Showing, Not Teaching.

I do wonder, astoundingly intently, if it is possible to show children all things before teaching them. More ideally said, instead of teaching them.

There is a certain magic that comes with enticing the senses in a classroom— where knowledge is grasped through the body first and foremost before it is conceptually assimilated. I can clearly see that when the body is utilised wholly, it can function optimally, integrating the emotions needed to perceive and therefore abstractly uncover patterns.

I have seen for myself what happens when children experience concepts through memorable encounters that captivate their inner world. There is a byproduct of fascination so tangible, that it causes a wonderful and effortless performance and demonstration of knowledge. Perhaps it is quite easy in English, for there is much to experience in a language, which is basically a lens through which we understand the world.

My question is: is it possible for primary education to maximise the integration of perception within a classroom, especially in mathematics and sciences? When things are made to be abstract continually, the body sickens and becomes a lifeless frame of ideas running around with no grounding effect. It explains many of the ailments that surround the developed world.

I am on a mission to explore such a daring possibility, though I may not have the time today to truly visualise deeply what it would take to transform learning into a series of scaffolded experiences that truly teach a child something about themselves, others and the world. That would take so much artful discernment, trial and error and a lot of visualising. Also, I would need a team of dedicated educators who experience deeply how children of different ages truly perceive the world.

I would never forget the single tactic I used to do well in my biology course, and how effective yet time-consuming it was. It was seemingly imagining the sequence of knowledge in my head, creating images in my mind of the whereabouts that breed the emergence of such issues and questions, see the concepts I had learned making the image more and more vivid, giving it so much more depth and meaning.

I am highly idealistic this instant— but perhaps it is possible. Teachers have warned me from teaching English for its abstraction. Yet, I can see entrance points through simple experiences that make learning come alive, utilising the littlest resources there are.

I must mention that I cannot wait to read Rudolf Steiner’s book on theosophy, and then delve into Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, for I believe that making schools near environments that enable richer experiences quite cardinal to making learning more spiritual and artful. It saddens and sickens me how schools around here are built around buildings, and some spaces do not even have the slightest stroke of nature and landscape to spark the senses.

I’m delighted at how my interest in biology, ecology and spiritual psychology has intersected so elegantly. And so there, I embark on a quest to quench my endless curiosity in the human experience.