The Very Best Place To Learn

Failure to thrive is a medical term used to describe children who have stunted development.  It’s unclear why but doctors know this affliction is not a result of malnutrition, infections or any other single physical process that science can identify.  What they do know is the condition is reversed when children are in a loving and nurturing environment. 

Children can be stunted physically if they are not given sufficient love and attention now imagine the effect a lack of this has on the learning process.   Our current education system is being stressed by enormous social and economic factors, some of which seem overwhelming.  The suggestion that a failure to thrive is now the responsibility of a school is not meant to criticize but to empower. 

Creating a sufficient loving environment should not be a challenge for a school but a requirement.  Every school should ask: what conditions are necessary for a student to learn?

The most important condition is every student must feel and know that their classroom is safe.  They are treated with respect and trust what their teacher will ask them to do.  At some level the student must believe that their teacher has their best interest at heart.  It is in this environment that students will want to do some work to please their teacher.  They are engaged and attending to the work.  This is a great first step in the process to change from schooling to learning.  

The second step is students will begin to realize that what they are learning is important, it’s relevant to their life and is useful.  They will begin to bring the community of learners into their quality world.  They trust those around them and work together for a common goal.  The momentum is contagious and learning can become fun.

The last step is students learn how to self evaluate their own work.  They decide to make it better.  At this phase students are learning for the sake of knowledge. 

All of this sounds slightly utopian and out of reach.  But remember it’s derived from the basic premise that children thrive in a loving environment.  Any environment that tells a child you matter, you are important, and you can master this is a place where a child can excel.

Schools need to move away from mediocre standards and models.   They can solve their own problems but only by changing their thinking. 

Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking which created them.”

Our best thinking got us here, we can change.