Educating a child is like putting together a puzzle. There are a lot of pieces that need to fit together to create the whole, coherent picture that we are aiming for. When beginning any puzzle, we may have a difficult time knowing where to start. There are so many possibilities. The edges, the limits, are not clear. We try starting with a simple corner, to give ourselves a direction. Sometimes, a piece doesn’t look like it fits—until it is looked at from another angle. And finally, all the pieces need some linking to the other pieces, so they can hold together. Education is a complex process.
It is very helpful for parents and teachers to think deeply about this process, in order to do it justice. One of the crucial pieces in the puzzle is the intelligence of each individual child. Malcolm Gladwell, in Outliers: The Story of Success, describes how intelligence is, to some degree, innate, yet social savvy, the element that allows intelligence to blossom, is knowledge, a set of skills and attitudes that are learned within our families. He quotes a study by sociologist Annette Lareau, who followed twelve families of different social strata and focused on their parenting styles. She discovered that there were only two parenting philosophies, divided along class lines. Wealthier parents were heavily involved in their children’s free time, offering classes and activities to develop their children’s talents and interests. They talked to their children about relationships and advised them to speak up for themselves. These middle-class parents discussed issues with their children, reasoning with them. They didn’t just issue commands. They expected their children to negotiate and question adults in positions of authority. They intervened on behalf of their children. Lareau called this middle-class parenting style “concerted cultivation”, describing it as an attempt to actively assess and foster a child’s talents, opinions and skills. Poor parents, by contrast, tended to follow a strategy of “accomplishment of natural growth”. They saw their responsibility to care for their children, but to let them grow and develop on their own. These styles were not judged as morally better or worse. In fact, the poorer children were sometimes perceived as better behaved, less whiny and more creative in making use of their own time, and they had a well-developed sense of independence. However, concerted cultivation had enormous advantages in a practical sense. The middle-class children exposed to more cultural opportunities could cope with shifting sets of experience, interact comfortably with adults and speak up when needed. They learned to customize whatever environment they were in, to suit their best purposes. They were more alert, poised and even attractive. The working-class and poor children, however, were characterized by “an emerging sense of distance, distrust, and constraint.” They could be quiet and submissive, having low expectations of success. The key learning from this study is that the skills to interact with authority figures in the larger community are learned, not inherited. Children need help from adults that provides, in effect, a cultural advantage. Even geniuses, Gladwell explains, need such assistance to develop their potential. They need their homes filled with books, and adults in their lives who are committed to the pursuit of knowledge themselves. They need “a community around them that prepare[s] them properly for the world”. Parents design their piece of the education puzzle, and this design affects the finished puzzle.
Schools are also significant pieces of the puzzle, since they are communities that provide resources and challenges to children. They can enhance or stifle the efforts of parents. Schools’ philosophies and practices are not written in stone, and there is wide variety even within Calgary for parents to pick from. Recently, a contingent from our school, Banbury Crossroads, headed to Providence, Rhode Island, to visit the Met, a Big Picture School. Our goal was to speak the same language with like-minded educators, a new experience for us, as our school is unique in Alberta. We discovered many attitudes in common, and realized that an affiliation would be reasonable. Both Big Picture Schools (which have received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and Banbury Crossroads have examined the education puzzle and have filled in blank spaces with aspects that have been commonly missing. One of these elements is the idea of dealing with students individually, within small tutorial classes. Another is helping students to accept responsibility for their own learning. Still another is assisting students to create connections within their outside community through volunteerism, project-inspired learning and internships.
Teachers in schools can borrow the best from both parenting approaches described by Lareau. They can be active participants in students’ cultural lives, showing intellectual, emotional and practical interest in their endeavours. They can encourage deep exploration of academic topics. They can promote effective communication, negotiation, problem solving, and critical dialogue about ideas and values. In addition, schools can encourage independence and self-organization in the pursuit of student autonomy. This requires a balance between adult interference and laissez-faire. Balance provides the linking between all the other elements. The balance is necessary in order to allow students to discover their own passions, talents and interests.
This is one of the most important pieces of the education puzzle that has been missing for thousands of students across North America: the piece called passion. Students are much better off if they leave high school with a clear idea of their passions, their talents, their interests. If careers and professions are based on personal passion, practitioners will find the experience to be fulfilling. Intrinsic passion provides the stimulus and energy for people to endure the work and tedious aspects inherent in any field of endeavour, so that they can put in their ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery. If we really want to turn students on to the process of discovery, to the joy of studying the world around them, then we need to help them discover their passions, and then employ them in a useful fashion. Confidence and a sense of purpose and usefulness are fine attributes to carry out into the world beyond school.
The truth is that the education puzzle is really the puzzle of life. We are all building our own puzzles continually, year after year, because we cannot avoid learning. Each puzzle is beautiful if it is built with passion, commitment and social responsiveness, and if it is painted in our own unique colors.
By Diane Swiatek, Principal and Founder of Banbury Crossroads School
http://banburycrossroads.com/homepage.html
It is very helpful for parents and teachers to think deeply about this process, in order to do it justice. One of the crucial pieces in the puzzle is the intelligence of each individual child. Malcolm Gladwell, in Outliers: The Story of Success, describes how intelligence is, to some degree, innate, yet social savvy, the element that allows intelligence to blossom, is knowledge, a set of skills and attitudes that are learned within our families. He quotes a study by sociologist Annette Lareau, who followed twelve families of different social strata and focused on their parenting styles. She discovered that there were only two parenting philosophies, divided along class lines. Wealthier parents were heavily involved in their children’s free time, offering classes and activities to develop their children’s talents and interests. They talked to their children about relationships and advised them to speak up for themselves. These middle-class parents discussed issues with their children, reasoning with them. They didn’t just issue commands. They expected their children to negotiate and question adults in positions of authority. They intervened on behalf of their children. Lareau called this middle-class parenting style “concerted cultivation”, describing it as an attempt to actively assess and foster a child’s talents, opinions and skills. Poor parents, by contrast, tended to follow a strategy of “accomplishment of natural growth”. They saw their responsibility to care for their children, but to let them grow and develop on their own. These styles were not judged as morally better or worse. In fact, the poorer children were sometimes perceived as better behaved, less whiny and more creative in making use of their own time, and they had a well-developed sense of independence. However, concerted cultivation had enormous advantages in a practical sense. The middle-class children exposed to more cultural opportunities could cope with shifting sets of experience, interact comfortably with adults and speak up when needed. They learned to customize whatever environment they were in, to suit their best purposes. They were more alert, poised and even attractive. The working-class and poor children, however, were characterized by “an emerging sense of distance, distrust, and constraint.” They could be quiet and submissive, having low expectations of success. The key learning from this study is that the skills to interact with authority figures in the larger community are learned, not inherited. Children need help from adults that provides, in effect, a cultural advantage. Even geniuses, Gladwell explains, need such assistance to develop their potential. They need their homes filled with books, and adults in their lives who are committed to the pursuit of knowledge themselves. They need “a community around them that prepare[s] them properly for the world”. Parents design their piece of the education puzzle, and this design affects the finished puzzle.
Schools are also significant pieces of the puzzle, since they are communities that provide resources and challenges to children. They can enhance or stifle the efforts of parents. Schools’ philosophies and practices are not written in stone, and there is wide variety even within Calgary for parents to pick from. Recently, a contingent from our school, Banbury Crossroads, headed to Providence, Rhode Island, to visit the Met, a Big Picture School. Our goal was to speak the same language with like-minded educators, a new experience for us, as our school is unique in Alberta. We discovered many attitudes in common, and realized that an affiliation would be reasonable. Both Big Picture Schools (which have received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and Banbury Crossroads have examined the education puzzle and have filled in blank spaces with aspects that have been commonly missing. One of these elements is the idea of dealing with students individually, within small tutorial classes. Another is helping students to accept responsibility for their own learning. Still another is assisting students to create connections within their outside community through volunteerism, project-inspired learning and internships.
Teachers in schools can borrow the best from both parenting approaches described by Lareau. They can be active participants in students’ cultural lives, showing intellectual, emotional and practical interest in their endeavours. They can encourage deep exploration of academic topics. They can promote effective communication, negotiation, problem solving, and critical dialogue about ideas and values. In addition, schools can encourage independence and self-organization in the pursuit of student autonomy. This requires a balance between adult interference and laissez-faire. Balance provides the linking between all the other elements. The balance is necessary in order to allow students to discover their own passions, talents and interests.
This is one of the most important pieces of the education puzzle that has been missing for thousands of students across North America: the piece called passion. Students are much better off if they leave high school with a clear idea of their passions, their talents, their interests. If careers and professions are based on personal passion, practitioners will find the experience to be fulfilling. Intrinsic passion provides the stimulus and energy for people to endure the work and tedious aspects inherent in any field of endeavour, so that they can put in their ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery. If we really want to turn students on to the process of discovery, to the joy of studying the world around them, then we need to help them discover their passions, and then employ them in a useful fashion. Confidence and a sense of purpose and usefulness are fine attributes to carry out into the world beyond school.
The truth is that the education puzzle is really the puzzle of life. We are all building our own puzzles continually, year after year, because we cannot avoid learning. Each puzzle is beautiful if it is built with passion, commitment and social responsiveness, and if it is painted in our own unique colors.
By Diane Swiatek, Principal and Founder of Banbury Crossroads School
http://banburycrossroads.com/homepage.html
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