This first part of a documentary called “Wie lernen Kinder” (How do children learn?”) by Reinhard Karl discusses if we might have developed an inappropriate opinion on how our children experience the world and what they are capable of even, or especially in the first years of their life.
I’m neither a pedagogue nor do i have children myself, but i somehow followed the debate about reforming the german educational system and how the state subsidizes the education of pre-school kids. What is most striking in my eyes is that people (especially parents) develop an increasing pressure when it comes to the future of their children, forgetting about what also might be important in future societies. Of course we could focus all our energy on teaching every possible piece of knowledge that might support a child’s career, but we shouldn’t forget to communicate the right tools to deal with much higher issues than earning as much money as possible.
Delivering basic values for the right handling of environmental issues like social disparities, dealing with an aging society, ecologic problems; things that get more important than ever as we
currently face a huge shift in society itself due to climate shifts (whether it’s there or not), a stronger world-wide consciousness through globalization and more things that are caused by it.
The clip points out that children can be able to show early forms of human interaction with other children as they have reached the 9th month. Of course you cannot teach a 9 month old
how to save the world from the evil, but maybe we should just begin to realize more new ways of educating our children and support human potentials instead of suffocating them in dreams of consumption.
Tags: education
June 2, 2008 at 11:46 pm |
There is a new study about preschool education in the US that says that the most successful preschool programs are ones where teachers have close relationships to students and give them experiences that show them how to interact with others in a positive way (http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2008/featured-abstract-its-all-about-interactions-4097)
June 3, 2008 at 10:57 am |
It only makes sense. If almost everything that has to do with success is connected to the interaction with other people, then teaching the children (directly or indirectly) how to communicate with their mates should have fairly high priority.