Pam Sorooshian

This is the list we came up with.

What do people often think children need to be taught?

- to sleep through the night
- to soothe themselves when upset
- to get along with others.
- to get along with all kinds of people (diversity)
- to follow through with things, perservere, be committed
- to show respect/to respect authority
- to share
- to sit still
- to stand in line
- to wait their turn
- to raise their hands
- to pick up after themselves
- to obey parents and elders
- to follow directions
- discipline
- to deal with enemies
- that they are not the center of the universe
- not to socialize
- to be socialized
- to deal with mean teachers (so they can deal with mean bosses, later on)
- that competition is good for you
- to work in a group/work with other people


- the five senses, what is used to smell, seek, hear, touch, and taste
- to walk
- the names of colors
- to cut with scissors
- to float in water
- to swim
- the sounds animals make
- basic number facts
- how to write
- how to read
- to name the state capitals (or order of Kings and Queesn in the UK)
- to diagram a sentence
- to do geometry proofs
- the seasons
- names of shapes and how to draw them
- to drink from a cup
- to talk
- the jobs of people in the community
- how to read a map

k

Not to mess with things... but the list could go on.

And on and on and on. There's a lot more things that children *could*
learn.

This list, though, is intended to be a list of essentials only, right?

In which case it could be a lot shorter, couldn't it? I am not sure what
would go on a short list. That's the thing with lists. :) They're best
for jumping off of springboard style. You wouldn't want to keep to nothing
but the essentials for long. Life gets a whole lot more complex very
quickly. At which point the short list will no longer do.

~Katherine


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Sandra Dodd

-=-And on and on and on. There's a lot more things that children *could*
learn.

-=-This list, though, is intended to be a list of essentials only,
right?=-

Having heard Pam's talk, I think it wasn't intended to be a list of
all the things anyone's ever believed needed to be taught, but a list
of samples of things real people still, in that moment, believe need
to be taught. Everyone probably has some ideas of what can't be
learned naturally.

Sandra

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