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.
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