Dr Spock speaks

Many members of the family and friends had come to spend the weekend at the rancho Punta Boca del Salado, Baja California, Mexico.

Consequently, many children were there.
Who asked again for classes.
To get teaching by the pioneering photographer.



All personal activities were instantly postponed when the children had this request and for two days every morning and every evening we were coming together.
8 students.

Of course there were some changes in the teaching strategies.
To have it continue to be interesting for the students.
And for the teacher as well.

A lot of the educational strategies applied have to do with how the young person feels.
If a young person feels respected and appreciated, more likely he or she will make a strong effort to learn.
One way of showing them respect is to inform them that the class is not containing children.
When they are in the class, they are students.
This might be a silly difference but for a child it is not.
Of course the young person knows he or she is a child.
But he or she is made to realise that learning is not connected to age.
Everybody is a student, if all goes well, because life is an eternal process of learning.

So, when they are working hard on their challenges in the class and grandmother Ketcha passes by, teacher tells her how hard “the students” are working.
The children notice this of course and feel proud and important.
Putting therefore more energy and concentration in their work.

Another new aspect is the change in rewarding.
Until recently every good result, like the solving of a mathematical problem or an exact copying of a drawing, was rewarded with a “punta”.
A point.
The student, who had the most points at the end of the class, was declared the champion.
This created positive competition between the students and made them more ambitious.

But now the points have been abandoned.
Instead have come “estrellas” = stars.
And it is not the teacher anymore who decides if a star is awarded.
Once the mathematical problem is solved, it is checked and when ready, the student is asked how many stars he or she should get awarded.
Hence, it is the student who has the responsibility and the power to award.
They say themselves if they should get a star and how many.
This is rather unusual.

It is based on the believes that a child is not crazy.
And is very well able to be reasonable and smart.
And good in accepting responsibility.

The way it works is that when a student is talking to the teacher and it comes to the moment of awarding stars, the student is asked what in her or his opinion should be done.
At that moment, all the other students open one ear to follow the conversation.
And the student having to make a decision about how many stars to award knows this very well.
Therefore it happens if for example Manuela says that she should get 2 stars, the others might protest.
They start screaming that she should get just 1 star.
Teacher is not interfering in these discussions as only saying that they should talk about it to arrive at a consensus.
Hence, Manuela is asked why she believes she should get 2 stars and not 1.
She explained that not only was the result correct but that she had put all the numbers exactly in the right squares.
This convinced the others and everybody was happy.

It is fantastic to see young persons take responsibility.
To see them think in front of the others how many stars they should get.
And make no mistake: they are pretty serious about it.
Some of them sometimes say they should not get even 1 star.

Of course the students have been explained that no one can know how big the effort has been to do a certain challenge in the class.
What is easy for one, can be difficult for the other.
So, the best person in the world to decide how many stars they should get, are they themselves.

Another interesting event took place in the class.
Rocio, 9 years old, wanted to learn more English words.
So, she got a list of 4 words and 10 minutes.
When that was going well, the list was expanded.
This was getting a little difficult for her.
She failed to remember all the words and had to study more.
During the next examination it was noticed she was sometimes looking at the inside of her hand.
And finding instantly the word she was looking for in her memory.
Nothing was said about this treachery.
She finished knowing all the English words and all the students had applause for her.
Then she was asked to put her hands on the table.
All the students surprised not knowing why that was necessary.
Rocio put her hands on the table with the palms down.
She was asked to turn them around.
She turned around the left hand.
She was asked to turn around the other hand as well.
She blushed deeply and when she turned around her other hand, everybody saw the list of English words written on her palm.
A strong wave of indignation arose among the other students.
They yelled: “Traitor !!!”
One could see that Rocio preferred to die right on the spot.
The teacher took her book and everybody was expecting he would erase all the stars she had been winning until then.
Instead, she got 2 extra stars.
The students were totally puzzled.
And Rocio most of all.
The teacher explained that Rocio had been very inventive and creative and that this was rewarded with two stars.

This was stage one of the educational response to Rocio’s action.

The second stage happened later in the privacy of the kitchen.
Rocio was the only child in the kitchen and was asked to tell her grandmother what extraordinary thing had happened in the class.
She told vividly and without shame how she had written the words on the inside of her hand and had passed the test.
Grandmother laughed and as the good woman she is, lovingly told Rocio though that it was not the way to get stars.
That it was better to study a little more and know the right answers from the memory and not from the palm of the hand.
Of course Rocio understood.

The thing important to the teacher was not to have such an event turn out to be a traumatic experience for the student.
But instead a positive experience of learning.

Why should it be condemnable to make a mistake?




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