Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think.
Albert Einstein
Learning?
‘What is my child actually learning in school?’
When we talk about learning, we do not mean learning about the rivers and mountains of the world, the world wars, the periodic table, laws of motion or the digestive system. This is just information, available to us at the click of a key on the internet.
Does she believe that she is an active changemaker who has the power to bring about change in her community? Is she learning to create and find a more innovative way to do things?
As parents, or even responsible members of the society we need to continuously ask us the above questions. As teachers our job calls for critical analysis on the outcome of education we are providing in our schools and colleges, and whether it is covering the essential questions raised above.
Role of Center for Developing Child, VGS
At VGS we give special emphasis to building a Thinking Classroom; a place which is emotionally safe and encourages innovation, learning and growth. A place where no child is invisible and all have their own spaces. A place where each child would love to walk into- without any inhibition or fear.
The seven practices at the foundation of every ‘thinking classrooms’ are:
- Planning
- Hummingbird learning
- Letting them take charge of their learning
- Give them choices
- Guide on the side rather than sage on stage
- Play and creativity
- Smorgasbord for all kinds of minds
If I can’t learn the way you teach, can you teach me the way I learn?