Love of Learning: Defining Education Series
Love of Learning Links:
In this episode, I mention the speech “The Lost Tools of Learning” by Dorothy Sayers. It is in the public domain but if you are interested in a physical copy. I got mine here: https://classicalacademicpress.com/products/the-lost-tools-of-learning-cd
If you are looking for a free copy to listen too I found one here: https://ridgelightranch.com/lost_tools_of_learning_sayers/
Show Transcript:
You’re listening to “Love of learning” the long-awaited last episode in the defining education series!
You hear the phrases “love of learning” and “lifelong learners” a lot in homeschooling circles and with good reason. This is the aim of education.
I remember it distinctly. It was a fall day at the beginning of my 5th-grade year. There was a group of maybe 8 of us around a table and the afternoon sunlight poured through the glass classroom door and seemed to drench the project with warm enthusiasm. Or maybe that was just me. It was one of the rare instances when everyone was collaborating and tossing ideas back and forth. Arguing and reaching new conclusions, encouraging each other, and helping the shy students feel included. We were completely absorbed in it. Smiling, laughing, and one by one the little light bulbs over our heads were dinging on with the pure joy of discovery. We had art supplies everywhere and I remember thinking our work could change the world…if we just had a little more time. You see, I saw the pain in my teacher’s face when he told us to clean it up. We had to line up and go to an assembly where we would be manipulated into selling wrapping paper to fund our school’s deficit. The funny thing is, I don’t remember what the project was about, knowing him it was probably about climate change or recycling. He was such a tree hugger I became vegan for two years after being under his influence, but it really didn’t matter. I remember what I felt, and what I felt was “I LOVE learning. I am smart and capable, and THIS is fascinating”
So let’s define a love of learning. Learning is acquiring new knowledge and skills which is naturally intrinsically motivating. The reward receptors in our minds fire off as we learn new things. Our minds are stimulated by novelty, and as we learn, the neurons in our brains form new connections. Learning more deeply about a subject or through repetition strengthens those neural pathways, making them more efficient. Feeling proficient at something makes us feel valued, important, and authoritative. It increases our ability to connect with others and contribute to society. We feel more self-aware and in control, as we understand the world around us. All of these feelings of value, connection, and security provide big dopamine hits the brain and we crave more.
Maria Montessori reintroduced us to the concept of Horme. Horme is a greek spirit personifying vital energy, eagerness, and effort with an urge for purposeful activity. She argued that all children have it as an innate part of their beings. Infants, especially, are natural learners. They are not afraid to make mistakes and are constantly experimenting. This is part of the reason why they can learn new languages and develop motor skills at exponentially faster rates than adults. Their natural curiosity or love of learning hasn’t been dampened yet.
This love of learning could also be called curiosity. In that someone who loves discovering new things will seek out more opportunities for those kinds of experiences. They will ask more questions, read more books, try more experiments with art and science. Having an insatiable hunger to learn will keep them open to new ideas.
This will obviously benefit the child in that they will continue to feel great about themselves as they increase their knowledge and skills, but it will also serve the world as they become more proficient in their areas of interest, which will make them feel better about themselves and perpetuate the cycle.
So why doesn’t everyone love to learn? What stops that curiosity and hunger to know more?
Think back to your own education. Remember the times when you felt alive, excited, and eager to learn. Where were you? What was happening? How did you feel?
Now think of a time when you felt discouraged, defeated, or hopeless in a learning environment. Where creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking were punished but test scores, sitting quietly, and giving rote answers were rewarded.
It may have been a time when you were publicly ridiculed, where you put your heart into an assignment only to have it torn apart or fall short in a grade you were expecting. (There is actually science that has now shown that grades are demotivating for students and hamper learning but that is a topic for another day.) Maybe you just got tired of busywork, or nobody ever expecting anything out of you so you didn’t see the point in putting in the effort. Perhaps you struggled to understand something but were too shy or nervous to ask for help and just fell further and further behind until you felt like you’d never catch up.
It may not have even been that traumatic. You could have just been really excited about a subject then told to close it up and move on to the next subject that you found less than inspiring. It’s likely that after years and years of these experiences you eventually learned that what they wanted from you at school wasn’t your mind, heart, or soul but for you to conform and perform.
Once you learned what was expected you either rebelled against it and had a turbulent experience or slowly lost your soul and followed the rules.
Now I’m not ragging public school, there are passionate and compassionate teachers out there who sprinkled in pure magic as well. The times you could discover something on your own rather than be lectured to, connect with your teacher or your classmates over histories tragedies and triumphs, where you were challenged to do better or think more deeply about things and in the process discovered who you were. Where you were recognized for your talents and contributions and felt valued and important.
I will never forget the class we had on the Holocaust taught by our Jewish teacher as she shared her grandfather’s experiences at a concentration camp or the debate teacher who pulled me aside after a winning speech and told me that we both know I could have done better. She was the first and last person who ever expected anything out of me at that high school… but that also meant she saw my potential and believed I could achieve it.
I’m not just waxing nostalgic here. If you pay attention to your experiences or mine, you’ll find common threads. When I LOVED learning was when I was able to experience connection, discover for myself, or express ideas. When I felt defeated was when I was being torn down, judged, or had to stop the flow of interest to go do something entirely uninteresting or unimportant.
Can you relate?
If we want our children to continue to love learning, we need to learn from our experiences and do better.
Some of the ways we can cultivate a love of learning are:
We need to not focus on grades, judgments, and criticism but look for opportunities to gently guide, correct and encourage. We need to learn when to recognize the effort and when to push them to do more. When they write a paper what was the purpose? Was it to articulate an idea? Was it to express themselves? Was it copy work where they are learning principles of grammar and handwriting? If you wrote a paper and handed it in and then were criticized on your spelling, grammar, handwriting, ideas, and structure and are handed back a paper full of red lines, how enthusiastic would you be to write the next time? This is why I focus on one thing at a time. If we are doing copy work, I will correct handwriting. If we are doing a free write to get him comfortable with the idea of putting ideas on a page, then I don’t. Here I may encourage him to write a complete thought or clarify his message but I’ll leave the penmanship for the penmanship lesson, so he doesn’t feel completely attacked. Over time, we have gone over finishing sentences with punctuation enough times that I’ll correct it outside of the grammar lesson, but I am mindful of how many corrections I do and what the purpose of the assignment is so that I don’t crush him with criticism. It is a hard line to know but it’s one to be mindful of. How much critique is helpful and how much is harsh? Even constructive criticism in excess can become destructive.
We need to honor and respect their time, minds, and interests by avoiding busy work and allowing time for them to digest what they’ve learned, linger in interesting subjects and projects, and help them find the appeal or value in their work. Some kids need to know the why others are content to do the work before them without complaint. All kids can spot busy work and it’s frankly disrespectful to their minds to make them do it. I know why it exists in public schools. It’s a classroom management tool to keep kids occupied while you do something else. At home, what purpose does it serve? If it isn’t benefiting your child teach them efficient time management by not letting them waste their time on meaningless tasks. Could they do a quick chore? Have a quick break? There are a lot better uses for their time and their minds than having them persist in work that doesn’t add value to their education. Sometimes that work isn’t busywork. Sometimes it’s excessive repetition. If they got the first 10 math problems correct without errors do, they really need to do the next 30? If they are excited about baking do they really need to do 2 hrs of reading before they can bake? Or can they do a half an hour then read more while the cake is in the oven? As the kids get older, they can work with you to create a plan for their education that serves their rhythms, interests, and desires. You can work with them to see the value in subjects that are not as engaging for them so that they feel invested in their work. It’s also important to create space to think in their schedules. Do they have downtime to digest what they have learned? Some kids need physical activity to be able to process and absorb their lessons.
We need to encourage them to ask questions and think critically, even if that means arguing with us, or doing things in radically different ways than we anticipated. “Creativity is intelligence having fun”- Albert Einstein. Innovation takes creativity and creativity is born from playing with ideas. If we want our kids to think outside the box, then we need to encourage them to do that as we have discussions together and give them room to create in their downtime. Today my kids made invitations to a movie night and created a cardboard version of Jumanji (Which to my relief did not work). Through this process, they wanted to create a dome shape for the middle of the board and found 4 ways that did not work. They had to think critically and be creative and this was just in their play! Maria Montessori once said, “Play is the work of children” and through experiences like this, I see why. They are fed ideas and when they play, they experiment and test them. Allowing freedom in their schoolwork to attack a problem differently than we would allow them to own their education and teaches them that they have the ability to think through hard problems on their own. It teaches them that their ideas have value and there is more than one way to do something. If after they try their way and fail enough times that they feel discouraged you can come beside them and say, “Would you like a suggestion?” to help guide them. Letting the work get a little messy and take a little time is a great way to work the critical thinking muscle in a child’s mind.
Finally, we need to pay attention when they struggle. Is it because they don’t understand what is going on? Are they bored? Is one of their physical or emotional needs not being met so they are just not in a place to learn at that moment? When my youngest gets hungry, NO learning is happening until he is fed. I mean not even for his brothers because that hangry child will throw down. The benefit of homeschooling is you can be there when they start to stumble and help them by staying on a subject or looking at it from another perspective until they understand it so that they don’t fall behind and feel like a failure.
Now that we know what a love of learning is and how to cultivate it let’s take a look at subjects that are best suited to this end.
You can love math, or phonics, or handwriting. You can love grammar and sentence structure. Any of the key skills of learning but I find that the humanities and sciences are especially suited to developing that lifelong desire to know more. The quest to know the unknowable is as ancient as mankind, the unquenchable thirst for knowledge was born there.
What are humanities? Well, I’m glad you asked. The Humanities are the study of what it means to be fully human. Let’s take a moment to realize how truly beautiful this statement is. The humanities tackle the big questions like what is the purpose of life? What is Justice? What is truth? They are the subjects that put society and culture on display for us to critically analyze and discern. Subjects like history, art, and literature are great avenues to discover some of the core trials and triumphs of the human spirit but they can also cover subjects like philosophy, religion, and music. Expressions of the mind and soul that can be learned, discussed, and experienced. In the humanities, we find ourselves and how we relate to the world around us. We wrestle with the best and the worst of humanity and try to make sense of why people are the way that we are. We feel connected to the history of humankind and look for ways to avoid the atrocities from repeating themselves. We evolve as a species as we reflect on the great works of masters in their respective fields.
What is one book that changed your life? Or a piece or genre of art that makes you stop and stare every time? Is there a song that speaks to your soul? I think the power behind the humanities is that they take us to a place inside ourselves where we are our higher selves and stretch us to learn more and understand others in a deeper and more meaningful way.
This is why a classical education is rooted in history and literature. This is where the affections of our hearts are set and how our minds are formed. There is a world of discovery in the humanities and no earthly way to cover it all so how and what we choose to cover in these subjects will influence how our children see the world.
What are the core principles or ideas you want to introduce to your children? Liberty? Compassion? Justice? There is a story for that. Stories are powerful things. With layers and metaphors, you can say so much more than what is printed on the page. With art, a picture is worth a thousand words. With music, the melodies can speak straight to the human spirit without words. Lingering in the humanities sets a feast of ideas before the children and lets them see the good and beautiful in the world around them so that they learn to love the good and beautiful things and defend against the abhorrent and hateful ideas that have brought past cultures to their knees.
Psychology and sociology look directly at the human mind and our interactions with each other from a scientific perspective.
In fact, science is another incredible way for us to discover our love of learning. The very act of science is discovering our natural world through observation and experiment. It is ACTING on curiosity in the most basic instinctive form by paying attention, pondering, questioning, and testing our ideas.
Science is so interactive that it naturally invites you to EXPERIENCE learning firsthand. Discovering things for yourself and if you recall “What we discover for ourselves, we own”.
So where does physical education, or skills like sewing, gardening, drafting, and diesel repair come into play? Right here in the love of learning. If you’ve ever heard the theory of multiple intelligences, you’d know that there are more than one way to be smart and that the modern model of education really only rewards 2-3 of them.
The eight intelligences are:
1. Mathematical Intelligence
2. Linguistic intelligence
3. Musical Intelligence
4. Physical Intelligence
5. Spatial intelligence
6. Interpersonal Intelligence
7. Intrapersonal intelligence
8. Natural Intelligence
In school, you disproportionately got rewarded for mathematical intelligence and linguistic intelligence. Occasionally someone with musical or physical intelligence would stand out but rarely would someone’s connection to the earth where they instinctively knew when to plant, prune, or harvest is given a chance to shine. Someone who had incredible motor skills often doesn’t get their credits until they go on to become skilled artists or surgeons. Insightful people who will later become the world’s counselors and therapists are not recognized for their exceptional perception and empathy. Or the moody brooding types that later go on to become philosophers and writers get no credit for the deep still waters they harbor.
Here at home, you can see the whole child. Their connection to animals, their precision in the dance steps, their ability to find things. I swear my son will grow up to be a treasure hunter, crime scene investigator, or anthropologist because he finds the coolest things literally everywhere we go and whenever I am missing the remote, he finds it in moments. He also knows when the weather is going to change and what time of day it is based on the light around him. He has incredible spatial and natural intelligence. At home, he knows his worth and we move forward at his pace.
The subjects where a child can come alive with enthusiasm and interests are the subjects that cultivate a love of learning, and they will look different for each child.
Dorothy Sayer gave an impassioned talk called “The Lost Tools of Learning” in 1947 calling us back to a classical method of education. It really is thought-provoking and I would recommend listening to it. In it she says “The sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves”
Once they have the key skills of learning and moral instruction, they are ready to dive into the depths of the human mind and spirit. It is here, in the love of learning, that they will discover who they are, what their purpose is, and feed the never-ending hunger to know more. It is here that new discoveries will be made that change the world, that moving artwork will be created, and that history will be written.
Our job as educators is to protect and guide them so that they can preserve their natural-born curiosity, learn to think critically and create new ideas, perspectives, and work in their own time and in their own way. To help them discover their purpose and learn how to learn anything.
A love of learning takes time and patience and introduces them to new ideas and new experiences.
As you can see with this series, I really didn’t let you off the hook. They need phonics, and grammar, and math. They need history and literature and art. They need science and music and good old-fashioned work. They need to move their bodies and get outdoors. Each in their own measure. Some children will need more math and science. Some children will need more literature and writing. Some children need more free time in the wilderness or to jump on the trampoline between subjects. It is your job to know your child. See what makes their eyes sparkle with excitement. See where they need you to come up beside them and support them as they struggle.
Get them those key skills of learning so the world is open to them and help them find their passion by watching what they are drawn to and love.
Introduce them to new areas of study. You’ll never know if you have the next Bach until you put them in front of a piano.
Expose them to a feast of ideas so as they reach scholar years in high school or college, they can spend more time focusing on areas of interest honing their skills and knowledge in areas where they find the most value and meaning.
Do you need to do every subject every day? No of course not! You don’t even need to do every subject every year! As long as they have the key skills of learning and are exposed to a variety of ideas that challenge and excite them, they will have everything they need to be able to learn for themselves and perhaps even more importantly, a desire to learn.
Until next time, stay curious.