Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

In this post I mention the case of a teacher who told her pupils to stop watching Tom and Jerry cartoons for the above mentioned reason. If you’re surprised that a teacher could make such a misleading assertion, know that you are not alone. And it is because such things can happen that I believe more parents need to show more interest in knowing who their kids’ teachers are, on a personal basis. Our kids spend over six hours exposed to "teachers" – on weekdays for months. That’s enough time to pick up all kinds of ideas from their teachers. We therefore need to be sure of the quality of thinking our child;s teacher indulges in, to avoid having our kids wrongly oriented As the original title I used for this article in 2008 states: "Don’t Let "Wrong" Teachers Make Your Child A Thinking Pigmy!"

(First published online: 29th January 2008)

Preamble

This is a subject I am especially passionate about. I have written about it previously, but some weeks ago I heard about a teacher in a school who said something that really upset me, to kids she was teaching that I decided to do this additional feature on it.

What do you hope to achieve by sending your kids to school? Do you aim to make a status statement each time your kids step out in their pretty school uniforms, board their air-conditioned bus to head to/return from your idea of a befitting school? Or is your intention to have them equipped with the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to make a success of their own lives as adults?

I hope the latter is your preference. But going by what I sometimes see, there appears to be a pre-occupation on the part of certain parents with "creating impressions", and keeping up with the Joneses. Those who do this proudly announce they are sending their kids to the "best" schools in xyz area.

Unfortunately, high fees and pretty school buildings do not guarantee your child a quality education. And please note that by education I do not mean the ability to score all A’s in the final school certification exams. Being educated goes way beyond that. It includes being conversant with what it takes to do more than just survive in the real world.

"Let early education be a sort of amusement. You will then be able to find out the natural bent" – Plato (346 BC).

Kids Are Not Afraid To Show Surprise/Excitement When They Discover NEW Learning

Furthermore, being educated in my opinion involves having the understanding that there is nothing wrong in allowing yourself to "act excited" and "be surprised" when you discover new learning! And that is what makes kids so special in my opinion. You see they are so willing to believe what they are taught and they rarely act unexcited when they do.

A quick example:< My kids once discovered a butterfly pupa hanging in the corner of a wall in the compound, and all came screaming into the house to tell my wife and I (then they literally dragged us out to see it). Prior to that time, they had only been seeing caterpillars(butterfly larvae) which seemed to drop on to the ground from the next compound which was filled with tall grasses. And I had been using a set of colored pictures illustrated flip charts to show them the life cycle of butterflies and other insects. So they had seen pictures of the pupa but never seen a live specimen - until that day. And they did not hide their excitement.

On another occasion, after pestering us futilely to get them a pet cat, my kids teamed up to use wet sand to mould a cat (or more accurately, something they meant to look like a cat!). They then sent my wife and I reeling with laughter when they informed us that since the Bible said we were all made from earth/soil they intended to pray to God to turn their sand statue cat into a real-life version they could keep as a pet. We told them this was unlikely to work, but they insisted that it would.

We were particularly glad they did not succeed, because the resultant live cat would have been so grotesque, and its looks would probably have caused visiting friends/relatives to have nightmares!

But let’s not lose sight of the point being made – kids have so much capacity to believe and to display such belief and wonder without embarrassment. Any schooling they are exposed to must be checked to ensure it does not kill this quality in any child. The problem is some schooling systems teach kids to be the opposite of what I have described above.

Do you think kids who behave like those mentioned above will have difficulties describing the life cycle of a butterfly if they are ever asked, after having had such experiences? Not likely. Research has shown clearly that people tend to learn best/recall more successfully what they are taught when the learning they undergo is experiential(i.e. practical/experience based and therefore real-world relevant).

When Learning Is Fun, Learners Look Forward To It

But what is even MORE pertinent is to note how giving kids an exciting learning experience stimulates their thinking and makes them more interested in learning. In other words, kids who enjoy their learning will not be bored – neither will they need to be forced or coerced to study daily(You will not believe the way my kids keep coming to me with books and pictures on the things they learn about daily which I and my wife try to show them examples of in real life).

And that’s where I come to the matter of the teacher who (reportedly) told the kids she was teaching that they should not watch "Tom & Jerry" cartoons because the cartoons make kids act like they were "retarded"! Incroyable!!! (like the French would say). Wonders will just never end. That’s what you sometimes get when you send your kids to schools without checking for the quality of manpower such institutions have.

Do You Know Who Your Kids’ Teachers Are?

Which is why I ask these questions: WHO ARE YOUR KID’s TEACHERS??? Do you know them? I mean have you met them in person? Do you have an accurate assessment of what they can offer your kids?

Our society is failing its kids because the best of us are too busy trying to stay the best, and are willing to spare little or no time to pass on what we know to the next generation. We therefore end up leaving that very important teaching job to the "less than best" rest of society. The quote below captures this point quite well.

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less" – Lee Iacocca, Chairman & CEO, Chrysler Corporation

I know it does not sound nice, but it’s true! Some people settle for teaching jobs after looking without success for what are considered by the majority to be "better jobs"! At the risk of exaggerating, these kind of people tend to be "frustrated" and in certain cases could transfer their frustrations in many forms to the kids they have to teach.

These kinds of people generally tend not to be up and doing in improving themselves, and so may not to be in touch with latest developments/trends. That mental attitude could make them lack insight into the true nature of certain things e.g. Tom and Jerry cartoons! And yet we leave our kids with people who may have these issues for six to eight (8) or more hours daily!

I know for a fact that Tom and Jerry cartoons do wonders for the imagination of kids – and the many adults(like me) – who watch them. I can remember watching that cat and mouse cartoon series without getting bored from well before my tenth birthday, and have NEVER once been bored. And I certainly never suffered any negatives effects from watching them. So where did that teacher get her ideas about the effect of the cartoon series on kids from?

"The value of a liberal arts education is that it trains the mind to think" – Albert Einstein

Summary

The best gift you can give your child is the ability to think for him/herself. Make sure you send him/her to a school that does not "kill" that instinct/ability. Don’t let the wrong teachers make your child a thinking pigmy. Don’t let them turn him/her into what Robert Kiyosaki called a "mindless parrot" or robot. Get actively involved in your child’s formal schooling – and education today.

"Education has produced a vast population able to read, but unable to distinguish what is worth reading" – George Macaulay Trevelyan, 1942.

Final Words

By way of interest, the expression "Thinking Pigmy", is not original to me. I came across it in a book by Colin Wilson titled "The Occult" Copyright 1971, Random House Inc. (New York & Canada).

******This post was originally published as an article titled "Don’t Let "Wrong" Teachers Make Your Child A Thinking Pigmy!" was written by Tayo K. Solagbade and first published on www.spontaneousdevelopment.com in 2008 (It was also published for syndication on Ezinearticles.com on Jan 29, 2008). It’s now been relocated to this SD Nuggets blog from it’s original static html page at http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com/articles/thinking_pigmy.htm (The html page now re-directs visitors to THIS post).

Comments?

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