Natural curiosity, love, and a fertile environment are enough to allow the growth of an intelligent and happy young being who walks and talks and, by playing, continues to learn.
Avoiding Nature Deficit Disorder
“Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.” — John Muir Spring shows up in the warmth of the sun, the softening of the earth and the vigour of natural life all around us. The trees start to bud, the flowers burst out of the ground, the grass gets thicker, the birds … Read More
Courage is Fear Walking
This is a phrase used by psychologist Susan David in her book Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life. It illuminated for me the fear that we all have for the “unknown” and the bravery required for a young person to start a new school year with all the attendant unknowns. Peers are either new, or … Read More
The Gardener and the Carpenter
This analogy refers to different styles of raising a child. A “gardener” tends to the fertility of the soil—the access to sunshine, water and minerals allowing for the best development of his charge, while the “carpenter” has a fixed idea of the desired outcome—he cuts, shapes, smooths and joins his raw material until the final product has emerged. The book … Read More
The Learning Environment
For many children, sitting at a desk in a classroom with books, or even with a networked computer, is not the environment that will naturally and easily allow a growth in all the eight intelligences that Howard Gardner proposes we all have (Frames of Mind, 1985). Our traditional school systems focus primarily on the first two, “Linguistic” and “Logical-Mathematical”, and … Read More
Nurturing Creativity
In 2006 the on-line TED.com talk by Sir Ken Robinson “Do Schools Kill Creativity” initiated in me a profound desire to change the high school experience for the young people in my care at the time. One of my favourite snippets from the talk is this: I heard a great story recently — I love telling it — of a … Read More