The past revisited

This look at a 1950's new entrants classroom is delightful.  There is a strong acknowledgement of the importance of play based learning.  This could be a conversation that we have today in early childhood settings and new entrants classes. In the video they are discussing how "young children's minds must be kept lively, eager and full of wonder."  I have written about this in a previous post - the importance of keeping alive a sense of wonderment and awe within ourselves as well the children we teach.

Another wonderful comment: "a child grows and learns by their own effort" and "it is not what we do to children but what we enable them to do themselves."  Allowing children to create their own learning by ensuring that our environments are richly resourced with open ended resources that offer experiences and opportunities to play with their own ideas will support children to learn through their own effort.  Remembering David Perkins words:

 “It involves open ended or ill- structured problems and novel,
puzzling situations.
It is never just problem solving it involves problem finding.
It’s not just about right answers. It involves explanation and justification.
It’s not emotionally flat.
It involves curiosity, discovery, creativity and camaraderie."