Seeing Brilliance in Children

06/16/2017

Seeing Brilliance in Children

To learn through listening, practice it naively and actively. Naively means that you listen openly, ready to learn something, as opposed to listening defensively, ready to rebut. Listening actively means you acknowledge what you heard and act accordingly.
Betsy Sanders, Executive

Virtual reality experiments as described by David Byrne in "A Thought Experiment" (National Geographic, June 2017) can help participants see the world through other people's eyes. One experiment offers the opportunity to see the world as a much smaller person, as though you were the size of a doll. "Our muscular sense of where our limbs are determines how we see other things—how we see the world, how we determine where we are when we’re moving about. We have to negotiate according to how big we think we are, where we are."

This experiment demonstrates that..."Our perception of the world is not really based on reality. It’s based on something we construct in our heads. And what the brain pays attention to is a huge thing."

Deb Curtis reflects on the value of seeing the many possibilities materials offer through children's eyes in her new book Really Seeing Children. "It is such a wonderful feeling to see the same magic that the children see in the materials. I want to share these feelings with other teachers, so I try to find moments to point out and rave about the competence I am seeing in the children’s work. During classroom team meetings, I bring photos of this type of work to closely examine and reflect on. We study the learning, creativity, and theories behind the children’s work. We make plans about how we can further support this type of play. We celebrate the brilliance we see in children!"

T.Bagby - Spend lesss time gathering information and more time teaching.

Kaplan -Promote Hands-On Learning in Your Outdoor Classroom.

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