The passion for learning is something that, naturally, children have. Babies want to learn everything. They look at us and listen to us, avid. They experience the flavors, textures and smells. They touch and touch us, they try to move forward, they fall, get up and try again. But sometimes that natural passion is lost and we find that older children have lost the passion to learn.
Learning is one of the most natural impulses of the humanAlthough all animals need and strive to learn what is necessary for their survival, the human being has an extraordinary innate curiosity that makes him wonder about his own existence and about the reasons and ways in which everything around them happens.
To ask, to touch, to discover for oneself, to err and to ask the practical and theoretical questions again is part of our essence. Actually, children want to know everything. The role of parents and educators, rather than teachers or teachers, should be understood as that of facilitators who propose and stimulate, respond when asked and help the child discover new things or master techniques that appeal to them.
When learning becomes something excessively guided, pigeonholed, squared and only valued by results, pleasure is exhausted, self-motivation is framed externally, and passion for learning can die. Let's save the passion to learn.
Parents as educators
I will first address what parents can do to keep that curiosity alive and that growing pleasure. Stimulate, answer the questions, know not to interfere in the achievements and value not achieved, but the process, letting it be, above all, the child who values their enjoyment in learning, would be general guidelines that we must then know how to apply to the everyday and concrete.
Parents are the first educators. Our children are sponges that impregnate what we say and, above all, what we do. This, which is valid as a premise on behavior, will also be on knowledge acquisition. Showing us curious, reading, always eager to learn new things and interested in the questions of our children, will stimulate their appreciation of culture, science and wisdom. We must show them that knowledge does not take place and that you never know too much. Being parents is a work of personal growth.
The boy who explores
The young child will need a safe environment in which to explore everything freely. That does not mean that we should never intervene, there are times and dangerous situations in which we must do it and also be always alert to do so. But our interventions will be much less if the environment and space are safe for the child.
Therefore, our houses have to change when the child arrives at them and we are very aware, of the possible dangers, to, instead of being permanently saying that this is not touched, to have separated the risks. Windows, stairs, doors, peaks and furniture should be protected so that the child cannot be damaged and it would also be convenient to hide harmful objects and products. Our child needs to learn, but to learn for sure, in an environment with more physical than verbal limits.
In addition, of course, the small child, in the process of psychomotor advancement, needs open spaces. And even if our cities are hostile to them, ensure that the authorities take care of offering outdoor spaces designed for children.
There are things that cannot be done, but the child needs to be able to do many things, and much of what he will be able to do freely depends on the environments being adapted to his needs for physical exploration, since internalizing the movements and limits of the body itself It is indispensable to build a mind capable of growing sovereign and free.
The error, falling and staining, are the most important experiences that the small child needs, naturally, to feel. The less we have to say "no," the better we will be helping the child learn for himself.
The boy who asks
Then comes the time of the child who asks everything. Some machaconas, some absurd and some uncomfortable. Children's questions are their way of learning and communicating their concerns. In reality, there is no question that parents should not answer. Life, conception, birth, death, feelings, the shape of animals and plants, measurements, changes in the weather, the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the wind, the sea, the tap water , the water that heats in the pot, the things that fall and those that fly, all that and much more will fascinate and intrigue them.
If we are lucky enough to be there when all these questions are born, our moral obligation is to feed that little presocratic who wants to know everything about Nature. In addition, it is a privilege and pleasure that deserves that we leave everything to be attentive and aware, enjoying fatherhood. We must be prepared for the age of the questions.
Learning by trial and error
Also, and much, it is essential that we change our mentality about the nature of learning. We have been, possibly, taught from a process that was marching from the outside to the inside, a form of education that gives priority to the adult as a driver who knows everything and shows how things should be done. You have to unlearn in order to teach. Leave the possibilities open, let the child find his way.
To be able to eat properly with cutlery and taste the food you have to smear before, touch, throw it on the floor, spit and decide. To climb a ladder you have to let the child go trying, in this case present to save him from danger, as it will be better to put a hand or foot before. Leaving to do, loving the stain, without wanting to control everything and without saying if something is right or wrong from the first attempt. You just have to let them try several times, controlling our desire for control. It will not be easy, because we have internalized continuous intervention, but I assure you that it is much more pleasant and effective for them and for ourselves.
A practical example and a lesson from my "teacher"
I'm going to tell you something that happened to me recently with my son, which, although already 10 years old, is very significant and explains how learning works by trial and error. He knows it, has internalized it and is responsible for reminding me when I'm wrong.
We were, recently, working on the computer, with a layout program that still does not control perfectly. He found that he wanted to do something but could not get it at first. I, impatiently, began to explain it to him and took the mouse. Kind but firm, he told me "if you let me do it, even if I make a mistake several times until I achieve it, I will learn it forever because my neurons will have made the whole journey of discovery and learning will be experiential and will remain recorded. If you tell me how it is done and you guide my hand, I will only be a spectator, and, even if I do it at first, I will not have learned it myself, it will not be meaningful and I can forget it. "
The passion to learn
Perhaps, as educators, the most important thing we should know is the way to act so that children can keep their whole life the pleasure of learning and the passion to learn. In the next topic I will address this issue from the point of view of formal education and especially dedicated to school, respect for the interests of children and their vocation.
