But what I am learning is this. Just like an adult, children have to learn how to learn. They have to learn about themselves. They have to learn about the world around them. They need to learn about the God who created them. Those three questions are at the foundation of a person.
(Curriculum is second to what is natually all around us. Who cares if they know their grammar roots if they never want to share their throughts thought writing. But what if God has a story for them to share, how will they do it? Who cares if they never want to know what a synoposis is if they never want to learn to read. But what if they have an interest and the world opens up through books? Who cares if they never learn their math facts if they see math as stupid. But what if they want to be at NASA?)
We have to teach and learn ourselves. This comes hard to retrofit as an adult. We have to go backwards to our childhood. We have to unlearn what we have been doing for decades. We have to be like a child. How do we do this? By first being quiet and hearing what we have been given an inkling of interest, of passion, of strength about. We start with asking, what questions am I asking? What motivates us to get up each morning, what questions are pressing on our minds, where does my mind wander if I have five seconds of time, what is my body telling me, what is my favorite food or chair or friend or book or a million other questions.
If the goal of learning/education is to teach/train young ones how to grow up and be adults. How to are learn to think and act rightly is the foundation. They are images of their Creator. How do you live as an image bearer? After all adulting is most of your life, childhood is just a fleeting balloon which only comes once. We should then pay close attention to what drives our children. We should spend the time to learn what drives us. Raising our children is not the end goal, living a life well lived is the end goal. To hear, "well done, good and faithful servant", is the end goal. How do we teach and train and parent in light of our end goal?
A child who becomes an adult has "18" years to get ready and then about 62 years to work it out. They have a lifetime to learn. But what are the things then that should happen in those 18 years?
Below are 12, a dozen ideas which learning, education, childhood (and I contend adulthood as well) should consistet of.
Learn how to be a learner. Thats it.
1. They should learn to pursue wisdom.
2. They should learn to ask good questions.
3. They should learn to start with the vocabulary of any new interest.
4. They should learn to fan curosity,
5. They should READ
6. They should learn to listen to themselves, their God and everything around them.
7. They should learn to learn from their failures and their try, learn, try mantra.
8. They should learn to take risks in their learning.
9. They should learn to think, feel and act.
10. They should find a master or mentor to help them in their learning.
11. They should practice, practice, practice whatever their hands find to do.
12. Finally they should learn to work hard.
12 things which sound so easy, but as adults we are more moved to keep the status quo then to do some of the above. These challenge me. These push me into deep waters and I have to learn to depend up God. We don't push ourselves on these things and model them, but we do know deep down these, and probably others, lead to joy in the journey. They give our small protagionist. They keep us humble and therefore teachable. They teach us character and yet push us onward towards growth. The things don't happen all at once. They are statements which drive different parts of our days and years.
I inentionally chose the word, "should", in the statements because I do believe we should be doing these. They are not biblical mandates, but I could write passages of scriptures which support each of them.
So if nothing else is taught, but the interests of a child are taken seriously coupled with the above 12 statements, children will be successful and able to guild their learning. They will learn what we put out in front of them as well as what they see all around them. They won't settle for a ho-hum workbook. They will instead be pulled along by amazingly magical world all around them. After all, there is so much to still explore.