DriftingSand
Cast Iron Member
In my construct (to borrow Wry Catcher's term) I would evaluate the talents and strong points of youngsters at a very, very young age (pre-school perhaps?). It would be strongly suggested that children be given various problems to solve and a variety of tools to solve them. We would test for people skills; communications skills; engineering skills; mathematical skills; creative skills (writing, painting, singing, musical instruments, pottery, etc.); leadership skills; etc. We would try to determine early on which direction a child might go in life then we could tailor his or her education to further strengthen his or her natural talents.
This may be obvious but I believe every child should be given the opportunity to explore their world and not be confined to a chair for their first few years of formal education. From age four to age six or even eight the classroom ought be their physical environment, to be seen, touched, tasted, smelled (within reason for safety concerns) and contemplated.
Let the child explore and let the teacher forego, "sit still, be quite, don't touch" and teachers should encourage questions such as, "What's that" and "how come". It seems to me our efforts to control natural curiosity makes learning a choir and not fun.
I agree to a degree. I like the idea that children should be free to explore. I also think that a teacher should be present to present new ideas and suggest trying different things AND to observe the child to see what his or her natural inclinations and strong points are. A teacher should also be present to make sure that no bullying or ganging up is taking place.
But I also believe that children need some structure and a set of basic guidelines to follow. This will teach them that the world isn't a free-for-all and that we have laws and rules to follow. We all (adults included) need structure in our lives.