cm@unc.UUCP (Chuck Mosher) (05/08/85)
>Montessori, one of the leaders in preschool education, felt that >children have "periods of sensitivity" for learning certain things. >Let the child direct the education during these early years, by >his or her own interests and abilities. You might learn something >from your kid too if you let nature be a little freer. > > Mary I think that this is the key point to learning of *any* kind. We really learn about something only when we are interested in it. When we are interested and motivated, we can soak up an amazing amount of information. When we are not, it takes hours/days/years of repetitive drilling, and then we forget it anyway. I think that is why our schools do such a profoundly poor job, they are not following the interests of the individual children. Of course that would be impossible in any kind of normal classroom situation anyway, which is why we have to get rid of the normal classroom! Two good books to read on this topic are: Why Children Fail Teach Your Own both by John Holt Let's bring back apprenticeship! Chuck