Teaching vs Learning (was Re: Teaching a Child to Read ...)
Susan McGlohn
At 09:58 AM 3/23/2006, you wrote:
law of motion (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) or
something. Teaching doesn't make someone learn. Learning is a totally
independent function from teaching.
If the model of the third law of motion were true in this case, then I
think the reaction to teaching is definitely not learning, but
*resistance*. That would be the first law of motion, involving
inertia. Students stop trying to learn on their own because they have been
conditioned to believe they can't. (Man, Newton was really smart! LOL!)
And that resistance will definitely grow stronger with the application of
more teaching.
Learning is an individual, internal process that takes place in a person's
brain as information is sought and applied and connections made. That is
why no state has compulsory education laws, but rather compulsory
*attendance*. No one can force another to learn.
If your daughter wants to learn to knit, she will seek out
information. She will ask questions, ask you to show her. She will watch
and listen, and take it with her and apply it in her own fashion. She
might use you as a resource, she might not. She might just look it up on
the internet or in a book. Did the internet or the book teach her to
knit? No, she learned it on her own. If you try to be more than the
internet in the process, you will remove the responsibility of learning
from her and take on the responsibility of "teaching her how". Even the
process of learning something is showing her how to learn other future things.
Susan M (VA)
http://radicalchristianunschool.homestead.com/index.html
"Real, natural learning is in the living. It's in the observing, the
questioning, the examining, the pondering, the analyzing, the watching, the
reading, the DO-ing, the living, the breathing, the loving, the Joy. It's
in the Joy." ~Anne Ohman
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> I have just written another post that maybe you could helpPeople assume that teaching causes learning, like it is part of the third
>me with re: teaching vs. learning.
law of motion (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) or
something. Teaching doesn't make someone learn. Learning is a totally
independent function from teaching.
If the model of the third law of motion were true in this case, then I
think the reaction to teaching is definitely not learning, but
*resistance*. That would be the first law of motion, involving
inertia. Students stop trying to learn on their own because they have been
conditioned to believe they can't. (Man, Newton was really smart! LOL!)
And that resistance will definitely grow stronger with the application of
more teaching.
Learning is an individual, internal process that takes place in a person's
brain as information is sought and applied and connections made. That is
why no state has compulsory education laws, but rather compulsory
*attendance*. No one can force another to learn.
If your daughter wants to learn to knit, she will seek out
information. She will ask questions, ask you to show her. She will watch
and listen, and take it with her and apply it in her own fashion. She
might use you as a resource, she might not. She might just look it up on
the internet or in a book. Did the internet or the book teach her to
knit? No, she learned it on her own. If you try to be more than the
internet in the process, you will remove the responsibility of learning
from her and take on the responsibility of "teaching her how". Even the
process of learning something is showing her how to learn other future things.
Susan M (VA)
http://radicalchristianunschool.homestead.com/index.html
"Real, natural learning is in the living. It's in the observing, the
questioning, the examining, the pondering, the analyzing, the watching, the
reading, the DO-ing, the living, the breathing, the loving, the Joy. It's
in the Joy." ~Anne Ohman
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]