A common concern I have found among many parents, is their children do not seem to be natural learners, or are not interested in learning anything. It leads the parents to feeling, either they must not be a good teacher for their children or they must force and fight their children to teach them anything. The following article will address why this may seem to be the case, and if it is, how to combat these tendencies and help a child progress back to the natural tendencies, that ALL children are born with, of curiosity and learning. Of course barring the child does not have mental, learning, or emotional disabilities that may hinder or override this natural born instinct.
Remember Jehovah made humans to learn. From conception they are learning, we do not have to force a fetus to learn to listen to our heartbeat and know we are there by that sound. We don't have to force babies to learn to smile, or talk, or eat foods, crawling and walking. These are all things the majority of children will do on their own because they are curious and driven to do the things around them they see others doing.
Academics really and truly does happen the exact same way. As children see others learning, reading, speaking, doing math for life around them-budgeting, and such. They begin to want to as well!
Yet many still experience children that seem to lack this desire, when it comes to academics. The main cause of this is expecting what is called "seat work", and particular skills before the child is developmentally ready. Most American schools, and other public schools around the world often start pushing these forms of academics way too young. Meanwhile it is not developmentally appropriate for most very young children. Most of us would assume that the officials in charge of schools academic choices would have researched child development and chose skills that would coincide with the majority of children's age appropriate development. But, sadly that is not what happens in most public schools across the world. Most are developed by government officials who are only wanting to look good on tests scores around the world. Complete competition based, not developmentally chosen. And in this it's failing hugely. The countries like the USA are falling down towards the bottom of these tests scores, meanwhile other countries who delay academia til it's more developmentally appropriate for the children's ages, score much much higher on these tests.
Because of the above, children who are pushed to learn things before they are developmentally ready, give up on learning. When they can not learn what is being asked of them, they begin to feel stupid, and like it's something they can't do, so give up. And then even when they "can" they have already been defeated in the past so do not want to even try now. Since, they are feeling so badly about themselves being dumb, or stupid, they will fight and cry, and just really throw some fits about doing "seat work" or learning in any way, shape or form.
Often children who have been in public school already have this problem. That is why it's highly suggested to Deschool (different than Unschooling, and I do have a blog article on this as well) for at least 2 months for each year they have been in school, and summer time does not count in this. To help them develop their confidence back. It can also happen even if a child has never been to a public school because the parents have bought in to the public schools push of academics too young as well. Again deschooling may need to take place.
One thing to keep in mind that age appropriate development can vary hugely between children. Just like it does for babies and toddlers. One baby may start speaking at 6 months old and another not til 18 months old. One baby may start crawling at 6 months and another not til 9 months old. Doesn't mean we need to push the 7 or 8 or 9 month old baby to start crawling cause other 6 month olds are, or that they don't want to learn, or that they are developmentally behind. All it means is that baby is not ready yet, because humans are not robots and each are ready at different times. It's exactly the same with academics. One child may be ready to read at 5, and another not til 9. Both are fine. Both will eventually learn exactly what they need to, when they need to. And that is ok! Try to let go of competition, and just focus on each child making individual progress. It's kind of the same with our Bible studies. We may have one study that progresses very quickly and another who takes much longer to progress. Both, are coming to a love of Jehovah at their own speed and that's ok. It's the same with academics, all children will learn at their own speed, if we don't squash that love out by trying to force them to learn things their developmental stage is not ready for yet.
As this subject can be diverse and deep, this will conclude Part 1, stay tuned for Part 2.
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