Plato Takes on the Boomers...

I was in Grade 4, and I was looking at the big clock on the wall of my classroom. I wasn't looking at it for the time, however, I was looking at it to visualize my fractions. My little workbook was full of fraction questions and I would let my eyes drift up to the clock...fifteen minutes past would be 1/4...thirty minutes past would be 1/2...and I could easily picture those pieces chopped up into smaller pieces from there. Phew! At least THIS was easy.

I remember another time later on in Grade 4 doing three and four-column multiplication easily, waiting for the 'hard stuff' to start. I had a pit in my stomach. I felt sick almost every day, wondering when I would get punished. When I would start to fail.

For me it didn't happen. Suddenly, as is so common in childhood, time races forward and your self-awareness pauses. I realized I had sailed through what I thought would be difficult math and I was now in high school, also enjoying math and helping my friends. The hard stuff never hit.

But...why did I think it would?

Where had the dread come from?

I realized that when I was in Grade 3 my older sibling was forced to sit at our kitchen table for hours with our father - a Boomer who also easily understood math. He also understood math THE WAY IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN TAUGHT. My older sibling did not. Tears would flow. My father's voice would carry throughout the entire house - yelling in frustration, "HOW DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THIS?? It's RIGHT THERE!" His fists slamming with rage on the table. My sibling's sobs punctuating the rare moments of silence.

That is what began the pit in MY stomach for the upcoming years. It also bred in me the idea that marks matter more than anything. (Spoiler alert: they don't.)

Here's what Plato said ca. 400 BCE:

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each."

A few things come to mind. Firstly, let me dispel the notion that Plato was telling us to 'AMUSE' a child. Let's remember this was in the days before that word means what it does now. It means what INTRIGUES a child. Now we might speak to learning styles, modalities, etc.

Secondly, YES! Harshness shuts down any executive functioning. You want your child to do math while you are yelling at them, slamming fists and shaming them?? We now have solid science to back up that it will not work, and has never worked.

Thirdly, I LOVE his final sentence: that we may discover that child's peculiar genius. This is why I love my job. I have yet to discover a student that doesn't have a 'peculiar genius'! It is SO FUN learning each student's way of learning - and having them teach ME how they solved a problem or how they see a particular puzzle! If we as parents and teachers can tap into that and reflect it back at them, they are in for a world of delight-filled, lifelong learning.

Finally, Plato's genealogy MAY have included Poseidon, or more immediately, Apollo. I have a feeling they were more harsh than any Boomer! So our fella knew what he was talking about! 😜

Delight in learning WITH your child!

-B