HOW CHILDREN CAN TEACH THEMSELVES

As a disillusioned student in the 1980s I was desperate to get out of school. I stuck it out to the end but it was stifling and agonisingly boring and irrelevant for the most part. We just all seemed to be at war and no one wanted to be in those sterile classrooms memorising facts and figures without context or reason.

But come the weekends I would write, play, cook, garden, draw, create all sorts of things, and I think that’s where most of my learning came from. Children are so able to learn and figure out how to do things, that is how we were all made! To copy and experiment and fail gloriously and learn!

I love the fact Sugata Mitra opens a space to explore just how capable children are given some tools, some space, and some encouragement. And to trust them to take their learning into their own hands. When I run Creative Bootcamps I aim as far as possible to create the safe space to create the self learning he is fostering.

We sure have a lot to unlearn in the education system, in order for real learning to take place.