What's An 'Ideal School'?
Jan 28th 2011 00:43
education
As I wrote in the previous entry, one of my dreams is to own an ideal school.
What do you think is important for learning?
I think it's free will.
I believe that the appropriate timing to learn something is different from person to person, so children themselves, not their teachers or parents, should have a right to decide when and what they will learn.
There are many merits to let them decide it.
- Their motivation is higher than it is when their teachers or parents force them to do it.
- They can really enjoy learning it because it's what they want to.
- They come to think about themselves more seriously because they have a responsibility for what they do.
... and so on! (I stopped here because there are too many merits to write here!)
In this style, the role of teachers and parents is not to direct them to do something but to support or facilitate their learning.
My brother refused to study English when he was a student.
He didn't even know what 'after' means then.
But he got interested in overseas after graduation and started studying English in his 20s.
Do you think it's too late for language learning?
Well, it was not.
Now he can speak English, not broken one, fluently and lives in the UK with local friends.
For him, it was the best timing!
What do you think is important for learning?
I think it's free will.
I believe that the appropriate timing to learn something is different from person to person, so children themselves, not their teachers or parents, should have a right to decide when and what they will learn.
There are many merits to let them decide it.
- Their motivation is higher than it is when their teachers or parents force them to do it.
- They can really enjoy learning it because it's what they want to.
- They come to think about themselves more seriously because they have a responsibility for what they do.
... and so on! (I stopped here because there are too many merits to write here!)
In this style, the role of teachers and parents is not to direct them to do something but to support or facilitate their learning.
My brother refused to study English when he was a student.
He didn't even know what 'after' means then.
But he got interested in overseas after graduation and started studying English in his 20s.
Do you think it's too late for language learning?
Well, it was not.
Now he can speak English, not broken one, fluently and lives in the UK with local friends.
For him, it was the best timing!
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What's an 'Ideal School'?
As I wrote in the previous entry, one of my dreams is to own the ideal school.
I believe that the appropriate timing to learn something is different from person to person, so children themselves, not their teachers or parents, should have a right to decide when and what they will learn. -- I don't think "will" is necessary in this sentence
There are many merits to letting them decide it.
I'm interested in seeing see how far you can take this idea. I think you'd need to create a complete plan of how it would work, and then present the idea to some schools to see if they'd be willing to start a pilot scheme!
Good luck!
There are some schools that have been practicing this idea and working well.
I wrote about one of them today.
Please have a look. :-)
僕もまだ遅いタイミングじゃないって信じたいです :)
子供たちが自分が学びたいことを自分から学べるのは良いと思いますし、そうさせてあげたい、と思ってます。
でもそれには、親たちはがんばって子供のことを信頼してやらないといけないですね…
どうしても、言わないとやらないんだから！と思って、親が言ってやらせちゃいがちです。
うちだと今、ピアノの練習とかそんな感じになってしまっています。ピアノについて、子供の時にむりにやらせてピアノを嫌いになってしまう、ということを誰かが書いてた文章があって、そうならないようにしたいな、と思ってるんですけども。
僕も子供の時から自分で勝手にパソコンのことをやってて、結局今ではそれで食ってるので、無理にやらせても意味ないから、どこかで子供が自分でやりたいことを見つけてもらうしかないんだろうなあ、と感じてます。
私は中学から大学までオーケストラに所属していましたが、
高校や大学になってから楽器を始めたのに、小さな頃からやっている人よりもずっと上手いという人にたびたび出逢いました。
私自身は、3歳から8年やったピアノよりも、中学で始めたヴァイオリンの方がずっと上達しました。
ピアノはずっと一人でやっていたのに対して、オーケストラでは上級生など周りに上手い人がいて、「私も～さんのように上手くなりたい！」というモチベーションがあったのも大きかったと思います。
ピアノでも、誰か一緒に研鑽し合える人とやるとか、身近に目標となる人を見つけるといいかもしれません。それでも嫌になったら、思い切って一度辞めさせてしまい、本人がやる気になった時に再開するというのも１つの手かもしれません＾＾
やっぱりじぶんからやりたい！と思ってやってたことは上達の仕方が違いますよね。
しかし、ちょっと思ったんですがピアノの素地があったからヴァイオリンの上達も早かったというのもあったのかも？
僕も小学生の頃ちょっとピアノ習ってたことがあって、えーとブルグミュラーぐらいまでしか弾けないのですが、どっちかというといやいや習ってました。
今、自分の子供にピアノ教えたりするのですが、やっとあの頃のことが役に立ってるなあ… と思ってます。
で、子供に教えるためにちょっと自分も練習したりすると、意外に弾けて、結構楽しいんですよね。
「月の光」が好きなので、いつの日か弾けるようちょっとづつ練習してこうかなとか思っています。
そういうのってちょっとでも習っておかないと取っ付きが難しいと思うので、最低限やっておくというのもいいのかな？と思いました。
On the other hand I agree with your comment about learning languages. I started learning Japanese at 23 years old. I am not fluent yet, but I am getting there. My Japanese is much much better than my French, which I learnt at school, mainly because I am actually interested in Japanese and love studying it.
Getting back to your original question, the most important thing for the school is to teach students how to think for themselves, how to form their own opinions and to make their own decisions.
I have heard that in Japan, schools only teach facts, and teach how to pass exams. They don't teach students how to think for themselves. This is very bad.
When I was at school, I learnt a lot of useless things, most of which I have now forgotten. But in my school, we often had lively debates and discussions, where all students were encouraged to form their own opinions and to argue in favour of them. I also remember writing lots of essays, expressing my own opinion on various topics and explaining my reasons for these opinions.
These are the skills that have proved most useful in my adult life. I didn't always appreciate it at the time, but I think I had a very good education.
I agree that letting students think for themselves is very important. Some schools in Japan, including my old school, also have discussions, debates, presentations and essays.
But it is true that most schools focus more on teaching facts and how to pass exams than such things, which is really pity.
He didn't even know what 'after' ?means then. (While mixing past tense and present tense in this sentence may not be wrong in a strict sense, I think it would be better to avoid it, and go for something like: "He didn't even know the meaning of the word "after" .")
But he got interested in it overseas, after graduation, and started studying English in his 20s. (The comma's are optional, but I felt a need for them somehow. Just for the fun of it, I'll try an alternative: "But he got interested in it when he went oversees after graduation. Subsequently he started studying English in his 20s." )
Do you think it's too late for language learning? (By itself correct, but if you write: "Do you think that's too late for language learning?" you refer back to the previous sentence more clearly.)
Now he can speak English, not broken one, but fluently, and lives in the UK with local friends.
I wanted to say that my brother had got interested in foreign countries after graduation. (I used the word 'overseas' as a noun.) :-)
I see. I had no idea that you could use "overseas" in that way. Maybe I was fooled by the fact that it looks a lot like Dutch "overzee" (and it is definitely odd to say in Dutch "? ik ben geïnteresseerd in overzee"). The least I can say is that it is uncommon usage (perhaps I can verify it later, when I've got more time).
Is @Kai a native speaker of English who uses lang-8?
It's so kind of you to ensure it with her.
Thank you.
Yes. :-)
http://lang-8.com/207929