E A R T H S I D E
USEFUL TEACHING IDEAS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS
Exercise Not Esteem
The young child is impressed with what she can do, not what she can think.
In recent years the word confidence has been replaced with ‘self-esteem’ in many places. There are programmes directed at improving children’s self-esteem, both for academic and social reasons. These programmes often have a focus that involves getting children to think about things. The idea seems to be that if you get a child to say “I’m a hero” often enough, he will start to believe it. Perhaps he will.
Young children generally know things, however, through their experiences, rather than through reading about them, or being told. All people are like this, but the young are less able to reason, and thus more reliant upon what they actually see, and hear, and do, for what they know.
When we want a child to feel more confident, we need to get them to experience themselves actually doing things. It is what they see and hear and feel themselves to be capable of that will make them confident. No amount of praise can substitute for their own experiences.
Our task as teachers has to include a comprehensive training of the will, not merely a focus on the intellect. Training the will is not merely a matter of discipline, it is a matter of creating situations in which students become aware that they are effective in the world, that they can create the things they conceive of, that their feelings and moral judgments are meaningful, and that they can right wrongs.
Childhood confidence arises firstly out of their physical abilities. These are the things most obvious to them. Physical skills and physical products count for much more than anything intellectual. These actions and products are tangible, real, and able to be sensed. They provide the best feedback to the child. A child is unlikely to remember reading their first book, but may remember climbing their first tree. They will seldom be impressed with their writing, but very happy to have built something out of wood or stone. Cubbies remain in the memory when the thoughts have flown away.
The simple course then, insofar as confidence goes, is to ensure that children are active. Taking it further, parents and teachers can bring epic challenges to students that will have the effect of showing them just how capable they are, and how much they can rightly feel confident. Long hikes, camping, obstacle courses, large constructions out of natural materials, long poems and dramatic presentations can hardly fail to have this effect, conscious or otherwise.
Earthside Education
http://www.earthsideeducation.com/
earthside.education[at]westnet.com.au
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ES004© Sean David Burke 2010. Free to Copy as is
Sean is the author of Lighting the Literacy Fire: Creative Ideas for Teachers and Parents
Sean is the author of Lighting the Literacy Fire: Creative Ideas for Teachers and Parents
Earthside Blog Index
1. Get a Grip: Starting the Day with a Handshake
3. Teach Something Meaningless
5. The Teacher as a Sower of Seeds
8. A Succession of Memorable Experiences
9. Writing Verses for Your Class
