08/11/2016
KidsWorx Philosophy - Listening to Children
"When words are both true and kind, they can change the world." – Buddha
You know how we keep hearing that there's no silver bullet for education? Well, I have a different opinion. There is a silver bullet, and if you will kindly take the time to read these words, you may find that you agree with me.
KidsWorx is about listening to children. Whenever we actually listen to what children have to say, we honor them because we honor their words, which usually come from their center. We also encourage them to think because they know what they say will be listened to; they know they have time then to develop their ideas. They have a basis for trust that there will be a home waiting for them later in our listening attention. Knowing they will be heard inspires trust; children then know they will be taken seriously. And this gives permission for their imaginations to run free. As we listen to children, fully, actively and non-judgmentally, that partnership changes the world – for the better, of course!
Children usually have really good ideas for making things better. And when we listen to their voices, together with them we can work things out. I wish for children to have a voice in this world, and KidsWorx is their microphone.
My name is Ruth Virginia Barton. l live and work in Western Massachusetts, where my daughter goes to school. I got my teaching license and master's degree in elementary education three months before the bottom dropped out of the economy, which turned out to be a miracle for me! Because of the massive teacher lay-offs I had a chance to hone my ideas and desires for education in our country, which led to my vision for KidsWorx. As a mother and an educator, I perceive the blooming that happens when children are listened to. As a citizen, I feel the need to provide them with a microphone.
KidsWorx is based on my philosophy of education, which is actually called Brain-based Learning. Brain-based Learning is the scientific foundation for what we know to be true, both intuitively and common sense-wise: that children need to feel cared for at school in order to learn effectively, that if they are too stressed out their higher-order thinking skills will not function properly, and that they need good nutrition, plenty of water and rest, and lots of physical activity to ground their academic learning. We have been knowing these things as a culture since the 1970's, both intuitively and experientially. What's new now is the science that grounds our experience in hard, provable facts! Brain-scan technology and the resulting neuroscience have revolutionized the field of education, as they show us how the brain, and specifically children's brains, actually work. The resulting neuroscience has come to be called brain-based learning.
We have learned many new things about the brain as a result of being able to look at it in action in brain scans. Here are some interesting facts about brains, especially children's brains, that have been discovered by scientists since the 1980's:
Our brains are relational, in that they work by relationship: they learn best by adding new information to related old information, or what is already known. That is why it is so much easier to learn familiar things than brand new things. As new information presents itself, the brain attaches it to related old information, neuron by neuron. These neurons, or brain cells, get together according to their relationships and create bunches of neurons, or neural pathways. These neural pathways build, relationship by relationship, creating patterns that look like river deltas or trees, continually adding new information as it links to old information. If these neural pathways continue to be built upon, they stay alive and fresh; if they become disused, they don't work so well anymore - as is true with anything! A magical component is that we can change our neural pathways, we can direct them. For example, if we have a habit of thinking - or a belief - that we want to change, we can simply build new neural pathways based on our new belief and neglect the old ways of thinking. We can focus on the new way of thinking and allow the old way to atrophy. This is how affirmations work.
Another fascinating new bit of information is that our children's brains need loving care to be calm enough to create new neural pathways of learning! It turns out that the brain is actually an emotional organ as it learns by emotional relativity, retains emotional memories, and controls our emotional centers. It is also vulnerable to emotional overload because the neocortex can literally get overridden by the central nervous system if the brain is too stressed. When that happens the brain's higher-order thinking skills get lost in a swamp of the body's stress reactions. Translation: all children need to feel emotionally as well as physically safe - not too stressed out – in school in order to learn properly. President Obama, in a graduation speech a couple of years ago, quoted the high school's principal, who said it best: "The kids have to know that you care before they care what you know." As a mother, when I send my daughter off to school, I want more than anything else to know that she will be cared for at school while she is outside of my care. I know perfectly well that her academic learning will follow naturally if she can relax at school, feeling safe and comfortable and cared for. This is why social and emotional learning is so mega-important for all children.
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the natural result of brain-based learning. When we teach our children with the brain in mind, we teach them in ways we know will be helpful to their brains in learning and to successful outcomes in school. For instance, all children are kinesthetic learners; they learn best by doing hands-on or physical activities. These learning-by-doing lessons hook into the brain's neural pathways very easily because children quickly become familiar with new information that they are adapting to physically. Social and emotional learning takes place when teachers honor this natural way that children learn easily. For example, we can teach children fractions kinesthetically by having them stand and count off to find out how many kids are in the classroom; this number becomes the denominator. Then we can split them off into three separate groups; this number becomes the numerator as each group is tangibly shown to be one-third of the classroom. This is an example of SEL through kinesthetic learning. Because the kids are moving around, they are probably a lot more interested in what they are doing and will therefore probably always remember what one-third is because they made it so! Kinesthetic lessons are an excellent way to teach math, especially when children don't relate to math easily, because they can physically see how math applies to their lives.
Other examples of social-emotional learning include utilizing emotional intelligence and multiple other intelligences such as musical, intra- and interpersonal, and naturalist. Every child is smart differently! We can practically guarantee academic success, as well as emotional safety, for children at school by finding out how they learn best and supporting their learning in those ways. The budding naturalist will probably learn the most effectively and joyfully on a tramp through the woods on a half-day field trip. Intra-personal learners might learn best working alone, whereas interpersonal learners will probably work best in groups. Kids with musical intelligence can learn math, for example, through the notes on the music sheets, and writing by composing verses to go with the music they have composed!
In an inquiry-based format, children actually take their learning into their own hands and become researchers of what interests them in particular. The 8-year-old boy who is into trains, when unleashed into an inquiry-based classroom, will learn all about the Internet, engineering, building, geography, history, and business, simply by following his passion for trains. This passion will encourage him to learn to do research. He will also probably learn to write well in his efforts to convey the cause of his enthusiasm to his listeners. Public speaking will follow as he educates his classmates about what he finds so interesting. Listening skills will be conveyed as he listens closely to his classmates, who also have gifts of learning they wish to share with each other because their own interests have been honored.
Another aspect of SEL, the social learning, involves creating community within the whole school. When all the adults working at the school, from the superintendent to the janitor, model and teach caring ways of relating to each other and the children, community will be created. Teaching community in the classroom is a beautiful way to create emotional and social safety. Another way is to teach appropriate ways to deal with difficult emotions, using techniques like conflict resolution and passing the talking stick, or "microphone." Another thing we also know in our hearts is that if children do not feel emotionally safe at home they may create their own hierarchy at school so they will feel cared for by their peers. But the competition for this sort of caring is the tradeoff of popularity, and we all know how brutal this battle can be and how bruising it can be not to have the social ease that induces popularity. If kids are being abused at home or otherwise have no adults they can trust, they will create their own social structure as much as they can. They especially need adults at school to be safe havens where they can learn to deal with their complex feelings in successful ways. Adults are the ones who can provide these safe havens at school. Brain-based learning and its corresponding social-emotional learning are amazingly successful and research-based ways of providing comfort and emotional safety for children at school so they have a safe environment in which to learn. For information on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts recommendations for social and emotional learning in its schools, see #9 at http://www.doe.mass.edu/bullying/.
Creativity is the crux of KidsWorx and education and the whole thing: finding kids' natural creativity and then feeding it. All people are naturally creative; however, children's creativity is usually closer to the surface and schools are in an ideal position to make sure it blooms*. Learning is a gift of creativity as sure as curiosity is a sign of intelligence. Children have innate intelligence; they absorb information like sponges. Put them in a room with older kids and they will have absorbed more information and incitement to learn in an hour than in some full days at school. KidsWorx is an ideal environment in which children can explore their creativity and soak up the creativity of other kids. It is a place where children can feel emotionally safe and valued because their voices are being heard. KidsWorx provides a creative voice for children in this complex and beautiful world they are growing up in. KidsWorx is a beautiful way for us to listen to our children, hear their needs, and find ways to work with our kids to create a world that works for all of us.
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