Education
The Natural Path to Learning for Your Child - An Introduction by Peter Pierro
[Apr 24, 2008]
My wife, Bobbie, and I have been teachers all of our adult lives. We have spent many years in both public and private institutions and, having survived a few years, we have seen almost every teaching innovation and/or gimmick the world has experienced. Bobbie is an accomplished musician and music teacher in elementary grades and college. I have taught in the fields of reading, spelling, math, and history at the elementary, junior/senior high and college levels. We have both done a lot of work with learning theory -- on how people learn.
We have gathered together all of the ideas that we believe can be called Natural -- as opposed to Artificial. For example, it is Natural for a parent to take Andy for a walk in the stroller and while walking and talking, the parent can say, "Look at the beautiful flowers. These red flowers smell nice, don't they? These blue flowers are pretty, too, and they are bigger than the red flowers." In context and in a natural, real way, the child has learned about 'flowers,' 'red,' 'blue,' 'big.' This has given the child a meaningful experience for the words and concepts. Later, we'll go shopping and say, "Andy, shall we buy some of these green apples or those red ones."
Contrast this with the more often techniques used in "teaching the Kids their colors." Out comes the blocks or color strips or worksheets and the kids are supposed to differentiate among the colors. This is Artificial or at least Contrived -- It is not Real Experience.