A child is unique. There will never be anyone similar with his brain, his potential or his desires. No one else in this world will ever think like him. Every experience changes a child’s brain.
A child will learn because he/she must and because she is living in the world that excites his/her. To get him/her going nature has provided his/her with a ready made toolkit of nine mind-enhancing skills: Looking: because she is fascinated by the beauty of the world. She especially likes looking at edges to learn the nature of object; Hearing: because she loves to find out what noises mean and copy them; Smelling: because she needs to know when familiar things are near and she is safe; Touching: because she loves to fill things and because touching helps her develop dexterity; Tasting: because she needs to learn the love the good food you give her, and hate anything bad; Moving: because she makes things happen, she turns her head to look at anything that moves because she’s interested;
Making noise: because she can tell you what she is thinking; Feeling motions: because they allow her to know herself, if things get to much, she will switch off, Curiosity: because it drives her to learn more about her wonderful world.
We need to transform the conception of teaching to encompass this dynamic interplay between mystical intuition and scientific analysis. So far this has not been achieved in our profession.
At present, our attitude toward teaching is to absolute, rational and aggressive. What are needed are intuition, sensuousness and subtlety to bring back to delicate balance. Children might learn those other basics: the wholeness and unity of existence, the art of living in harmonious balance with nature and with each other.
Therefore, the four pillars of learning in the 21st Century are the same basics as; learning to know; learning to do; learning to be; and learning to live with others.
By: Lota B. De Leon | Principal I | Mt. View Elementary School | Mariveles, Bataan
