Imagination Playground
dezignarob
I saw this on CNN this morning.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/02/yellin.imagination.playground/index.html?hpt=Sbin
It looks like an awesomely cool place for free play.
The commentary spoke of adults seeing these kids and being surprised - how different the kids looked building their own play and water structures from the usual experience of kids in a playground, how confusing and unfamiliar.
I was immediately struck by how extremely familiar the kids (as a group) looked.
They looked like every gathering of unschooled kids in a fun environment, every group of unschooled kids at a creative funshop at one of the conferences, like most of the homeschooled kids at a beach or other type of environment where free activity is allowed - including at the park after our dance class where the kids (age range 4 through 13) oten build paths and maps and mazes in the wood chips.
Then the education expert started going on about the importance of kids learning from failure, that it's important that they learn that everything won't be handed to them, that there is more than one right answer (don't try THAT on a test), just to make the whole beautiful experience suddenly annoyingly schooly (but with school doublethink as well). Or perhaps it was just to reassure the parents that their kids weren't wasting time in trivia.
The big news was that kids can make decisions for themselves about what to do, and work together to common goals. (Alert the media - oh wait, they did.)
What I took from the item was how ALL kids could thrive as unschoolers, if only the parents were willing and able.
But it's a cool park, and Jayn would have adored it, maybe still would. The kids all looked blissful.
Robyn L. Coburn
www.robyncoburn.blogspot.com
www.iggyjingles.blogspot.com
www.allthingsdoll.blogspot.com
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/02/yellin.imagination.playground/index.html?hpt=Sbin
It looks like an awesomely cool place for free play.
The commentary spoke of adults seeing these kids and being surprised - how different the kids looked building their own play and water structures from the usual experience of kids in a playground, how confusing and unfamiliar.
I was immediately struck by how extremely familiar the kids (as a group) looked.
They looked like every gathering of unschooled kids in a fun environment, every group of unschooled kids at a creative funshop at one of the conferences, like most of the homeschooled kids at a beach or other type of environment where free activity is allowed - including at the park after our dance class where the kids (age range 4 through 13) oten build paths and maps and mazes in the wood chips.
Then the education expert started going on about the importance of kids learning from failure, that it's important that they learn that everything won't be handed to them, that there is more than one right answer (don't try THAT on a test), just to make the whole beautiful experience suddenly annoyingly schooly (but with school doublethink as well). Or perhaps it was just to reassure the parents that their kids weren't wasting time in trivia.
The big news was that kids can make decisions for themselves about what to do, and work together to common goals. (Alert the media - oh wait, they did.)
What I took from the item was how ALL kids could thrive as unschoolers, if only the parents were willing and able.
But it's a cool park, and Jayn would have adored it, maybe still would. The kids all looked blissful.
Robyn L. Coburn
www.robyncoburn.blogspot.com
www.iggyjingles.blogspot.com
www.allthingsdoll.blogspot.com
plaidpanties666
"dezignarob" <dezigna@...> wrote:
A lot of experiential learning does involve learning from "failure" though - its more schooly to see failure as neccessarily some kind of negative, something to avoid.
I'm not saying its good to set kids up to fail, but that there's a kind of trying and failing that's part of natural learning. A kid learning a new video game may fail to beat a level sevaral times - many times! - but persevere because the goal is important to that person. Schools undermine that natural desire to persevere in the face of failure. Wrong answers are points off, reduced grades, rather than chances to explore something from another angle.
>> Then the education expert started going on about the importance of kids learning from failure, that it's important that they learn that everything won't be handed to them, that there is more than one right answer (don't try THAT on a test), just to make the whole beautiful experience suddenly annoyingly schooly (but with school doublethink as well).******************
A lot of experiential learning does involve learning from "failure" though - its more schooly to see failure as neccessarily some kind of negative, something to avoid.
I'm not saying its good to set kids up to fail, but that there's a kind of trying and failing that's part of natural learning. A kid learning a new video game may fail to beat a level sevaral times - many times! - but persevere because the goal is important to that person. Schools undermine that natural desire to persevere in the face of failure. Wrong answers are points off, reduced grades, rather than chances to explore something from another angle.
m_aduhene
cool playground. just my negativity. how are they going to keep all the pieces form bing pinched?
blessings
michelle
blessings
michelle
--- In [email protected], "plaidpanties666" <plaidpanties666@...> wrote:
>
> "dezignarob" <dezigna@> wrote:
> >> Then the education expert started going on about the importance of kids learning from failure, that it's important that they learn that everything won't be handed to them, that there is more than one right answer (don't try THAT on a test), just to make the whole beautiful experience suddenly annoyingly schooly (but with school doublethink as well).
> ******************
>
> A lot of experiential learning does involve learning from "failure" though - its more schooly to see failure as neccessarily some kind of negative, something to avoid.
>
> I'm not saying its good to set kids up to fail, but that there's a kind of trying and failing that's part of natural learning. A kid learning a new video game may fail to beat a level sevaral times - many times! - but persevere because the goal is important to that person. Schools undermine that natural desire to persevere in the face of failure. Wrong answers are points off, reduced grades, rather than chances to explore something from another angle.
>
dezignarob
=== A lot of experiential learning does involve learning from "failure" though - its more schooly to see failure as neccessarily some kind of negative, something to avoid.====
You're right.
I guess I was looking at the play and not seeing any "failure" - just a lot of fun and experimenting and trying stuff. I suppose I am defining "failure" in a schoolish way.
But my main point there was the irony of the education expert of all people saying "failure is good and useful" when in school situations failure can be a disaster and is something to avoid. Plus there was a thing that they would be learning teamwork etc skills that they could then *bring to school*. :p~
It seems like in the wider world, or at least the media, nothing children do is seen out of the context of how it will effect their school lives.
Robyn L. Coburn
www.robyncoburn.blogspot.com
www.iggyjingles.blogspot.com
www.allthingsdoll.blogspot.com
You're right.
I guess I was looking at the play and not seeing any "failure" - just a lot of fun and experimenting and trying stuff. I suppose I am defining "failure" in a schoolish way.
But my main point there was the irony of the education expert of all people saying "failure is good and useful" when in school situations failure can be a disaster and is something to avoid. Plus there was a thing that they would be learning teamwork etc skills that they could then *bring to school*. :p~
It seems like in the wider world, or at least the media, nothing children do is seen out of the context of how it will effect their school lives.
Robyn L. Coburn
www.robyncoburn.blogspot.com
www.iggyjingles.blogspot.com
www.allthingsdoll.blogspot.com