The Importance of Vulnerability in Learning

I often hear about the qualities needed for children to learn effectively and they are, sadly, often the same among most schools and homeschooling parents: for instance, children should sit still and follow instructions, complete their assignments every day, and get good grades. From a technical, school-efficiency view of learning these qualities are vital for providing detailed records of student performance in order to inform the school what they will do next to the student, but from a person-centered view of learning they are not nearly as important. This view, which I hold, places individual motivation, open questioning, and the singular ways in which each child learns to be far more important for nurturing learning than school efficiency. As John Holt often noted, “…little children love the world. That is why they are so good at learning about it. For it is love, not tricks and techniques of thought, that lies at the heart of all true learning.” When I viewed this TED video by Brene Brown, author of The Gift of Imperfection, I understood, more completely, the importance of maintaining personal vulnerability, not just for learning but also for living a full life.

Dr. Brown presents herself as a hard-nosed researcher whose job is “to control and predict,” the essential task of research. However, as Dr. Brown, a social worker, applied hard science to her task of measuring the ability of people to feel connected to others, she learned that being able to feel connected to people also involved deep feelings of shame and fear, something she didn’t expect. As she explored the role of shame and fear in how we connect, or don’t connect, with others she also went on a fascinating personal journey that led her to change her ideas not only about social work but also about life, learning, and parenting. Brown initially follows her professor’s advice to “lean into the discomfort,” and she organizes the messy discomforts of her life and work into neatly arranged Bento boxes, but she eventually concludes that this is not how we can form authentic relationships with others, and so, applying her research to herself, she had to relearn how to be vulnerable, how to take risks in love and life, how to “lean into the joy.”

John Holt wrote at length, nearly 50 years ago, about how fear and shame inhibit learning (see How Children Learn and How Children Fail) and his observations are well supported by Dr. Brown’s research and stories. Though she doesn’t spend a lot of her time discussing children and learning, the overall message of this talk is so well presented and vital that you will easily make your own connections to parenting and education.



About Talking To Children About The World

Here’s a quote from John Holt about why he engaged in self-censorship during conversations with children that I find fascinating.

Many things in the world around me seem to me ugly, wasteful, foolish, cruel, destructive, and wicked. How much of this should I talk to children about? I tend to feel, not much. I prefer to let, or help, children explore as much of the world as they can, and then make up their own minds about it. If they ask me what I think about something, I will tell them. But if I have to criticize the world in their hearing, I prefer to do it in specifics, rather than give the idea that I think the world, in general, is a bad place. I don’t think it is, and for all the bad that is in it, I would much rather be in it than out of it. I am in no hurry to leave. Even if I thought the world, and the people in it, was more bad than good, I don't think I would tell children so. Time enough for them to learn all that is bad. I would not have wanted to know, when I was young, all that I now know about what is wrong with the world. I'm not sure that I could have stood to know it. Time, and experience, and many friends and pleasures, have given me many assets to balance against that knowledge, things to put in the other side of the scales. Children don't have many of these. They need time to learn about some of the good things while they are learning (as they are bound to) about the bad.

—John Holt, GWS 7, p. 11



The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

I recently transferred this video interview with me about homeschooling and unschooling that I did for Christian Science Monitor television in 1991. It is almost exactly 20 years ago to the day (2/16/1991) when I filmed it, but since so much of the information is still relevant I thought it would be of interest. I'm struck by how in those 20 years we went from the estimated 500,000 homeschooled children in 1991 to nearly 2 million today, and yet we are still being asked the same questions, particularly "How will homeschooled children be socialized?" What I like about this interview is how thoughtful and prepared John Parrott, the interviewer, was. He handled the socialization question differently than I expected and I was pleasantly surprised.

New Events and Learning From Strandbeests

It’s been an eventful time since my two webinars a couple of weeks ago. First, I had a great time doing the webinars and apparently so did the audience. In fact, some people contacted me to say that they couldn’t get into the event I did with Diane Keith/Homefires since they reached their capacity (500 attendees) and couldn’t squeeze anyone else in. As a result, Diane ran a recording of the webinar for free over the subsequent weekend to accommodate those who couldn’t get in.

Then I learned that www.onlinecollege.org voted my blog one of the best about the unschooling movement.

Then I was contacted by the Florida Parent Educator’s Association to deliver two workshops at their conference in Orlando over the Memorial Day weekend (May 26–28). I have addressed this conference several times in the past, but I haven’t done so in perhaps a decade and I’m looking forward to seeing how it has grown. The organizers tell me they expect 10,000 attendees this year. I also have upcoming speaking engagements in Chicago (March 25–26) and Sandusky, OH (May 16– 19). Please navigate to “Farenga Speaking Engagements” if you would like more information about these events.

Then there is the wealth of materials, information, and good books that keep coming to me. I look forward to writing about them all, and to get started here are two interesting resources for anyone interested in learning about science, art, and nature.

The first is for those interested in nature and animals, or for those who would like to try and see if they become interested. It is The Great Backyard Bird Count and it provides people of any age with an opportunity to participate in a genuine science project being conducted by the Audobon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Bird Studies of Canada. Here is the general information:

The 14th annual Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up February 18–21, 2011. People of all ages and skill levels are needed to count birds in their yards, neighborhoods, or other locations across the United States and Canada. Simply tally birds for at least 15 minutes on any day of the count, then go to www.birdcount.org and enter the highest number of each species seen at any one time.

The second is a fascinating video about an artist who creates life forms. I think the term “life” is being used pretty loosely here, but I think a child or adult who is interested in mechanics, engineering, and creating things that move autonomously will be as fascinated as I was by this video. Further, the kinetic artist, Theo Jansen, uses no electronics to make his creations move. He uses PVC pipes, rope, and fabric to capture the wind and animate his work. This video may inspire children to create their own such creatures, or at least inspire them to figure out how these things move. I suspect having a good anatomy book, such as my favorite The Anatomy Coloring Book, will be a great aid in figuring out how to make their own creations move like Jansen’s Strandbeests.



More free online learning resources for adults and children

I just learned about this great list of links to over 100 places where you can learn everything from college-level math and science to foriegn languages, business courses and high school math. The blog writers note that "All education is self-education.  Period.  It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a college classroom or a coffee shop.  We don’t learn anything we don’t want to learn." With that spirt in mind, I hope you enjoy this incredible list.

12 Dozen Places to Educate Yourself Online for Free