This afternoon my wife and I took our sons to the MortonArboretum in Lisle, IL. We have been members there for a few years and go there on a fairly regular basis. Today happened to be a special occasion of sorts with a scare crow walk, food vendors (including some fine micro-brew), and various crafts for the kids. We took the boys to the back of the park where they could pick out and decorate a pumpkin of their choice. Naturally, we paid the nice volunteer for the pumpkins and settled in for some sure to be messy pumpkin painting.
As we sat down, another family with two boys, slightly older than mine, took up the spots across from us on the picnic table. When my boys settled in they began painting their pumpkins without any directions from me or my wife. However, as they got started one of the boys across the table turned to his dad and asked what he should paint on his pumpkin. The dad proceeded to tell both of his sons what they should paint and the boys then began painting their father’s designs. After this happened, my youngest son Kaleb looked up to me, having heard this exchange, and asked me what he should paint on his pumpkin. I simply responded with, “Whatever you want.”Too often parents and teachers tell kids what to do without giving them the power and freedom to make their own decisions. Kids will generally do what they are told to do…but is that what we want? When they do what he tell or ask them to do, they are learning what we want and in the manner we want. Yes, kids need guidance in life, but guidance and control are not the same things. Give your kids/students tools and opportunities to succeed but leave the decisions and work up to them.
3 comments:
Astute observation, as always. Congratulations on being selected as the "Blog-o'-the-Month for October, 2011 at the ISTE Island Bloggers Hut in Second Life. Your wonderful work was selected by avatars voting for one of the four educational blogs nominated for the award during the month of September. I'm commenting on your blog from its display "on a prim" in Second Life. Read more at http://scottsecondlife.blogspot.com/2011/10/stump-teacher-blog-o-month-for-october.html and feel free to publish this comment or not. Cheers, Scott
You are observant and tuned into thinking outside the “normal” realm. I agree, that for creativity to flow, not just in arts, but in all lifestyles, we have to provide unhampered opportunities. More often, we accept this openness to explore in the very young. As time goes by, as adults with authority we tend to reel it in and expect the younger minds to follow the crowd and conform. By the time these youngsters reach adulthood, they are accustomed to following the crowd! The ones who rebel are labeled. Then there are many who rise to the occasion and explore. In an ideal world we hope there are many if not all who create the extraordinary out of the mundane.
I went to school in a time where there was not a lot of creativity in terms of choice of output and expression and it hurt me when I entered the business world. It took many years of me saying repeatedly, “I can’t give you what you want unless you tell me exactly what you want” to finally understand that it is ok to “think outside the box”. I still sometimes struggle with the idea, but because of that, I know it is something that will be an integral part of my classroom.
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