knows that their intellectual and emotional range is at least as expansive as our own. Just different. And by striving to understand their perspective, with their help, we can come to a fuller understanding of reality.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We will never have the sensory capacity of dogs, but we are born with a similar genius. We are not born consciously knowing that we must connect in order to survive, but through our every behavior we demonstrate that we do <i>know</i> it. Scientists have labeled a dozen or so behaviors as "instincts" or "reflexes" with which most of us are born. But consider the difference it would make if we could teach ourselves to view those behaviors -- crying, startling, nursing -- as intelligence.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are born with the kind of unconscious intelligence that comprises most of the wisdom of the universe. As we grow and develop, our human capacity for self-conscious knowing naturally emerges, but we make a mistake when we strive, in our ignorance, to hurry children along to it. This is exactly what we are doing when we attempt to teach two-year-olds to read or three-year-olds to cipher, or four-year-olds to memorize science facts. When we dismiss a child's intelligence as mere instinct or reflex, what we do is assert our intellectual superiority over that child. We say, in effect, that the child is ignorant or innocent or unformed, and we give ourselves permission to "fix" them through educational efforts. In our hubris, in our own ignorance, we believe that we can one-up Mother Nature who has been working on human intelligence for billions of years. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I can't prove this in a scientific sense, but it seems self-evident that our intelligence has evolved to develop, at its own pace, starting with the foundational unconscious intelligence with which we are born. This is wisdom that will remain true throughout our lives. It will not be overturned by some new scientific revelations or epiphany. It is the foundational knowledge that a seed has about how to grow, which is no less wise because it is unconscious. Self-conscious knowledge is far less reliable and far more subject to change than those things we dismiss as instincts. Today's scientific fact -- <i>The earth is flat!</i> -- is tomorrow's fiction. It seems self-evident to me that when we attempt to rush our children through the foundational part of their intellectual development, the part during which we engage the universal truths, we disrupt, even derail, their natural development.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among the things that every human unconsciously knows from birth is that they must play, which is to say explore, experiment, and discover, a learning process that is driven by curiosity. When school-ish people see play, they dismiss it as a distraction because it looks like mere instinct, when, in fact, it is the foundation upon which all learning, all knowledge, all wisdom, is built. This is what my dog knows.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Thank you!</span></i></div>
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-77547933082687775732024-03-08T07:00:00.000-08:002024-03-08T07:00:43.837-08:00To Understand, Reflect, and Judge<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWL6dMCUk1-pxH_bX3bj3Ei-jRKvpOhUGAhDOe455gM4GDML8GdpDdYvkwke8u60H7E_khWTUOWTZRXMd7fE2xBlc5QlNMyXpbUrHNxCQefzgGV5hldD6zscEBN81m-ApxZ2OMLHpV2sqqv6jm0dppGYjB5j0yz9GtAs7Qa-regyzP0eUXn5q9/s4032/IMG_4604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWL6dMCUk1-pxH_bX3bj3Ei-jRKvpOhUGAhDOe455gM4GDML8GdpDdYvkwke8u60H7E_khWTUOWTZRXMd7fE2xBlc5QlNMyXpbUrHNxCQefzgGV5hldD6zscEBN81m-ApxZ2OMLHpV2sqqv6jm0dppGYjB5j0yz9GtAs7Qa-regyzP0eUXn5q9/w480-h640/IMG_4604.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In his book <i>Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes</i>, Jacque Ellul writes: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;">People used to think that learning to read evidenced human progress; they still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory; they condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates; they think that reading is a road to freedom. All this is debatable, for the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads, to reflect on and judge what ones reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning (and even destroys certain automatic qualities of memory and observation). But to talk about critical faculties and discernment is to talk about something far above primary education and consider a very small minority. The vast majority of people, perhaps 90 percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and eminent value to the printed word, or, conversely, reject it altogether. As these people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe — or disbelieve — </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">in toto</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">what they read. And as such people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest, reading matter, they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted to propaganda.</span></blockquote></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A child begins developing their capacity for understanding, thinking, and judging long before they learn to read. From the moment of birth, from the moment the familiar world of the womb gives way to the bright, noisy world outside, children are faced with the lifelong </span>reality that what they thought they knew, the status quo, is nothing more than a temporary condition and that to understand life, they must, often radically, completely revamp their perspective on truth. I'm not saying that baby's do this as an overt intellectual process, they don't yet know they know, they don't know they are learning, but their entire being is taken up with making sense of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings that now comprise their world.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No amount of instruction will help them. We hold them, keep them warm, feed them, love them: these are the things that babies are born "knowing" they need if they are to have any chance at survival. These are the things that form the foundational levels of the famous Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: physiological needs, safety needs, and love and belonging needs. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is why it's so important that our youngest citizens be allowed to play, not just for an hour or two per day, but as the core of </span>their<span style="font-family: inherit;"> day-to-day life. When we are spoon-fed our education, told what we must learn, there is no room for applying or developing our critical faculties and discernment which opens us up to those who would manipulate us. We are learning skills, like reading, but because they are abstract from critical thinking, they are rendered meaningless except for those who would now use those minimal skills to manipulate, even harm, them and their loved ones.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When we play, we make everything we do meaningful, relevant. When we play, we play with the status quo, any status quo, until we break it, revealing something new that can stand in its place. That's what learning is. Reading is a wonderful thing. At its best, what we read is the product of a human who has upset the order of things, who is inviting us to see the world in a new way, and who inspires us to do the same. A reader is exposed to the author's ideas. A critical thinker, one who knows that the world is their's with which to play, turns those ideas over and over, looking at them from every angle, comparing them with what they thought they already knew, feeling curious and outraged and inspired to contemplate something entirely new. In today's schools, the student who can most accurately summarize a story's plot receives the highest grade. In a school committed to critical thinking, it's the student who doubts, wrestles, experiments, and invents who is doing the real work of learning.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These are also the people who are most immune to propaganda and other manipulations.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Long before we learn to read, if we are permitted to play, we have learned the most important aspect of reading -- or math or science or history or art -- which is to understand, reflect, and judge. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">******</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-41193288287542863502024-03-07T06:39:00.000-08:002024-03-07T06:39:56.673-08:00If More Adults Turned to Children as Their Teachers<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBZk8limHc4gOFqQgSDWEXP4Us5ZwLVb_2MkvKjVaTBUfgU2vVgd-aQ-W-9k54KWfEXPFg_3OHJuh4w5Sfdr3bNNu6bAIcCjc3kYiwlEfNC5mR3Fc3yYP0zfdUBjgEmPteRPbjwBfoceh2B5Fpkm96w0OZR86K5IYz1uSjJUKSVysZ_gi4w/s4032/IMG_7883.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBZk8limHc4gOFqQgSDWEXP4Us5ZwLVb_2MkvKjVaTBUfgU2vVgd-aQ-W-9k54KWfEXPFg_3OHJuh4w5Sfdr3bNNu6bAIcCjc3kYiwlEfNC5mR3Fc3yYP0zfdUBjgEmPteRPbjwBfoceh2B5Fpkm96w0OZR86K5IYz1uSjJUKSVysZ_gi4w/w480-h640/IMG_7883.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div>I feel that it's important for us, as early childhood educators, to stay abreast of the latest research in our profession (all of which supports a play-based approach) as well as some of the other areas of cognitive and neuroscience (all of which supports a play-based approach).</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is some densely worded support for play-based learning from one of the world's top neuroscientists, Antonio Damasio:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><div>Usually the brain is assumed to be a passive recording medium, like film . . . This is pure fiction . . . The organism (the body and its brain) interacts with objects, and the brain reacts to the interaction. Rather than making a record of an entity's structure, the brain actually records the multiple consequences of the organism's interactions with the entity. What we memorize of our encounter with a given object is not just its visual structure as mapped in optical images of the retina. The following are also needed: first, the sensorimotor patterns associated with viewing the object (such as eye and neck movements or whole-body movements, if applicable); second, the sensorimotor pattern associated with touching and manipulating the object (if applicable); third, the sensorimotor pattern resulting from the evocation of previous acquired memories pertinent to the object; fourth, the sensorimotor patterns related to the triggering of emotions and feelings relative to the object . . . What we refer to as the memory of an object is <i>the composite memory of the sensory and motor activities related to the interaction between the organism and the object</i> during a certain period of time.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>All that sensorimotor stuff is what we in the preschool world call play.</div><div><br /></div><div>Or as Damasio writes, "The fact that we perceive by engagement, rather than passive receptivity, is the secret of the "Proustian effect" . . . the reason why we often recall contexts rather than just isolated things." And speaking of Proust, I also think it's important that we all read Proust because he has come as close as humanly possible, in fiction, to showing us how the human mind really works.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also think we should all know at least a little something about those who came before us, like John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia system of early childhood education.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the things I find most useful from Malaguzzi's work, for instance, is the concept that every child has three teachers: adults, the environment, and other children. There is a tendency for us to focus on adult teachers, but the truth is that when children are allowed to play, the environment and other children have far more influence than the heavy hand of the adult. They are far more likely to accommodate all that sensorimotor stuff.</div><div><br /></div><div>The photo at the top of this post is from 1963. I'm the bigger child holding the book, apparently reading to my newborn baby brother. I'm not actually reading, of course. That ability wouldn't come until I was closer to six or seven, which is when the developmental window for reading tends, on average, to open. But I had already learned <i>about</i> reading from an adult, my mother, and now I was, in turn teaching my brother everything I knew about reading. According to mom, I continued "reading" to him until well after I was actually reading. When my brother entered first grade, his adult teacher found that he was already well beyond his classmates. I'm not saying it was all due to my child-to-child teaching, but our family likes to think so.</div><div><br /></div><div>When I reflect on my own childhood, I can honestly say that I learned at least as much from other children as I did from adults.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've done my reading, I've taken classes and workshops, and I try to expose myself to a wide variety of people. I learn a lot from other adults and the environments in which I find myself, but I've often said that most of what I've learned about the world, and most of what I've written about here on the blog for the past 15 years, I've learned from children. I emphasize <i>most</i>. Malaguzzi was writing and thinking about children, but I'm convinced that the world would be a better place if more adults turned to children as their teachers.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-31574422596439614952024-03-06T07:08:00.000-08:002024-03-06T07:08:10.820-08:00Let's Grow Our Ideas Together!<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GNXl4e2BiGBcMZdZik3KkycFlAtlsC7eHGpDA5yVRTf7dwqGmZIz2WdJ0odFDjihCQfYoL6GBRVU0z8wjnWMyoS7RPtOUjcfTJxNEflH_2jdbVIS65xT3HV1-wmWsKarLfXZ1RInnJ4iJbttWtBm_05WnjGE1AiVLFKNdTdcFDlDF8PWqw/s3264/IMG_7939.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GNXl4e2BiGBcMZdZik3KkycFlAtlsC7eHGpDA5yVRTf7dwqGmZIz2WdJ0odFDjihCQfYoL6GBRVU0z8wjnWMyoS7RPtOUjcfTJxNEflH_2jdbVIS65xT3HV1-wmWsKarLfXZ1RInnJ4iJbttWtBm_05WnjGE1AiVLFKNdTdcFDlDF8PWqw/w480-h640/IMG_7939.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a71ca05a-7fff-fa65-1f00-4232bd3bab4f"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The latest installment of <a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/">Teacher Tom's Podcast</a> is ready for your ears. In this episode I tell my personal story with a particular focus on the kinds of communities we can create with young children at the center. If you've ever wanted to know more about cooperative preschools, you'll definitely want to give it a listen either by <a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/">clicking this link</a> or through your favorite podcast player.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">Community has always stood at the center of my work with young children. </span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I spent the better part of 20 years as a teacher, for much of the time, the <i>only</i> teacher, at the Woodland Park Cooperative Preschool in Seattle, Washington.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A cooperative preschool is a school that is owned and operated by the parents who enroll their children. And I’m not talking about symbolic ownership, but actual legal ownership.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Typically, we would enroll 65 or so families each year, and they would become 65 equal co-owners of the school, with me, the teacher, being the only paid employee. Everything else that goes into running a school was done by the parents. Parents took on all the administrative work, they handled enrollment, gardening, repairs and maintenance, purchasing, food prep, field trip planning, photography, custodial tasks, and anything else that needed to be done. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When decisions needed to be made, it required the parent community to come together to discuss, debate, and, when consensus was impossible, to vote.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And as the only paid employee, I had, in a very real sense, 65 bosses. They hired me, they evaluated me, and they could, if they so desired, fire me.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, I imagine there are some educators out there thinking, “No way! I could never have 65 bosses!” I get it, but for me, it never felt that way.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You see, the part of being a cooperative that I came to value above all else, was that each family was required to provide me with an adult, one day a week, to serve as an assistant teacher . . . That’s right, one day a week, the parent or caregiver came to school with their child to serve under my supervision.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I often think the world would be a better place if more institutions or enterprises worked as cooperatives. I mean, the owners are also the customers and the employees. As customers, the motivation was to get your child a high quality preschool education at the lowest possible price. As employees, you wanted a satisfactory workplace. And as owners, you wanted a business that operated on sound financial principles. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But it was more than that. Every preschool becomes a community, but in a very real sense, a cooperative becomes a community of families, not unlike a tribe or village or neighborhood.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the kind of community humans have evolved to live in. For 99 percent of our existence we were hunter-gatherers living in communities of 20-200, closely-related individuals. It’s only been relatively recently that we’ve begun to aggregate ourselves into larger populations. Many of us have adapted, of course, but for many of us, and especially for young children, smaller communities like the one we created in our cooperative – or like those still found in some neighborhoods or churches or other affinity groups – are our most natural learning and living environments.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s my aspiration for <a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/">Teacher Tom's Podcast</a>: to become a kind of community for early childhood educators, parents, grandparents, and other caretakers of young children. And my hope is for it to be a community that takes play seriously!</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of you may already know that I’m a married man. My wife and I have been together since 1984 – married since 1986. That’s nearly 40 years! Our child, Josephine, was born in 1996. When she was in kindergarten, I was talking with the head of her school about community. He said something that has stuck with me: “The sign of a healthy community is how quickly newcomers are brought into the center.”</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve all been part of – or tried to be part of – communities that seemed to resist our efforts to take part. Maybe there are too many rules – written and unwritten. Maybe the community is clique-y. Maybe there are divisions or </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">fiefdoms</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> that make it impossible to navigate. These are unhealthy communities. I’m hoping that the community that forms around our podcast can be the kind that brings newcomers immediately into its center.</span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That doesn’t mean that we all have to agree with one another. I mean, I have a few hard lines, like no violence, name-calling, or threats, but when it comes to young children, our adult roles, community, and what it means to be educated, I hope there will be room for everyone. In the pat, m</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">y wife and I have produced global online early childhood education summits called – get ready for it – Teacher Tom’s Play Summit. A couple of years ago, I was interviewing an Ojibwe educator named Hopi Martin. He asked me to imagine a burning campfire around which people, including you, were sitting. If someone wanted to know more about that campfire, they could ask you to describe the fire. You might talk about the color, the intensity, the way the wood is stacked, what kind of wood you think it is, the smoke, the heat. </span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But that’s just the fire from your perspective. If this person really wants to understand that fire, they would have to ask the person sitting next to you to describe it, then the next person, then the next, all the way around the circle until, finally, they had learned about the fire from all perspectives. But even then, Hopi said, they wouldn’t have the full picture of that fire until they asked the birds in the trees. Until they asked the trees themselves. Until they asked the worms underground.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I love this metaphor because it makes it clear that there is always something more to learn because there is always another perspective to consider. It has allowed me to see that when someone disagrees with me, they aren’t my rival, but rather my teacher. Every time I can see the world from another perspective, my own perspective, my own ideas and knowledge get bigger.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I want this podcast to be like that campfire, which is why most of the episodes will be about me stepping back and sharing the microphone with someone else.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've started off by interviewing people I already know -- Denisha Jones, Lenore Skenazy, Maggie Dent, Lisa Murphy, Kisha Reid -- people with interesting perspectives, people who I hope will help expand your perspective. But if there are people you want to hear from, or people you think I’ll benefit from speaking with, or topics you’re interested in hearing about, let me know.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s grow our ideas together! <a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/">Please have a listen</a>.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">******</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-43816367244562664272024-03-05T06:58:00.000-08:002024-03-05T06:58:13.237-08:00Finding Joy in Giving it Away<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kv-sNX7Bsok/WNEjVFgCehI/AAAAAAAAomM/yyetOK0aXKo8XFiOHHUql5Wtm0RwvWNmACEw/s1600/IMG_5978.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kv-sNX7Bsok/WNEjVFgCehI/AAAAAAAAomM/yyetOK0aXKo8XFiOHHUql5Wtm0RwvWNmACEw/s640/IMG_5978.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div>Most days, we would have a large ball of play dough for the children to share, but one day a family arrived with a supply of store-bought kinetic sand that she was donating to the cause. I figured we could do with a little change of pace, so I put it on the yellow table instead of the usual ball of dough.</div><div><br /></div><div>At one point, I found myself sitting with four boys, one of whom was attempting to collect it all for himself. This rarely happens with the regular play dough, but often happens when we're investigating something new in its place.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Hey, I want some!"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"He has all of it!"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"He won't share!"</i></div><div><br /></div><div>He didn't have all of it, as a matter of fact, but simply most of it, leaving each of the rest of us with portions the size of a child's fist. He had formed his lion's share into a mound and was encircling it with his arms, hunching over it with his body. There is no official classroom expectation that he give any of it up, but it was clear from the reaction of his friends that there was an issue of fairness at stake. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>"You can't have it all!"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"I need some more!"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"You're not even using it!"</i></div><div><br /></div><div>I said, "He does have most of it, but look at his face. He's not happy about it, either." And indeed, his expression was one of tense misery. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the boys asked, "Why isn't he happy?"</div><div><br /></div><div>I left the air clear of words for a moment, hoping that the boy with all the sand would offer us his explanation, but he remained silently dour. I said, "You'll have to ask him why he's not happy, but I've noticed that people are usually miserable when they're hoarding something."</div><div><br /></div><div>I've been using the word "hoarding" for a couple of years now, not in a judgmental way, but rather by way of objectively labeling a particular, common behavior. Often, the kids ask for a definition of the word, but this time no one did, the illustration before them, I guess, being clear enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>"But I just need a little bit more sand," one of them said to our hoarder, leaning toward the boy, which caused him to lay across his stash even more protectively, his expression approaching anguish. At that moment, one of the guys who had slightly more sand than the rest, broke off a fistful and passed it across the table to the boy who needed just a little bit more. In contrast to our hoarder, he was beaming.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-585xJZDrK6w/WNEjTE56GuI/AAAAAAAAomU/G5mCi9cYNBEamlefYSkhwm1XIt3uPTi-QCEw/s1600/IMG_5970.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-585xJZDrK6w/WNEjTE56GuI/AAAAAAAAomU/G5mCi9cYNBEamlefYSkhwm1XIt3uPTi-QCEw/s400/IMG_5970.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>I said, "Look at his face. He gave some of his sand to his friend and now he's really happy." Then I turned to the hoarder and said, striving for the same tone of objective narration, "And look at his face. He is hoarding his sand and he looks really <i>unhappy</i>." There was a moment as everyone studied one another's faces, before the group opted for happiness, each one handing some of his meager supply of sand to the kid beside him. There was a flurry of giggles as they joyfully gave it all away to one another only to find that there was always more to give.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our hoarder, his stash no longer under assault, eased up for a moment as he watched his friends play their game of give-away. His body was still tense, his expression a stark contrast to those of the rest of the kids who had forgotten him for the moment. </div><div><br /></div><div>I leaned toward him, "They are giving their sand away and they are happy. You are hoarding your sand and you are miserable." He looked from me to his pile then at his friends before taking a handful and shoving it across the table. His face immediately relaxed into a grin. He did it again and again and again until he had no more or less than anyone else, laughing, exchanging his hoard for a share of the joy the rest of them had found in giving it away.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-28327289069135483322024-03-04T06:38:00.000-08:002024-03-04T06:38:09.960-08:00It's Today, And That is Our Favorite Day<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYkkCsD0CwFMxZTG5yITHemKrraM8QS7PyIL0xzmx6Jtux0CNm159KV5ida0ZRFggtp-MSL_M0C11XJAkbLIHTXQ6ulJbLsAhLdRaytFJ16AyoUGRg9eYGxBjhhd9IinpCoFDz/s640/IMG_7965.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYkkCsD0CwFMxZTG5yITHemKrraM8QS7PyIL0xzmx6Jtux0CNm159KV5ida0ZRFggtp-MSL_M0C11XJAkbLIHTXQ6ulJbLsAhLdRaytFJ16AyoUGRg9eYGxBjhhd9IinpCoFDz/w480-h640/IMG_7965.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. </i>~Proverb of unknown origin</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Much of what passes for common sense is found in this concept. It's why we save for a rainy day. It's why we plan. It's why we pack an umbrella no matter how optimistic we are. "Waste not, want not" is a conservative mantra. "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining" is a liberal one. The ancient Haudenosaunee principle that any decision made today must be considered first in the light of its impact on the next seven generations is found in indigenous philosophy around the world.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"What day is it? asked Pooh.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"It's today," squeaked Piglet.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"My favorite day," said Pooh.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"> ~A.A. Milne</div><div><br /></div><div>The rest of what passes for common sense is found here. It's why we say "Seize the day!" It's why we encourage one another with the reminder that life is a journey not a destination. We urge one another to stop and smell the roses. We joke that humans plan and god laughs. "Life," John Lennon wrote, "is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Albert Einstein tells us that "the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none." The ancient Haudenosaunee understood time as cyclical rather than linear, which means that the past, present, and future co-exist, an insight that is also found in indigenous cultures around the world.</div></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div>What are we to do? Plan for the future or live in the moment? What should we teach our children? </div><div><br /></div><div>But what can we teach them? They've already mastered the moment. In that they are our teachers. The only things we have to teach are about looking to the future or taking lessons from the past. We can teach our children to save their pennies for a rainy day or tell cautionary tales from long ago. But in the end, we are left, primarily, with what author and essayist Natalia Ginzburg refers to as the "little virtues."</div><div><br /></div><div>Ginzburg's essay <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Little-Virtues-Essays-Natalia-Ginzburg-dp-1628728256/dp/1628728256/ref=dp_ob_title_bk">"The Little Virtues"</a> is among the most sage and indispensable pieces of advice ever offered to adults. "As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one's neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know."</div><div><br /></div><div>As Ginzburg points out, we center our "whole system of education" on the virtues of thrift, caution, shrewdness, tact, and a desire for success with the intent of sheltering our children from "Fortune's blows." In doing so, we are asking them to trade the only thing that's real -- the roses abloom in their present -- for worry and guilt over things that exist only as theory or memory.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not as if the little virtues are without value, but taken together, and without the great virtues, they too often lead to "cynicism or a fear of life." Generosity, courage, honesty, love, and curiosity; these are the great virtues and to teach the little virtues without them is to neglect the first half of our common sense. The great virtues contain the little ones, but not the other way around. We learn what we need to know about thrift through practicing generosity, caution through courage, and shrewdness through honesty. If we teach the great virtues the little ones will take care of themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>That said, I don't know how to teach the great virtues other than through role modeling them myself and admiring them in others. It's as children play, through their self-selected involvements with their fellow humans, that the great virtues take root. This is where we learn to work well with others, to be self-motivated, and the value of being personable. This again is where children become our teachers. The great virtues come more easily to them if they've not been first tainted by the little ones. When I read the story of The Little Red Hen to young children with its heavy-handed moral about hard work, success, and reward, they infallibly condemn the hen as cruel and selfish, while sympathizing with those who she leaves hungry. Young children know in their hearts that the great virtue of generosity dictates sharing bread with those who need it, when they need it: it stands above the meagre tit-for-tat calculations. We once knew this ourselves, but have forgotten it in our constant flighty travels between past and future where the little virtues reside, rarely stopping in the present moment where children live.</div><div><br /></div><div>As we play, which is the natural habitat of childhood, we build the foundation of great virtues. As we get older and more experienced, the nuances and practicality of the little ones emerge for us, not as new lessons, but rather as corollaries that allow us, in the spirit of generosity rather than meanness, to plant that tree and pack that umbrella. We don't need to turn upon our children with our lessons about the little virtues, at least not until they have had sufficient time and practice with the great ones. </div><div><br /></div><div>No, our role is to observe our children carefully. When we do that, we are reminded, for once, that it's today, and that is our favorite day.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-54036334712848036382024-03-01T11:03:00.000-08:002024-03-01T11:03:33.422-08:00Why Children Bicker as They Play<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgWD9KT-PK5oOYhUqDObZVhwR2QCfJEpWiL-mNW6bjCaXqyh7N7XCLavp40euxgzUd5jFMTKMy8OqcrlYX6DXalzOukSwnQxQsruPdO-RT77utBJ3HIcB20J7iKIW0MVg1KXcM/s1600/IMG_7909.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgWD9KT-PK5oOYhUqDObZVhwR2QCfJEpWiL-mNW6bjCaXqyh7N7XCLavp40euxgzUd5jFMTKMy8OqcrlYX6DXalzOukSwnQxQsruPdO-RT77utBJ3HIcB20J7iKIW0MVg1KXcM/s640/IMG_7909.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div>One of the things <a href="http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/they-are-doing-it-for-your-children.html">Seattle's teachers won in their 2015 strike</a> was a commitment from the school district that elementary school students would receive a minimum of 30 minutes of recess per day. In fairness, some schools were already providing more than that, but there were several, apparently, that were limiting their youngest students to a meager 15 minutes. It's actually disheartening to this play-based educator to learn that a half hour is considered a victory.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_5TDFem1hJRzrpJGhRj90RJdNNCYmaHirRJbWiGZ9Z7RMhhCpPqbJHP2WChtBAO5cDvIaX4feOHsAZLUCJKFx_mwLXxdeE0zqAcNMxGh5QANLVkzGVN59-ra-96-xWYzrCXUc/s1600/IMG_7910.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_5TDFem1hJRzrpJGhRj90RJdNNCYmaHirRJbWiGZ9Z7RMhhCpPqbJHP2WChtBAO5cDvIaX4feOHsAZLUCJKFx_mwLXxdeE0zqAcNMxGh5QANLVkzGVN59-ra-96-xWYzrCXUc/s400/IMG_7910.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The ostensible reason for such pathetically restricted recess is that longer recesses cut into that all-important "classroom time," but I also heard that some administrators favor limited or non-existant recesses because when children freely play they are more likely to wind up in conflicts.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBqTuJADewoIHxymCtFa9wo229SDjsSZhX78CAmfRj_x5-Ew_TtjjJXdxhyM7UWKLJj_9z4tbOMQEYcl61vjQWwN4dYCEXy-Qa0TwXFrXIgLfkjqfaWbrUFXqi4PCiS00S0fu/s1600/IMG_7921.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBqTuJADewoIHxymCtFa9wo229SDjsSZhX78CAmfRj_x5-Ew_TtjjJXdxhyM7UWKLJj_9z4tbOMQEYcl61vjQWwN4dYCEXy-Qa0TwXFrXIgLfkjqfaWbrUFXqi4PCiS00S0fu/s400/IMG_7921.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Let me be the first to say, "Duh."</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As a teacher in a school that engages in no direct instruction, but rather bases its curriculum on the evidence of how children learn best, which is through their own self-selected play, I'm here to tell you that conflict stands at the center of how learning happens. Our entire school day is, for all intents and purposes, recess, and yes, much of what the children are doing while playing both indoors and out is bicker.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmy3QToVPo0tQty9foZNrmn-NCs6w4_ll6w85U-OJkuAUTSuID7vv6n5tfAR0Tt7v_EaIeqlgcwXU2AWxU2QTe3MJkNf5ZZ3NyfQTFTh6dL7XlYccazmQIYthKJ5urXwvyYGaO/s1600/IMG_7919.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmy3QToVPo0tQty9foZNrmn-NCs6w4_ll6w85U-OJkuAUTSuID7vv6n5tfAR0Tt7v_EaIeqlgcwXU2AWxU2QTe3MJkNf5ZZ3NyfQTFTh6dL7XlYccazmQIYthKJ5urXwvyYGaO/s400/IMG_7919.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>For adults interested in eliminating bickering, I would say that 15 minutes is about right: it usually takes the children at least that long just to figure out what they're going to do, which, in a robust classroom like ours, with lots of kids with lots of agendas engaging with shared and limited resources, is typically followed by a period of often intense negotiation, which often shows up as conflict.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQl6AmRNhkK9quiD85eRuoV0De3jh5wmxB9RYZuRtyNsIWIsdTJLNaQlun5s9B-vTibfAIjR0aFU8cFLLSwpztUinubpQ997KzN3EVo_gxRFXTxXEUJrqgRg-dm40V8i0vmHP/s1600/IMG_7915.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQl6AmRNhkK9quiD85eRuoV0De3jh5wmxB9RYZuRtyNsIWIsdTJLNaQlun5s9B-vTibfAIjR0aFU8cFLLSwpztUinubpQ997KzN3EVo_gxRFXTxXEUJrqgRg-dm40V8i0vmHP/s400/IMG_7915.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, a group of four and five-year-olds, mostly boys, found themselves playing together with a collection of cardboard tubes and tennis balls. For the first 15 minutes or so, they engaged like independent agents, each arranging tubes, and collecting balls for their own personal use. That time passed relatively quietly, with each of them exploring and experimenting. </div><div><br /></div><div>The next 15 minutes was characterized by physical and emotional chaos, as they began to bump up against limitations of space and resources, but the real impetus for the conflicts were their divergent ideas for <i>how</i> they were going to play. Most of the kids were setting their tubes up at angles down which they were rolling balls, but at least one guy was more interested in using the tubes as a way to practice balance, rolling them the way a lumberjack might. The resulting spills and his lurching body, of course, tended to upend his classmates' carefully constructed efforts and there were a lot of things said about it, like, "Hey! You're knocking over my tube!" which was followed by a round or two of argument, sometimes even accompanied by shoving and other physical attempts to solve their impasse. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUpwEb8WrKSEDt52v_X7rGt39VqEx3B5YGLRPiUSVlJV76ZyOO4TyLP7AKoALyzOYCiO63Tz8q8FOMJIb9QL35VrCxISHQh3xN-nb1DbhyxmcSIpP9GmNyVmZKq0-OHfS7jXh/s1600/IMG_7925.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUpwEb8WrKSEDt52v_X7rGt39VqEx3B5YGLRPiUSVlJV76ZyOO4TyLP7AKoALyzOYCiO63Tz8q8FOMJIb9QL35VrCxISHQh3xN-nb1DbhyxmcSIpP9GmNyVmZKq0-OHfS7jXh/s400/IMG_7925.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Others began to collect balls, "all the balls," which lead to complaints like, "Hey! You have all the balls!"</div><div><br /></div><div>Some objected when friends would block up the end of the tube so their balls couldn't pass through, robbing them of the satisfaction of witnessing the end result of their experiment.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the end of this 15 minutes, there was one boy crying, several flush with frustration, and a couple who found themselves wound up into a slightly hysterical state by the hubbub. This is where I did my work for the day. I stepped in several times to help cool tempers and encourage conversation, which I did by <a href="http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/community-of-their-own-creation.html">reminding the children of the rules they had made together the previous week</a>, the agreements we had made about how we wanted to treat one another. Among those rules were such classics as "No taking things from other people," "No hitting," "No pushing," and "No knocking down other people's buildings," along with an agreement that if someone tells you to "Stop!" you must stop and listen to what the other person has to say.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fFskflCZFvKnjaX0mY1dyF5dkzOrY0bx7Am6w1CHXz8Sre0wMl_azv8GDoq1YGJLTFlkjaHWKNLkOwgPisUu4HXrnR-dcZek1Nleb283z_aRX0U76-2WDaX5EUjJLmLpWnwO/s1600/IMG_7928.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fFskflCZFvKnjaX0mY1dyF5dkzOrY0bx7Am6w1CHXz8Sre0wMl_azv8GDoq1YGJLTFlkjaHWKNLkOwgPisUu4HXrnR-dcZek1Nleb283z_aRX0U76-2WDaX5EUjJLmLpWnwO/s400/IMG_7928.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Most of the conflicts I let run their course as the kids were talking, sometimes loudly, sometimes heatedly. As long as they were heading toward resolution I stayed on the sidelines, but when things became physical or the emotions turned intense, I dropped to my knees in the midst of it and said things like, "I saw you take that tube from him. We all agreed, 'No taking things from other people,'" and "He's crying because he worked really hard building that and you knocked it down." But mostly what I did was encourage the children to listen to one another by simply saying things like, "I want you to listen to what he has to say."</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the period of recess play that those administrators want to avoid. I know that many schools consider recess to be a time for the classroom teachers to catch a little break, leaving the school yard in the hands of a few "monitors." One kindergarten teacher told me that they often have 40 or more children per adult on their playground. I know I wouldn't want to face that second 15 minutes without all hands on deck.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzSgsap3QiQpXUN5AMS69tRbu21EEPlZrkHX62vg0D8O2JmypOkC7srIuISqO9CpeRECpUl1d0-Wz-l_UU8Qt6gZUGTGL9Cf8-f7QjbET802M_TGQ91pww9jPDrxE_KZ8obADl/s1600/IMG_7914.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzSgsap3QiQpXUN5AMS69tRbu21EEPlZrkHX62vg0D8O2JmypOkC7srIuISqO9CpeRECpUl1d0-Wz-l_UU8Qt6gZUGTGL9Cf8-f7QjbET802M_TGQ91pww9jPDrxE_KZ8obADl/s400/IMG_7914.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>So why do we put up with that second 15 minutes? To get to the third 15 minutes and beyond. That's when all that bickering begins to pay off. That's when all the conflict and talking and listening start to bring those ideas and agendas together. </div><div><br /></div><div>For the next hour I more or less sat on a bench and watched the children play, together, saying sentences to one another that began with the invitation word, <a href="http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/lets.html">"Let's . . ."</a> </div><div><br /></div><div>"Let's connect all the big tubes!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Let's put all the balls in this bucket!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Let's move it over here!"</div><div><br /></div><div>There was still a bit of bickering, but it was of the productive variety, with children actually listening to their friends' thoughts and ideas, sometimes disagreeing, but mostly finding ways to incorporate it within their own agenda. This is the gold standard of a play-based curriculum: creative, cooperative play, and sometimes the only way to get there is through that second 15 minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! 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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-31553149639149732722024-02-29T07:58:00.000-08:002024-02-29T07:58:53.678-08:00Universal Experiences<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDoorzYyejIauTVdcc7L1ArkU3VGejDG1wD5FINqwXG1Ql9skPiNU23GVoVBFbpZd1gscpsuJZ1qc-kkm94vZUF8cOVat6EWmrfn6toB2SUoa8D11NtFuxMeCHpqC5CNj3QUG5/s2048/fullsizeoutput_337b.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDoorzYyejIauTVdcc7L1ArkU3VGejDG1wD5FINqwXG1Ql9skPiNU23GVoVBFbpZd1gscpsuJZ1qc-kkm94vZUF8cOVat6EWmrfn6toB2SUoa8D11NtFuxMeCHpqC5CNj3QUG5/w480-h640/fullsizeoutput_337b.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are certain universal experiences. The alpha and omega of birth and death to name the most obvious. Loss and grief is another. And, naturally, there are those feelings that start in the body like hunger, pain, and fear. Not only are these experiences universal today, but they have been universal throughout human history.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We might feel like we're alone, and at the end of the day we are, but if we open our ears, eyes, and hearts, there is an entire population of fellow beings who are telling and showing us that we are genuinely all in this together. Whether or not we're able to take comfort in that universality is up to us.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are some universal human experiences, or near universal experiences, that the modern world has made less universal. Case in point, for most of our species' 300,000 years, pretty much everyone experienced life-sustaining hunting and gathering. We can joke about how we still hunt and gather it in the supermarket or online, but it's obviously not the same thing as going out into nature and understanding it enough to find sustenance there. Another previously universal experience that has today, like hunting and gathering, been relegated to a certain class of humans is caring for the children. Whereas our ancestors raised children collectively, today, it is largely the job of mothers, professional caregivers, and other early childhood professionals.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At the same time, our modern world offers us modern universal experiences, or near universal experiences, about which our ancestors knew nothing. Individual economic insecurity, for instance, is something that most of us, at one time or another, and to one degree or another, experience. Our ancestors raised children in the context of community, with grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins all playing their part. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Not long ago I was out with a group of friends. It hadn't occurred to me that aside from my wife and me, none of them had children of their own. I made a comment about the rights of children to be included in day-to-day life, something that would make most readers of this blog nod along, only to have these smart, accomplished adults, tell me, in so many words, I was wrong. One of them even said, jokingly, but with an earnestness, "I would prefer that there were never children anywhere that I am."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the grand scheme of things, this is an attitude outside the human experience, but one that is increasingly common in our modern world. Indeed, for most new parents, the last time they spent any meaningful time with young children in any context was when they, themselves, were young children, which is to say they have no experience at all with caring for them. No wonder so many new parents are anxious.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Another near universal modern experience is schooling. As cognitive psychologist and philosopher <a href="http://alisongopnik.com/Alison_Gopnik_Bio.htm">Alison Gopnik</a> writes in her book <i>The Gardener and the Carpenter</i>, "Nowaday, when middle-class people become parents they typically have had lots of experience with schooling but little experience with caregiving. So when parents or policy makers hear from scientists about how much child learn, they often conclude that we should teach them more, the way we teach them in school. But children actually learn more from the unconscious details of what caregivers do than from any of the conscious manipulations of parenting."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is something that was widely accepted, if not understood, when it was common for humans to spend their lives in societies that included children at the center of life. Schooling was, as Gopnik points out, "a very specific reaction to the rise of industrialization in nineteenth-century Europe." As an invention that has only been around for a couple hundred years, schools continue to be modeled on the assembly-line notions of standardization and efficiency, which is obviously a reasonable way to mass produce, say, washing machines, but not so great if our goal is to "produce" the kind of motivated, curious, critical thinkers that the world needs.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've now spent more than a quarter century amongst preschoolers, learning at least as much from them as they've learned from me. Since almost of all of that experience has been among children who know they have permission to play, to ask and answer their own questions, to pursue their own passions and interests, I have had the privilege of spending my time with the only humans who have no experience with schooling. I've observed first hand how children educate themselves within the context of community. And since my schools have always been cooperatives in which their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles attend alongside the children, I believe that I've had more than a glimpse of what education and child-rearing looked like throughout most of the <i>Homo sapiens</i> experience.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The people like Alison Gopnik who study childhood learning tell us, flat out, that our schools are doing it wrong, that more "teaching" is not the answer. More play is. This is what is best, not just for children, but for all of us. The very fact that otherwise intelligent people would wish children away tells me that they are unknowingly suffering from a lack of children in their lives. I can tell you from personal experience that having children in my life makes me more creative, more optimistic, more open-minded, and more philosophical. When we remove children from the center of society, we lose the perspective of these new hearts and minds as they, for the first time, encounter our world. We lose the capacity for seeing the world anew. We lose one of the most fundamental connections between humans, not just today, but through history. As Gopnik points out, we relegate caring for children, the principle project of every civilization that has ever existed, to what are essentially pink-collar ghettos. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of all the rifts in our world, this, I think is both the most profound and the most unappreciated.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">During the past quarter century, I've tried, in my way, to shine a light on what to me seems so self-evident. That it's not just good for children, but for all of us, to re-normalize authentic childhood, which would mean re-normalizing authentic communities. Authentic communities are ones that embrace the presence and contribution of children everywhere there are humans. It's quite clear to me that in a fractured world, this is the one thing that would truly transform our world for the better.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Can it start in our preschool classrooms? We can try.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-69610762750927334862024-02-28T07:46:00.000-08:002024-02-28T07:46:30.074-08:00"The Perfect Uselessness of Knowing the Answer to the Wrong Question"<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85Eflyk0OJfp_MI7HzX3WeI-euKXHdz5qd1uj5RElSt7pmVgqTdO5euikv5NmKNkq3nO-GUmlAUQfuH-GfQJCRSXdZ8iB3TmrLOY7TCkWdMPRyWwIDs-B0iAkAcFevvoPMMGmcfyzeyjTSvsMxVAcLERZY9KBIL74FxHlKmfioVkcUOpUEvkW/s4032/IMG_4563.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85Eflyk0OJfp_MI7HzX3WeI-euKXHdz5qd1uj5RElSt7pmVgqTdO5euikv5NmKNkq3nO-GUmlAUQfuH-GfQJCRSXdZ8iB3TmrLOY7TCkWdMPRyWwIDs-B0iAkAcFevvoPMMGmcfyzeyjTSvsMxVAcLERZY9KBIL74FxHlKmfioVkcUOpUEvkW/w480-h640/IMG_4563.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">"There is really only one question that can be answered," writes Ursula LeGuin in her classic novel <i>The Left Hand of Darkness</i>, "and we already know the answer . . . The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, wanting to know what comes next is natural. Humans are inclined to seek out security and predictability, or the illusion of predictability, is one of the ways we seek to assure ourselves that tomorrow will at least be no worse than today. Astrological readings, weather forecasting, and business planning are all efforts to see into the future, hopefully to one that is in some way an improvement on today, but at a minimum one for which we are prepared. The most hopeful or ambitious among us hope to shape that future, to make it fit our dreams in some way.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It can be both stressful and exciting to know that choices we make today will shape the future. All of us some of the time, and some of us much of the time, find ourselves time-traveling into dystopian futures of our own making, but we likewise know that no matter how much we prepare and plan and forecast, it might still go wrong. We try to focus on our hopes, but our fears will have their say.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Complete certainty, safety, and a life of no fear is impossible," writes Brandon Webb in his book <i>Mastering Fear</i>, "There'll never be a pain in your life where you'll think, 'now's the right time, I'm totally prepared and at ease . . . If you wait for fear to go away first, you'll never do it. Because the fear is never going away."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Studies show that successful people experience as much fear and anxiety as the rest of us, but that they have learned to make decisions about what to believe and do, even when the evidence is less than fully persuasive either way. Or as the philosopher William James has it, "It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps the most obvious warning sign that we are doing it wrong, is that for the past several decades, we've seen an alarming spike in the incidence of anxiety in our youth, including preschoolers. Children as young as three are being diagnosed using the same diagnostic tests that we've been using since at least the middle of the last century. There are many theories about this, but the most persuasive to me is that our schools, even preschools, are becoming increasingly academic and competitive, which is to say future focused in a way that is developmentally harmful to young minds. Instead of living in the <i>now</i>, which is the natural habitat of the young, we try, in our incredible hubris, to peer decades into the future in order to reverse engineer their lives, imposing the onus of college and career readiness on humans who should, by all that is good, be contemplating motes, pretending to be fairies, practicing getting along with others, and asking and answering their own questions, not about the future, but about the world in front of them right now. No wonder they're anxious.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The people in LeGuin's story certain individuals have developed an ability they call Foretelling, which allows certain individuals to know, with certainty, the future. Henry, the stories protagonist, seeks out a Foreteller in order to know what his future holds. The process involves asking a question, the more specific the more accurate the answer will be. Henry, however, is not satisfied with what he learns. "You don't see yet, Henry, why we perfected the practice of Foretelling?" asks the Foreteller, "To exhibit the perfect uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">School has come to be about right and wrong answers -- that's what we test, that's what we grade -- but life is about learning to ask the right questions because the future is always uncertain, it can always go wrong, and it will always be different than the future for which we've forecast or planned. And at the end of the day we are always faced with an uncertain future, which is why the most important thing we can learn is how to ask and answer our own questions, not to be more right than the next guy, but rather to develop the habit of wondering, because whatever else the future holds, our ability to wonder is our bulwark against the permanent, intolerable uncertainty. We will never know what comes next, but it's our curiosity that will make life in the future possible.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Thank you!</span></i></div>
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-22889893220009257162024-02-27T07:36:00.000-08:002024-02-27T07:36:54.256-08:00The ABCs of Book Banning<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TAa7cGuuFsQh93nXoYdUMmup85wD-qKyPNem7ZwBamLFbVZlArFh0XRdS2ypETQdiAT5jDdbDuCU08qyWxNQYt0vNXjOaJ0zN0oKND3FmL-_dYeuZ-VMmUPMvOzeRGQ5GOyPdb5YB_RaXKYd8-FsAuDrvMa9cCXRD5KDkTxN5HMAOdKS5-fY/s692/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-27%20at%207.26.26%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="463" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TAa7cGuuFsQh93nXoYdUMmup85wD-qKyPNem7ZwBamLFbVZlArFh0XRdS2ypETQdiAT5jDdbDuCU08qyWxNQYt0vNXjOaJ0zN0oKND3FmL-_dYeuZ-VMmUPMvOzeRGQ5GOyPdb5YB_RaXKYd8-FsAuDrvMa9cCXRD5KDkTxN5HMAOdKS5-fY/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-27%20at%207.26.26%20AM.png" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I recently watched the Academy Award nominated short documentary <i>The ABCs of Book Banning</i>, in which director Sheila Nevins, turns the camera on children between the ages of 8 and 16 who attend schools impacted by the wave of school book banning that has taken place in parts of the US.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In this public discourse, we've heard from parents, we've heard from policy makers, we've heard from the media, but this film is one of few efforts that strives to listen to children who have been directly effected by having certain books removed from their libraries and classrooms. And they have questions.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've embedded the entire film below because the children's voices are far more persuasive than anything I could write. Of course, I'm not surprised at their clear-sightedness both about book banning as well as the subject matters being banned. As a preschool teacher I've read and discussed several of these banned books to and with young children and have been deeply moved by the compassion, insight, and thoughtfulness of the resulting age-appropriate conversations about race, gender, history, diversity, and identity.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those who support these book bans argue that to broach these subjects in school is to violate their parental rights. They worry that their innocent children will be made to feel guilty for historic wrongs. They worry that their innocent children will be confused and upset to learn that other people have experiences and perspectives that differ from those of their own families. At the extreme, they worry that these books, if allowed to sit alongside the shelves and shelves of "approved" books, will somehow "brainwash" their innocent child. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>"Later," most of them say, but not now, not when they are so innocent. </span><span>Innocent is another word for ignorant.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't recall a time when I wasn't aware of the Nazis. Some of my earliest drawings were elaborate war scenes in which the good guys were shooting Nazis. By the time I was in middle school I'd read <i>The Diary of Anne Frank</i> and knew enough about the Holocaust to fantasize about traveling back in time to, if not assassinate Hitler, at least, as the author of the book <i>Monsters</i> Clair Dederer puts it, "spritz (my) enlightened-ness all over the place." After all, the German people simply must not have known. They must not have known what was happening because if they did, of course, they would never have allowed such evil to occur.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"We imagine," writes Dederer, "we would've been that person, the one who would've written the letter, who would've spoken out, would've hidden the Jews, would've provided the stop on the Underground Railroad . . . We say this to ourselves as the world literally burns, as militarized police forces murder citizens, as children are held in camps at our own borders . . . The idea of time -- laden with the badness that came "before" -- and our apex at the top of it is a way of distancing ourselves from the negative aspects of humanity. The idea of the Past functions in the same way the word "monster" does -- it serves to separate us from all that is worst about humanity. We are the adults of the world. we have outgrown our worst behaviors. We are not monsters. <i>That is not us</i>. We cast history, and monsters, out from our enlightened circle."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ultimately, this is what all of us do, not just book banners, especially when it comes to young children. Let them be innocent (ignorant) for awhile longer.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I get it. I shielded my own five-year-old daughter from 9/11, an effort that got me tearfully scolded by her when she learned about it as an eight-year-old: "You mean it happened when I was alive? You have to tell me these things!" I skipped the pages in my books that discussed the assassination of MLK because I wanted the kids to be inspired the man's work, not frightened that his work got him killed. I'm meticulous in listening to children's questions about "touchy" subjects so that I can be certain that I'm only answering, honestly, the questions they ask and not confuse or scare them with too much information.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The problem with arguments that rely on childhood innocence is that the children themselves do not want to be ignorant as the children in this documentary make clear. We are compelled by biology to grow and learn <i>alongside</i> loving adults. The books I read to preschoolers may not reveal the whole, unvarnished truth, but they do tend to answer the questions that we should all be asking:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Why are some people different from me?</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Why is there pain?</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Why are things so unfair?</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">These are questions we are born to ask, born to discuss, and born to seek to answer. When we "protect" children from considering these questions, from looking at the world from new perspectives, we seek to separate them from life itself, to tell them the myth (and they know it's a myth from the moment they emerge into a world that is too bright and too loud) that they live in a largely perfected world.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's no wonder that so many children feel betrayed by adults as they grow up to learn the truths from which we, in our own ignorance, have attempted to protect them.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've not read all the book mentioned in this documentary, but I've read enough of them to know that their focus is not on the worst of humanity, but rather on the triumphs of those who display the best of humanity in the face of horrors: courage, honesty, kindness, justice, and wisdom. These are stories of human goodness are every bit as true as the ones about evil. These are stories our children will need to know if they are going to be the ones who stand up to evil, not in a time-travel fantasy of spritzing their enlightened-ness all over the place, but rather to be the heroes of today, who write the letters, speak out, hide the Jews, and provide stops on the Underground Railroad. After all, <i>now</i> is the only time that virtue has any value.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I watched this documentary with teary eyes, moved by these children who are already so much wiser than many of their elders. I imagine you will feel the same way.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b4c6QQv_M8U?si=fOweVkb-Vv6Wfvou" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I put a lot of time and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Thank you!</span></i></div>
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-22595258005643495962024-02-26T08:02:00.000-08:002024-02-26T08:02:05.919-08:00The Prejudice of Knowing<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqyy0fiDI3HDIzymS4aiElRETIzjaSQjsuoGqJIzA9civzFmux6Wq-pnTfmuRs1q8wYQG5pfMORW_DuGGitk0UciJJdy-vgmy5Jx8W3NPfwaE3w9ZZ9q3TozGAwymoPX9t5FHp/s1600/IMG_5802.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqyy0fiDI3HDIzymS4aiElRETIzjaSQjsuoGqJIzA9civzFmux6Wq-pnTfmuRs1q8wYQG5pfMORW_DuGGitk0UciJJdy-vgmy5Jx8W3NPfwaE3w9ZZ9q3TozGAwymoPX9t5FHp/s640/IMG_5802.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It was a pleasant day so we had our doors open. When whether permits, we like to connect our indoors with the outdoors. The fresh, moving air, the bird song and insect buzz, the scent of plants, of dirt, of moisture. When I step onto the patio for an <i>al fresco</i> lunch, the food, under the sky and trees, tastes better. After the cold, winter months, it cheers me to experience the feeling of continuity between these fundamental spheres of modern human existence. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'd just taken a seat on the sofa with a book when a bird, a Northern mocking bird, crossed over from the outside and into my living room, slamming headlong into a window on the opposite side of the room. The sound was sickening. Then it did it again, then again, its wings flapping as wildly as my own heart. It didn't understand an environment of walls and ceilings and was especially panicked by the concept of windows, against which it continued to hurl itself.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These mocking birds are my favorite local fauna. They sit on the top branches, effortlessly singing their multitudinous song, sounding like a dozen different birds in one. Sometimes they imitate, and improve, the honk of a car horn or the twitter of a smartphone. In early spring, the males sing continuously, while periodically launching themselves upward, briefly flashing their distinctive black and white markings in what I assume is a mating display. They fiercely protect their nests, fearlessly chasing away the much larger crows and ravens, sometimes teaming up with their mates in a choreography of defense.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Outdoors, in their natural habitat, these birds know exactly what they are doing. They need nothing from me except to be left alone. They let me know this by dive bombing me, the way they do the ravens, should I get too close for comfort. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As I rose from the sofa to help the trapped bird, it made a dash for a smaller set of clearstory windows above some bookshelves where it redoubled its hopeless efforts as it sought to escape both the house and me. I didn't want it to injure itself, so I stopped where I was. Thankfully, it paused, not perched but rather lying flat, its yellow eyes on me, panting, hurt. Inches away, through the glass, was its natural habitat, but here, in my home, was hostile territory.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Other species have dens or hives or other indoor spaces, usually used for sleeping, hiding out from harsh weather, and protecting the young from predators, but they tend to live their lives outdoors. This was true for most of human existence as well, and remains true in parts of the world, but for many of us, even those of us who enjoy the kinds of moderate climates in which Northern mocking birds thrive, spend most of our lives behind walls and under ceilings.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Back in the 1980's, in response to increasing anxiety and depression, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, invented the term <i>shinrin-yoku</i>, which translates as "forest bathing" or "absorbing the forest atmosphere." The idea is simply to spend time in nature. <a href="https://environhealthprevmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s12199-009-0086-9">The practice has been found to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and the level of harmful hormones, like cortisol</a>, which our bodies produce when under stress. It can lead to increased feelings of well-being and happiness. So effective is this treatment for the ailments of modern life, that doctors from around the world are now prescribing it for their patients.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The interesting part is you don't need a forest to do it. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44097-3">You don't need a beach or a bush or a desert in order to get the benefits</a>. We are finding that<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02942/full"> just 10-20 minutes a day outdoors</a>, wherever you are, increases well-being and happiness while reducing stress. Spending time outdoors is linked to increased concentration, focus, and memory. Perhaps natural spaces are an even better tonic, but what this tells me is that it's spending all that time indoors, not just a deficit of nature, that is harming us.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Every preschool teacher knows that young children cheer when told it's time to go outside. Inspired by Dr. Peter Gray, I've often polled children as to whether they would rather be inside or outside and at least 90 percent of them enthusiastically choose outside. And no wonder, they feel better when outdoors, and when we feel better, everything is better. These studies also suggest that the more time we spend outdoors, the greater the benefits.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm not saying that we don't need to spend time in natural spaces, but simply that many of us allow our inability to easily access natural spaces to prevent us from taking ourselves and the children in our lives outdoors.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Just as that mocking bird knew it needed to be outside, so to do young children. So do all of us if we're honest. One of our most widespread and destructive prejudices is that we tend to define "knowing" as a purely cognitive function. This allows us to dismiss the knowledge of birds and babies and nature, and is why we feel we need to do all that scientific research in order to "prove" what the rest of the planet's living things know about inside and outside in the center of their beings. It's this, I think, that most disconnects us from nature: this prejudice of knowing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I backed away from the panicked mocking bird, circling around in a way I hoped was non-threatening to open the window nearest where it lay hurt and panting. I then went around the other way, leaving the room altogether in the hope that it would calm itself enough to discover the way out I'd provided it. I returned 30 minutes later to find it in the same condition. I'm no bird psychologist, but I took its immobility as a sign it had given up, that it was depressed and waiting to die within these horrible walls and confounding ceilings. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So I moved slowly to the kitchen where I fetched a broom and, slowly, slowly walked toward the bird. It eyed me, it panted, but it didn't move. As I raised the broom to where it lay on the top of the bookshelves, it renewed its frantic efforts to break through the windows. As gently as I could, I pushed the bird away from its hopeless position and off the top of the shelves toward the open window. The bird fell, but before it hit the floor, it spread its wings, those stunning black and white markings on full display, and flew out the door like it was escaping hell.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It knew, in its bird soul, that outdoors was where it belonged.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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</script>Teacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-28570366360488545742024-02-23T07:06:00.000-08:002024-02-23T07:06:14.245-08:00The Creative Struggle to Express Ourselves<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xJ8pAEIAtPLhPtwpo-eCKgarqQ-qEq02-BUlB8ZBaeRg87ZYf4q3WJbLL72oat47NrHixvKKEzr4m775hAoXXY9MCBbbfbtLQ2cRNOvvsRjkMc3dT7iUV-i3EMl5iciEAEpN/s2048/IMG_5219.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xJ8pAEIAtPLhPtwpo-eCKgarqQ-qEq02-BUlB8ZBaeRg87ZYf4q3WJbLL72oat47NrHixvKKEzr4m775hAoXXY9MCBbbfbtLQ2cRNOvvsRjkMc3dT7iUV-i3EMl5iciEAEpN/w480-h640/IMG_5219.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I've never written about the day I became a father. I think about that day and often tell parts of the story, but so far I've not found all of the words to do so, if words are even adequate. What I need to say is too complex to express in my normal way. Maybe it requires a novel. Maybe it requires poetry, sculpture, or painting, or it's possible that the way to say what I need to say hasn't been discovered yet.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Those of us who have spent our lives around young children, are familiar with their creative struggle to express themselves. It's part of the process of learning the language, of course, so the conversational short cuts and "good enough" putty with which we spackle our day-to-day adult conversation is yet to be learned. Children regularly find themselves thinking thoughts or having feelings for the first time and they need to communicate about them. Without being able to make use of the cliches upon which we adults rely, they must <i>invent</i> a way of saying it.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">An excited five-year-old once replied to an adult who had off-handedly asked, "How are you?" by replying, "This day has a powerful, huge, even big magic in it!"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A three-year-old described an accidental lever she had made on the playground in the form of a chant: "Push down, go up, push down, go up, push down . . ."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Another preschooler, playing with a wine cork in a tub of water, explained, "It went on the water and didn't go down in the water, but I could push it down. And it went back on the water!"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In each example, you can hear the child grasping for complexity, for depth, for knowledge about themselves and their world, then striving to express the fullness of it, grasping at words, building with them the way they build with blocks. Soon they are going to learn to simply say, "I feel good" or to reduce the complexity into words like "lever" and "float," but right now it's the complexity that matters, because it's not just the angels and devils that live in details. Understanding complexity is all about the details, the fullness of a thing, the process or experience. Later will be the time for more concisely summing up the complexity.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3B4omZp_ggBgCecaqm_z6T0mFundS5iyNgrcuKDMLCzZu6i_ctTGcYNuRGJpCGXwKJEZxdOK8B083ZDR6TSv0fy1LUHa2MFE0mZEI1PXf0KrQr0fbinK1oGOBPvHwPPm7h9CE/s2048/IMG_4788.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3B4omZp_ggBgCecaqm_z6T0mFundS5iyNgrcuKDMLCzZu6i_ctTGcYNuRGJpCGXwKJEZxdOK8B083ZDR6TSv0fy1LUHa2MFE0mZEI1PXf0KrQr0fbinK1oGOBPvHwPPm7h9CE/w300-h400/IMG_4788.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Too often, educators try to skip over the complexity and go straight to the summing up, immediately offering children the simple concise answer. Stripped of complexity, the responses are rendered mostly meaningless even if absolutely correct. In Douglas Adams' novel <i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i>, they build a computer programed to answer the question, "What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?" After seven million years the computer calculates the answer, which is "Forty-two." It's the right answer, but without the rest of the story, it's useless for anything beyond passing a test.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">When children play, we sometimes see it as frivolous and purposeless, and perhaps to that child, in that moment, it is, but we should never make the mistake of thinking it's meaningless. This is why we don't step in to correct the child by telling them that there is "no such thing as magic," or "help them" by showing them what else a lever can do, or which other objects can float on water. When we do, we risk rendering the moment meaningless, or as the great developmental psychologist Jean Piaget wrote, "Every time we teach a child something, we keep him from inventing it himself." The complexity is where the action is because that's what <i>interests</i> us about a new thing, the details. When we leave children to decide for themselves which of those details are relevant, where to build their own scaffolding, and whether and when to move on to something else entirely, we free them to learn beyond the surface of right answers into where complexity lives. When humans engage like this, even frivolously and purposelessly, we're inventing for ourselves.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">And as we invent, we find we must communicate about it. But it's more than that. We're a language-using animal and we must use language to bring our inventions into existence. Learning is literally being constructed <i>as</i> we strive to express it, be it through words, art, or science. That someone else, like a loving adult, has listened carefully, understood, and acknowledged that they've understood is a vital part of that process. It's this process of inventing that's important, not the outcome.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwskip1rRqf5sWIUF9XTi-SODXrnaErO-RHdHvuf5plae9El2LGMDYiB_EI0hMIG4dAQfhxYi159OxHf7IxB2mILA1jQqlW9t8UeQvcEvJOEWSZm0X3YskkuhVcX5C-f_TDOMG/s2048/IMG_3922.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwskip1rRqf5sWIUF9XTi-SODXrnaErO-RHdHvuf5plae9El2LGMDYiB_EI0hMIG4dAQfhxYi159OxHf7IxB2mILA1jQqlW9t8UeQvcEvJOEWSZm0X3YskkuhVcX5C-f_TDOMG/w300-h400/IMG_3922.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;">As we get older, we tend to experience fewer things for the first time, which leads many of us to fill our language with words and phrases that rush us past the complexity. We've got places to be and things to do, after all. We don't have the time to just play, to let ourselves fall into the details and wander around, being frivolous and purposeless. I suppose when you've seen it all before, it's hard to summon the enthusiasm for inventing things, unless, that is, you have young children in your life. If you listen to them, listening not just with your ears, but with your heart, it's impossible to not be inspired. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">When a child answers, "How are you?" with, "This day has a powerful, huge, even big magic in it," you find yourself nodding along, at once understanding something more complex, and therefore more true, than the old shoe of, "I'm fine, and you?" We can't do this ourselves without play. Without play, we lose sight of complexity and stop inventing our world, becoming increasingly efficient, but going nowhere. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">This is something I started to discover on the day I became a father: children are here to remind us to keep inventing life for ourselves.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s259/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="257" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLGVlmVvLcRXigbqxTZSj77TPeEY_2uzDK0ZdTh2at0td0q1fc7JeBgLR_VV_CXyQCxoydKvCBJobXAo_cZ9VfJ7614e8s003g_MS5RyAFAgSGoDoqjx3MrOxUcMQK3yr2bQmjkwUU6UUxGlrUdUxnS9_FnYvOkaJlbP4n0oAwC261bEPBCZV/s1600/Image%202-13-24%20at%207.10%20AM.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find </i><a href="https://mirasee.com/podcast/teacher-toms-podcast-taking-play-seriously/" style="font-style: italic;">Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network</a><i> or anywhere you download your podcasts.</i></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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