Sunday, January 12, 2014

Lesson: REAL Learning happens outside the classroom

So I watched a TED talk where Gever Tulley talks about 5 dangerous that parents should let their kids do. Tulley explains how overprotective parents are actually hurting their kid's chances of staying out of danger by shielding them from real world dangers. When the ENVIRONMENT is constantly being adapted to fit the child, the kids  are at a loss when THEY have to adapt to their environment in a real world situation. This is exactly why children should be allowed to do a few minimally dangerous activities, like climb a tree. I for sure can attest that I learned 10x as many life lessons on a forbidden hike through a forest at night with my cousin than i could have learned through 2 years of reading a textbook. Occasions like this are what break through the dull barrier of "learning" in a safe environment where no risk is involved and manage to teach me valuable lessons that will I will actually remember. We have all had that mishap with a knife that our parents told us not to touch, and one bloody finger later, a life lesson is engraved: Don't touch sharp blades. No matter how many times my dad had told me to look left then right when crossing a street while I rode my bike in a park, he could not prepare me for when I went unsupervised bike riding across a boulevard and almost got ran over because I hadn't seen the red hand on the other side of the crosswalk. The contrast was clear: learning in a controlled environment didn't stimulate me enough to remember helpful lessons, but learning through actual experience, I never failed to remember. Gever Tulley is a genius

1 comment:

  1. Dear friend -Aid,
    I really agree with you choice of TED talk, and I think that it is very interesting. Even though there were more than five things each and every one of the things that Mr. Tulley mentioned made a lot of sense to me and I agree whole heartily with it. I also agree with you about how learning more about the world in one nighttime "adventure" than just reading a book. I remember doing most of the things that were mentioned in the video, and am grateful for my experience on those fields. In the end I really agree with both Mr. Tully's explanations, and your reasoning and think that it's great.

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