M13
Mahuri Syndicate
Island Bay School
Tuesday 11th February
Dear Perry,
How do you think children learn best?
We have been talking about school rules in our
class. Do they keep us safe? Do they help us to learn?
Did you know that a school in Auckland tried out scrapping their rules so that the kids could test things out themselves? They found that bullying was reduced, and that the kids were “motivated, busy and engaged” (School ditches rules and loses bullies, stuff.co.nz 26/01/14).
I think that
there are some rules we could get rid of at Island Bay School too because if
children don’t get to give things a go, they won’t really learn for
themselves. If an adult tells a kid not
to climb a tree because they might fall and hurt themselves, they might not
listen. However if a kid tries it out
themselves, and if they fall out and hurt themselves, they might give it a go
one more time but then they’ll stop because they’ll have learnt for themselves
and they’ll really know that it’s going to hurt them.
I’m not
suggesting that we get rid of every single rule. Obviously some of them are important to keep
us safe, like the out of bounds areas, where rocks could fall on us if there
was an earthquake. I think we should spend
some time in classes deciding which rules are important and which ones we don’t
need. Perhaps we could present our ideas
to the student council and make some decisions about how to make the playground
a place where kids can assess risk themselves, and therefore learn for
themselves?
I think
children learn best when they think, try, think again, try again, and then
really learn the consequences of their actions for themselves. We would like to
have a chance to learn this way in the Island Bay School playground.
Thank you
for your consideration of my ideas.
Nga mihi,
Amy
