Early Days

I’m really getting to see a new way of learning with my eldest who has just started P1. Being a secondary teacher, it’s fascinating seeing how it all begins and the speed at which a child picks up things. In a matter of a few weeks, I have a child who knows several words by sight and is reading. I came home one night to find him at the table, pencil in hand, writing down words he had obviously been learning that day. What happens? Where does the enthusiasm go? At what point does a child decide that homework and learning is no longer fun?

Is it just the natural progression of growing up? The other external influences that take over? Or just the fact that they get bored? The abundance of enthusiasm seen at primary seems to be less obvious as a rule at the next stage, but it’s something that needs to be nurtured more in secondary. We can all make claims that leadership of a school is solely to blame for what happens within it. To a point that is right – but only up to a point. As educators, we all have responsibilities. As individuals we have to enthuse our pupils on whatever we are teaching within our own walls. To not get bogged down and become cynical with what is going on around us and to not get caught in the trap of teaching as a job. It’s more than a job. We can shape and influence those in our charge – both in a positive and unfortunately, negative, way. Those who see it purely as a job, as far as I’m concerned, need to look elsewhere as a profession. Ooops, rant over.

~ by zoewalker on October 7, 2009.