Learning super powers

I'm learning that education is built from really basic bricks, but which ones are essential? What do our children need to learn? There are some things which technology and a changing economy are making redundant. So, what is absolutely essential, regardless of change?

At the moment, I think our kids need to be able to read, think, imagine, evaluate, and communicate. 

So, they need to be able to read. I mean more than decoding words. I mean enjoying making sense of what someone else is communicating.

They need to be able to imagine. They need to be able to use what they have read and experienced in the past to see what is real and true and to have an expanding picture of what may or may not be possible.They need to be able to find new ways to solve new and old problems. 

They need to be able to evaluate. A world of rapidly increasing information and communication demands that our kids be able to work out if something is important, true, beautiful or useful.

By "communicate", I mean taking whatever is at their disposal (words, print, imagery, actions, objects) to say whatever they need to say to someone who can benefit from it. Kids need to be able to write, to be able to put words together in a way which is meaningful to themselves and someone else. They need to be able to talk, listen and ask good questions. 

Skills. Super powers. Tools to chip away at life with.

Will they always feel like they are learning super powers? No. Sometimes skills start to come before motivation. At the same time, the way we learn these skills must not slaughter kids' pleasure in using these skills. I am finding this is something that someone else cannot teach us. It's not the same everyday. It's not in a curriculum we can buy. It is a product of studying our own children and trying out new things together.

I'm finding that becoming fluent in these super powers is messy, relational, unpredictable, sometimes ordinary, sometimes spectacular. The skills grow in fits and starts as they are used. The skills are learned in a culture of joyful doing; fun reading, eager talking, attentive listening, inquisitive questioning, wild making, free playing, real writing. 

Next time we are labouring over that word or sentence or problem, I'm going to remind my kids, and myself, that we are growing super powers.

What is on your list of "essential things for kids to learn"?

image Nail and Twine Photography