A group of teachers and LREC staff have joined the Learning Creative Learning online course I pointed people to in a recent blog post. In one of our short readings for the first week, Seymour Papert reflects on the “Gears of My Childhood.” More specifically, he focuses on how his fascination with gears as a child was a springboard toward a wide range of other interests as he grew older. With this, he argues that effective learning has to build on the mental models we already possess, adding greater depth and/or a wider scope to what we previously knew. Along the way, Papert draws some interesting analogies and surprising connections. Read his short (1 page) Gears essay if you’re intrigued.
When I was young, I had a few things which functioned as my “gears.” During my late elementary and junior high school years, much of my time was consumed with playing APBA Baseball, a card and dice-based simulation that allows you to replay games designed to reflect the performance of actual major league players. This experience was an important part of my social network, and it nurtured my fascination with numbers and data. Similarly, developing a model railroad layout gave me experience in planning and design, and in wiring and debugging connections. This latter bit of work served as a precursor to my professional roles as a school tech coordinator, and now as LREC’s resident techie.
What does all of this mean for us as a teaching and learning community? I make these observations because I’m concerned about whether — in our pursuit of an overpacked curriculum — we really allow students to find the “gears” of their childhoods. Can they develop and pursue interests if we prescribe their learning too closely? Thick backpacks loaded with extensive, pre-packaged homework tends to work against having time for finding and pursuing passions. Instead, can students’ assignments be scaled back to give more time for independent investigations? When there is homework, can it be reframed to open opportunities for kids to find or extend personal interests? For example, instead of a worksheet on shapes and patterns, can kids be sent on a scavenger hunt in their neighborhood, looking for shapes in the community? Nature is filled with shapes, as are buildings, playground equipment, and the like. Finding and sharing cool discoveries is a lot more engaging than a canned worksheet.
If you’re ready to take up a challenge, commit to shifting one home activity a week away from a pre-packaged, scripted activity and toward something that nurtures your students’ passions. They’ll be glad you did, and I’ll bet you’ll find what they do much more interesting, too. Good luck, and please share what you do.