Taking Fun out of Learning

Joy Out of Learning
April 26, 2013

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
-Dalai Lama

In her TedTalk, "When Education Goes Wrong: Taking the Creativity and Play out of Learning", Nancy Carlsson-Paige from Lesley University shares this message:

"When we watch children play, we understand how central play is to healthy development — to children’s emotional, social, and cognitive health and learning. Through play and hands-on activity, children build ideas and relationships that become the foundation for success in school and life. Today’s overemphasis in schools across the country on standards and testing is pushing down to younger children and resulting in more and more direct instruction at the expense of play and active learning.

"When we drill and grill children, we cut out the powerful natural capacities they bring to the learning experience — their creativity, original thinking, capacity to problem solve and invent new ideas, their natural ability to cooperate, initiate, and persevere. When we take these amazing capabilities children have out of the education experience, we take the love out of learning. We take the joy out of learning. What we have to do is figure out: How do we create an education system in this country that nurtures and develops and builds onto the magnificent capacities children bring with them when they come to school?"