How we learn… most important

“Our culture lies. They say they want to encourage and reward individuality and creativity, but in practice they try to hammer down the pointy parts, and shame off the different parts.” – Sandra Dodd

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits wrote an interesting post entitled Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head.
Leo says, and I agree:

What we learn in school isn’t nearly as important as how we learn, because how to learn is the lesson of school.

In other words, find problems that interest you, and figure out how to solve them.

Schools and learning need to be working to teach students how to learn, how to learn independently. 

As a parent, my  goal for my children always was to make them independent.  We, as parents, are always teaching our children something new so that they will be able to live on their own without us, their parents.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tagtagainep19/3764366994

It is the same way with schools and learning. Students need to be prepared for their own lives, their futures, when they have to think on their own, when the teacher is not there dictating what needs to be done or learned and how to do it.

Sometimes, you’ll have to solve problems that aren’t so interesting, just to solve problems that do interest you. That’s OK. That’s how things work.


And here’s a secret: we already know how to do this. From birth. This method of learning is innate in all of us. It’s built in.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/funpictureswithkids

So let’s allow students to use their natural curiosity to learn the skills they need.

Teachers should be facilitators of learning, not dictators.

How do you facilitate learning in your classroom?

Technorati Tags: learning,education,facilitators,dictators,Leo Babauta,Zen Habits

[As always, in my author quotes, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s!]