Reflection on last chapter (6): "The Nature of Learning", of the book; Learning All the Time

This is from the collection of my reflections on three selected phrases from each of the six chapters of John Holt’s book; Learning all the time. An online version of the book could be found here. This is the last reflection of the series.

Book: Learning All the Time

Author: Holt, John Cardwell, 1923-1985

Length: 169 pages

Published by: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Year of Publication: 1989

Edition: Eight, August 1995

ISBN: 0-201-55091-1

Chapter 6: The Nature of Learning

Phrase 1:

And I only very slowly and painfully--believe me, painfully--learned that when I started teaching less, the children started learning  more...

Teaching does not make learning. As I mentioned before, organized education operates on the assumption that children learn only when and only what and only because we teach them. This is not true. It is very close to one hundred percent false. [para 2 & 3, page 160]

This is shocking. If the writer wouldn’t be an experienced teacher and wouldn’t have a repute, I would have simply rejected it declaring it a statement based on madness. But now, I can’t, even no rational person can reject it knowing who says that. This offers us to apply the principles as the writer has presented in his book, on children around us and see ourselves what the results are. This is true that children are eager to learn whatever new they see or hear. That gives them knowledge but they need to learn skills as well and a little exposure to some skilled person would not be enough to teach them that skill. Isn't that they need guided instructions to learn every step of the skill and then practice it to master? Up to this point, I am a bit confused about the claim. Lets see if the writer could elaborate it further.

Phrase 2:

Children learn from anything and everything they see. They learn wherever they are, not just in special learning places. They … are more interested in the objects and tools that we use in our regular lives than in almost any special learning materials made for them. [para 2, page 162]

This is absolutely correct. Few days back when I was polishing my shoes, my kid, just 18 months old, kept watching me. When I put the brush down, he grabbed it in his one hand and a shoe in another hand and started rubbing it exactly the way I was doing it. A child so young, yet he was perfectly imitating me and learning in that way.

Why shouldn't the same idea applied to make bigger kids learn. Whatever skill needs to be taught to kids, all we need is to do that with seriousness, so kids would learn that it's a no joke and serious adult matter. We need to show them performing that again and again in front of them. This would create an irresistible urge in them to imitate that. That way, they will be motivated to learn the skill and perform that exactly the way adults are doing. And that would be the best time to teach them the skill. Humans learn best when they are willing and interested to learn, and not when they are forced to learn on the wish of others.

Phrase 3:

We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions - if they have any - and helping them explore the things they are most interested in. [para 2, page 162]

Here the writer gives us the plan of action for our child’s real learning; an alternate of organized, guided chunks of knowledge which is made to master before next chunk is presented by every child of the class in a uniform way. I endorse that at least the way mothers make the child eat food is best taught when children are left free just to observe the adults having meal. Children are only needed to make them sit on their chairs for a few days and they quickly learn that it is meal time now and all members of the family will now sit on their chairs and have a plate with some food in front of them. All of them will take some food in their hand or spoon and put in their mouth. The little child; the keenest observer, quickly learns all that and soon starts asking for food in a plate exactly as the adults have in front of them. Without making any shouting or running away from the table, the child will keep on eating food but in an imperfect matter.

The only thing parents need to do is show some patience as the young learner makes his first tries of putting meal in his or her mouth. This could create a mess having dirty spots all over kid’s clothes and food items lying on the floor but this is the learning curve and the child could not be perfect from the very start. If he is appreciated and given freehand to have food on regular basis, not only he will learn eating correctly, he will have desire for eating too. He would then have chance to taste different food items and will keep on learning that food items are different in names, colors, shapes, hardness and tastes. That’s all important learning which the child will have only when he is given a little liberty, appreciated, motivated and is not enforced to eat and finish all food of his plate.

Same technique applies to making kids learn anything. Summarizing the steps of this technique as following:

• Increase interest level of kids about the thing you want to teach them by talking to them, storytelling, and using KWL method (letting them tell what they already know, what they are interested to know, and when learning is over ask them what they have learnt)
• Show them with utter seriousness how it is done
• Allow them to freely imitate without being criticised or pointing their mistakes
• Answer their questions and appreciate what they do well (without pointing out their mistakes. Through auto-correct mechanism, they will correct their mistakes with time on their own)
• Stop this session when their interest is gone
• Repeat it at another time when they are willing

This answers me the confusion I had in the start of the chapter and clarifies the steps of real learning which is not just interest boosting but is also meaningful and natural too.

Reflection on chapter 5: What Parents Can Do, of "Learning All the Time"

This is from the collection of my reflections on three selected phrases from each chapter of John Holt’s book; Learning all the time. An online version of the book could be found here.

Book: Learning All the Time

Author: Holt, John Cardwell, 1923-1985

Length: 169 pages

Published by: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Year of Publication: 1989

Edition: Eight, August 1995

ISBN: 0-201-55091-1

Chapter 5: What Parents Can Do

Phrase 1:

Some would say, "We do not help if we do nothing or say nothing to facilitate Learning." But that is the point. Just by our using the language ourselves, we give the child all the help she needs. Because other people called some of these animals "horses" or "sheep" instead of "cows," this little child learned, and very quickly, that this is what they were called. In short, we do not need to "teach" or "correct" in order to help a child learn. [para 2, page 138]

My younger son at 18-months of age, used to call every bird “chia” in Urdu. Then with time, he started distinguishing crows and pigeons. Later on, though pigeons still remained “chia”, the crow became “kuwa”.

I believe we all know and accept that children learn their native language without being made to learn. However, we probably think that it is a lengthy process and we could make the learning fast if we correct them and make them learn new words through a guided process. In this effort, we overlook at the other side of the picture where the self interest, curiosity, and willingness of knowing on their own dies in the child.

Phrase 2:

It is always, without exception, better for a child to figure out something on his own than to be told... In the first place, what he figures out, he remembers better. In the second place, and far more important, every time he figures something out, he gains confidence in his ability to figure things out. [para 3, page 138]

The confidence a child gains through his observation, hypothesis, experiment, and evaluating his hypothesis through results of experiments is a valuable thing to shape his personality. People lacking confidence, no matter how skillful and knowledgeable they are, remain hesitant, cautious and low risk taking in their later life. The right time for sowing the seed of confidence in a child starts from his early childhood and it is done by giving freehand, opportunities of expression, absence of coercion and some recognition to what the child loves to do.

Phrase 3:

What children want and need from us is thoughtful attention. They want us to notice them and pay some kind of attention to what they do, to take them seriously, to trust and respect them as human beings. They want courtesy and politeness, but they don't need much praise.  [para 4, page 140]

In our schools, it is probably the exact inverse which is done. Children are never given time and opportunity to do what they love to do, their resulting products are hardly taken seriously. Many of them are disrespectfully treated without paying any attention to what the child feels about when he is treated like that. Courtesy and politeness are only shown with good graders. Those not being ranked high in evaluation receive disgrace, shame and distrust both from their teachers and parents. And the only thing which the schools are keen about is giving so many praises. Even in giving praise, schools overlook the matter that a child getting praise in everything he does, actually starts having a fear of failure as he may not be praised then.

Too much praise unintentionally sets high expectations from the child. This creates undue performance pressure on the child which prevents him from devising creative alternate ways of doing things.

As parents, we need to take interest in interests of our children. In fact, there are so many lessons for the adults to take from the nature and attitude of a young non-school going kid. Children are born with talents and qualities at finest levels but the adults around them make them impure.

Children are remarkably creative by nature. They are self-directed, self-motivated, risk taking learners. They have interest in everything new to them. They learn through imitation, which is the best way of learning without books, lectures and tools. They are energetic, never shy to experiment, learn from their own practicals and keep challenging them with more harder situation next time. My elder kid at 5, used to have self-play with a tennis ball throwing it up in the air and catching it. Once he had few successful catches, he started throwing the ball 3-4 feet higher - thus making the challenge tough. Kids polish their skills by making challenges harder for themselves. Whereas, most of the adults keep staying inside their comfort zones, they are resistant to change, they are slow learners of new technologies, they mostly need to be motivated by others before they taking risks. Sadly, we make our naturally creative and confident children a creature identical to us.

Reflection on chapter 4: Loving Music, of "Learning All the Time"

This is from the collection of my reflections on three selected phrases from each chapter of John Holt’s book; Learning all the time. An online version of the book could be found here.

Book: Learning All the Time

Author: Holt, John Cardwell, 1923-1985

Length: 169 pages

Published by: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Year of Publication: 1989

Edition: Eight, August 1995

ISBN: 0-201-55091-1

Chapter 3: Loving Music

Phrase 1:

We need to take serious account of the fact, well known to all musicians, that most children who have been to any great degree pushed into music, however skillful they may become at it, do not enjoy it very much. [para 1, page 113]

This is one of dilemmas of schooling that most of the children, even becoming skillful in their field, lose the interest and passion in their work. What schools do most, is they make children eager to do anything which earns well rather than encouraging them to choose the field of their interest. This results in producing resource which is skillful but does not have long term interest in their work. Interest in anything makes the person feel happy and satisfied with his work. There is usually a clear difference in the way we do things of our interests and things in which we have little or no interest. Choosing a field of interest as source of earning clearly makes that person prominent in his work and performance.

We definitely need a learning method which not only makes children learn but also encourages them excelling in their fields of interest, and teaches skills without boring them or making them lose their interest.

Phrase 2:

Children Learning to speak do not learn to say one short word or phrase perfectly, then another word of phrase, and so on. They say a great many things, as many as they can, and with much use and practice learn to say them better and better. In their learning they advance not on a narrow front but on a very broad one, working on many different things at once. [para 3, page 118]

The way children learn their native language is in complete contrast with what the way they are made to learn other subjects and skills. They are not taught holistically but in bits and pieces, and are made to practice until they become perfect then another piece of knowledge is introduced. This type of teaching also transforms a completely meaningful and sensible thing into senseless one, and the child often loses interest because he is unable to match that particular piece of knowledge with what he sees and observes in his surroundings.

I believe, we use natural learning process for our child for the things which we can’t forcefully teach him like the ability of eating with hand or spoon, walking, speaking, holding something in hand etc. However things which we can teach a child, we believe that the child can never learn those without being taught by us like reading, writing, counting etc.

I wonder why I never thought that children learn many skills by just being facilitated without being taught, and so can read and write too having us as facilitator or helper and not always a teacher.

Phrase 3:

The fundamental insight of Suzuki, the living heart of his method, is that just as children learn to speak by trying--at first very clumsily--to make some of the speech they hear others making around them, so children can best learn to make music by trying to play on their instruments tunes they have heard many times and know. [para 2, page 118]

The is a great discovery in the method of learning by Suzuki. The mindblowing results of Suzuki’s learning method is a benchmark for others to introduce this method for providing learning environment for all subjects to the children. I can say, this method is very natural. However, using this method requires patience among the teachers as well as parents and lowering their expectations from the children, which is hardest part of this method.

Reflection on chapter 3: Young Children as Research Scientists, of "Learning All the Time"

This is from the collection of my reflections on three selected phrases from each chapter of John Holt’s book; Learning all the time. An online version of the book could be found here.

Book: Learning All the Time

Author: Holt, John Cardwell, 1923-1985

Length: 169 pages

Published by: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Year of Publication: 1989

Edition: Eight, August 1995

ISBN: 0-201-55091-1

Chapter 3: Young Children as Research Scientists

Phrase 1:

Children observe, they wonder, they speculate, and they ask themselves questions. They think up possible answers, they make theories, they hypothesize, and then they test theories by asking questions or by further observations or experiments or reading. Then they modify the theories as needed, or reject them, and the process continues. This is what in "grown-up" life is called the -- capital S, capital M -- Scientific Method. It is precisely what these little guys start doing as soon as they are born. 

If we attempt to control, manipulate, or divert this process, we disturb it. If we continue this long enough, the process stops. The independent scientist in the child disappears. [para 2-3, page 95]

It is not surprising that children use Scientific Method in their process of learning. Scientific Method is just natural way of thinking and leading to conclusions. Children being pure and naturalist in their approach, use the same method. The more important thing is in the later paragraph, where the writers says that helping children in their natural learning process will disrupt their learning. We, being parents or teachers not only don’t give value to children’s natural learning process, also we think that children could only learn when they are facilitated and taught to learn. We think that no reading, writing, speaking and socializing skills could be developed if we wouldn't make them learn in our specific method of bits & pieces. If there are societies which have shown real positive progress through this method of learning then this suggested method is worth experimenting because it requires much less human and material resources as compared to current schooling infrastructure.

Phrase 2:

The mother of J. P., four years old, wrote me a I delightful letter describing how her son goes about building his mental model of the world: … Sometimes the questions he asks sound strange, because he's thinking about things he doesn't have the words for yet, like the other day: "How do cats know to be a cat, when they just eat and aren't there?" I think that means. "How is a specific body form created and maintained without an intelligence-in residence directing the process?" I had a craven impulse just to say. "God does it," but instead I told him I didn't know--let him read about theology vs. evolution for himself. [para 1, page 96]

I really disagree with the author on this point i.e. leaving the kid to discover himself how the man was created evaluating all the prevailing theories himself. If human intelligence would be able to get to the secret on its own, we would not be seeing so many atheist scientists these days. Though the Quran says multiple times to ponder on things how they are created, sustained and made beneficial for the human kind, if the human heart or brain would have been able to identify the Creator of All by itself, there would not be any need of sending angels & Divine Books, and of selecting a few most intelligent minds being the Prophets of Allah to guide the remaining of the mankind. It is so unwise to let free the children to explore everything on their own, even the harmful things or thoughts too.

For instance, if a child doesn't know what a knife does, would any parent let the knife in the hands of their 3 year old kid to explore what that piece of metal does, and by cutting his finger, he would know that it is used to cut things? None of the parents would do that. They would keep the knife away from the reach of children until the age they could be told about the harm kids could have from the knife. Same way, matters related to religion and beliefs cannot be left on kid’s self exploration experiments and the resulting acceptance or rejection of their own theories. They have to be told about the fact (as per the religion or culture) and many things might just be asked them to be remembered whether they make sense to them or not. Not everything could make sense to the little minds, not everything could be tested and verified ever like عہد الست (the eternal promise, which the God took about His oneness in lordship and worship) from all souls of humans and jinns.

Something similar to author's point of view was said earlier by the poet Ghalib too:

اپنی ہستی ہی سے ہو جو کچھ ہو

آگہی گر نہ سہی غفلت ہی سہی

Phrase 3:

Real learning is a process of discovery, and if we want it to happen, we must create the kinds of conditions in which discoveries are made. We know what these are. They include time, leisure, freedom, and lack of pressure. [para 1, page 100]

Just after reading this I got to know what learning actually is. However this definition does not match with the definition of learning available on the web, which defines it as: knowledge acquired through study, experience, or being taught. By this definition, the knowledge acquired may or may not involve the process of discovery. We could say that the knowledge acquired through the process of discovery definitely leads to learning and gaining new knowledge not known earlier.

Another important clue which the writer has given is that discovery takes place in the presence of four factors:

1. Time
2. Leisure
3. Freedom
4. Lack of pressure

Any factor is missing, and the discovery would be doubtful.

Reflection on chapter 2: At Home with Numbers, of "Learning All the Time"

This is from the collection of my reflections on three selected phrases from each chapter of John Holt’s book; Learning all the time. An online version of the book could be found here.

Book: Learning All the Time

Author: Holt, John Cardwell, 1923-1985

Length: 169 pages

Published by: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Year of Publication: 1989

Edition: Eight, August 1995

ISBN: 0-201-55091-1

Chapter 2: At Home with Numbers

Phrase 1:

… when little children first meet numbers they should always meet them as adjectives, not nouns. It should not at first be "three" or "seven," all by itself, but always "two coins" or "three matches" or "four spoons" or whatever it might be. [para 2, page 47]

This is absolutely correct because numbers are nothing in abstraction. Numbers show nothing until they are attached with some object like two spoons or five fingers. If we teach our children that way, the learning they will have would perfectly match with the objects they see in their daily lives. They would then start relating, exploring and learning on their own and would have so much fun while inside or outside of their home.

Phrase 2:

… it is not at all necessary, and indeed not a good idea, to have children meet numbers always in the counting order. Thus, we might at one moment show a child two of some kind of object, but the next thing we show, according to the circumstances, might be five of some other object, or eight, or whatever. Numbers exist in nature in quite random ways, and children should be ready to accept numbers, so to speak, where they find them. [para 3, page 47]

This is all sensible knowledge being given in a meaningful and sensible way. As numbers are nothing in abstraction until they are attached with some object like three kites or ten fingers, teaching numbers in counting order show as numbers are itself some object that can be compared. However, the fact is that numbers are not comparable but the quantity of objects is. This means two oranges and five oranges can be compared and that makes sense. Even when we say two is less than three, that actually means two objects are less than three of such objects but the word objects or things is hidden.

When children start noticing quantity of objects as a property of them like color, shape and size, they will focus on objects itself rather than on numbers in absolute sense. This means, noticing an object like plate they would then be able to tell that it is of red color, a circle, and bigger than the other smaller blue plate. Similarly, they would then be able to identify that they have 6 color-pencils and 3 books in their bag. This is the right way of introducing real world objects to the children so they will be able to analyze their properties, compare them with other and start exploring more and more new objects.

Phrase 3:

. . . our minds are much more powerful when discovering than memorizing, not least of all because discovering is more fun. Another advantage is that so much of arithmetic (and by extension mathematics) that now seems mysterious and full of coincidences and contradictions would be seen to be perfectly sensible. [para 2, page 53]

The first point that discovery is more fun and more powerful than memorizing probably does not need any proves. Everyone of us can easily do an experiment to reach to the same conclusion. However, there is a question, and few teachers need to test it on few groups of children that instead of asking children to memorize, when we give them some activity to discover something, they would not learn everything by heart the very first time. They need to redo that discovery again and again until they learn it by heart. But children get bored doing the same thing again and again. How would the teacher or the parent keep that activity still interesting for the children to keep their interests in it for a long period of time? Not only frequent variations in the activity would be needed, but teachers need to discontinue that activity for some time as well and come back to it after some time to keep children’s interests in it.

Reflection on chapter 1: Reading and Writing, of "Learning All the Time"

This is from the collection of my reflections on three selected phrases from each chapter of John Holt’s book; Learning all the time. An online version of the book could be found here.

Book: Learning All the Time

Author:     Holt, John Cardwell, 1923-1985

Length:     169 pages

Published by:   Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Year of Publication: 1989

Edition:     Eight, August 1995

ISBN:     0-201-55091-1

Chapter 1: Reading and Writing

Phrase 1:

The typical classroom, with other children ready to point out, correct, and even laugh at every mistake, and the teacher all too often (wittingly or unwittingly) helping and urging them to do this, is the worst possible place for a child to begin. [para 2, page 3]

The writer has correctly pointed out a very basic yet very important problem being faced by at least a few children at schools. The shame or fear of receiving a laugh of other children on our mistakes is a thing which kills the courage. That fear then sits in the brain, making the person fearful of being shamed in front of an audience for their entire life.

I don’t exactly remember when such a thing happened with me but it did happen sometime in my early childhood. Probably it was class 3 or earlier, when we had spelling competition in our class dividing the class in two groups. The competition was intense and for deciding a winner it entered in Sudden-Death mode. After hardly managing few chances of losing, we suddenly got the chance of winning if I correctly had spelled the word “soldier”. But I failed and my team not only missed clear chance of winning but we actually lost the competition on next turn. All the children started accusing me saying that it was such an easy word to spell and that you made us loose.

Probably that was the time from when I started believing that my English vocabulary is so weak that cannot speak well. From that time on, I tried to escape from every such occasion. Such an approach coupled with poor ability of memorizing words with their meanings resulted in more lesser opportunities of learning English words.

Occasions of shame and insults continued up to post graduation level - hurting my self esteem badly. Today, I realize if that competition would not have taken place, if I wouldn't have been insulted or if I were absent that day, my personality and my life would be much different today.

Phrase 2:

… Rasmus was trained as a reading teacher. He told me that it had taken him many years to stop doing -- one at a time -- all the many things he had been trained to do, and finally to learn that this tiny amount of moral support and help was all that children needed of him, and that anything more was of no help at all. [para 2, page 4]

This is an eye-opener and a great discovery. It shows how big, complex and difficult we have assumed the task of making children read and making reading interesting for them. It just requires patience among teachers and parents, and the child finds its way toward reading without applying any special skills or techniques for making reading interesting.

It also proves that learning to read is naturally intrinsic in human beings. Only because of that they need just a bit of moral support and a little help to get to the pace.

Another thing which the phrase teaches us is what we are taught at colleges or universities may not be all correct. There could be better shorter ways available. We should remain open and flexible for listening others, observing and learning from all available sources. Our self experiences & learning help us tailoring our learned skills to make them perfect.

Phrase 3:

I propose that anyone who wants to make it easier for children to discover how to read should use as one of the "reading readiness materials" the large-print edition of the New York Times. The print is large enough for children to see and recognize... It can be put on walls, but is not so precious that one has to worry about its being torn or defaced. [para 2, page 12]

The writer teaches us a technique of making use of cheap and easily available material for the young children. This is my self experience that purchasing of expensive material, especially books make the learning process among children difficult. Parents and teachers try to make children learn not just reading but many other things at the same time. Since the book is expensive, they want to keep the book preserved. They also want to teach them how to turn pages. They don’t let them write anything on books. However, for children, getting so many instructions at a same is just too much to make them learn. The get bored and uninterested in the book because of that many protocols attached with handling of books.

At the other hand, using newspapers’ weekly magazines as initial reading stuff for kids would not just be cheap but also there wouldn't be any big loss if they get dirty or torn. With each new week, children will get a new magazine too to keep them interested and curious about what to read next week.

The writer teaches us another important lesson; not just blindly follow what the other people or schools are doing. Rather think about the main objective of whatever we are going to do, see what are the available choices, and is there any out-of-the-box solution available especially focusing on reusing things. This approach could give as wealth of new information and cut our costs significantly as well.