Those of you interested in reading about education viewed through the prism of a brain researcher are invited to join me in a reading of The Unschooled Mind by Harold Gardner. I just read the intro in the Farmer's Market Park. What stood out to me is this: all children master language nearly effortlessly and without any tutoring. All people are essentially unschooled for up to five years and we fall back on this understanding of the world our entire lives. At school, the era of scholastic enterprise begins and no one evinces much understanding of the topics. No one.
Schools are designed to teach children social values and to create what's considered to be good citizens. Schools are not so helpful at helping the children understand the topic at hand. Gardner speaks to the surface quality of learning in schools, but again, is this relevant to me? Is there a way to assess the quality of the school experiences before me and my child? I have come to know that a book does not create my reality: I create my reality. In any case, to get back to the book, Gardner has found that good grades mean nothing in terms of true understanding: the better the student, he's found, the less well they actually understand the material but do understand how to answer the test questions. In his book, he says kids with so called "learning disabilities" are often the ones who are highly intelligent but who do not respond to the ways of measuring intelligence available in schools.
Are there any teachers out there reading this? What do you believe?
Gardner is talking about a template where students learn in settings with meaning. He likes the apprentice model: of course, it gave us Michaelangelo! I think of the classically educated artists I've interviewed and known through family friends in Europe. When children are directed early into their strengths and passions, they can manifest nearly superhuman talent in those fields,
though I doubt most America families could stomach the rigor of that type of education. From the Pacific Northwest Ballet, dancer Stanko Milov told me of how he left his home by 8 to study ballet and the classics. I don't know him well enough to have an opinion about his overall growth. What are Americans studying, and why and what are the criticisms of education?
At my Envision Women event, a 14 year-old cried deeply over feeling pressured by her teachers at school. In conversation, I knew I would never know if she was pressuring herself, or if the source came exclusively from the teachers. Like lightening, it struck me then and there while looking into her crying eyes: if she learns to work from her whole being and can tolerate others pressuring her without feeling pressured, she has mastered a life-long lesson. Many, many people I meet say they want their children in school for the life lessons. School is a cauldron of unpredictability compared to home life. School is a place to learn to get along - with anyone. Some people do this marvelously. At Pathfinder, where I tutored, a sixth grader named Audrey received a Citizenship award for her ease with everyone. She never joined a clique and remained a friend to all. She wrote a poem I love: If I'm ugly, thank you. If I'm stupid, thank you. If I'm beautiful, right back at you.
I am hearing much about education. A nanny told me children do benefit from learning how to work with bullies, but they should not have to do this at age 7. (And yet, the concepts of good and bad come so early in the development of a child, by 5 at least.) She ended up putting her kids in private school. With every single story I hear, I wonder if the storytelling would be the same if the speaker practiced a form of mind yoga which allows them to go deep into their being and to see how every problem they see can be sourced within themselves as well.
Well, there is a lot of learning to do.
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