“Register for kindergarten” the outside display sign announced at the neighborhood elementary school.  If they aren’t old enough to attend then what? Is the child’s learning postponed?  

It has always amazed me how much thought and planning go into the child’s attending kindergarten and how little planned and implemented learning occurs in the home. In general, there is a tendency for parents to rely heavily on the child’s attendance in school to guide them in learning. Too often parents lack confidence in their own ability to be the first and best teacher for their child. 

The base foundation for my learning began with my parents Clarence and Phyllis Pfeiffer. They both read books and magazines. My mother taught me the alphabet. Once I learned the basics, she taught me to write my name. My parents didn’t consciously encourage our learning (didn’t fixate on grades) as they modeled it and allowed it to happen. Some of our learning is organic, spontaneous. Some is guided by example of word and deed. 

I’ve been toying with an idea I call “The Learning Profile and Plan. Each parent would have a learning style profile. That way each parent could understand his or her own approach to learning and support the other in their learning. As the child grows, a profile could be administered. 

The Learning Plan would include questions to address certain key decisions:

• How much do I value learning?
• What are my personal learning goals?
• What do I know well that I can teach to my children?
• What resources do I need to help my children learn?
• How much money can we spend on education per year?
• Will we home school our children? If so, when do we start? What resources do we need for this?
• Will we put our children in pre-school? If so, at what age? Which pre-school? What criteria will guide our decision?

You get the idea. What plans do you have to educate your children? Let me know what they are and how I  can support you.

“We saw you and Mom reading. That’s why we read now” Marchem told me last week.  Judson and Marchem saw me reading the Bible and books about business, education, and biographies.   ln kindergarten Judson drew a picture of my workplace with the caption underneath, “when I grow up I will supervise people, fire some people and come home, eat dinner and read books.” Wow, he remembered hearing me speak about how I had to fire someone. So, not only were my two sons watching me, they were listening as well. 

Our influence as parents is more than we know. That knowledge brings with it a responsibility. The early years of child development are fast and furious. Their brains are absorbing non stop new information-sounds, words, objects, people. Most of the physical things they learn and do are hard-wired in the brain. Our words of encouragement and reinforcing the things they are doing and learning provide  fertilizer for their brains and bodies to grow.

Dave Lavinsky, co-founder of Growthink wrote this comment, “ I grew up in a household where education was everything.And after being brought up in a pro-learning environment, I have learned the value of education and constantly seek more education.”

Learning begins in the home with us as parents. What we say and do lays a foundation. What are some of the building blocks? A few suggestions:

PLAY – get on their level and do whatever they are doing. Find the child in you that loves to play. 

TALK – share with them the little things that you are doing.  I  took my sons to run errands with me. I’d tell them where we were going, what we needed to do,etc.

LISTEN - from your heart to what they are asking and saying. Pay attention, no multitasking! 

READ - all the research proves this is the best way to guide their own reading. Read the books that you liked as a child. Go to the library and let them pick books they are drawn to. Let them see you reading.  

LOVE - Love them as your children and as human beings. Communicate your love for learning. What excites you will transfer to them. 

What have you learned from your parents?

What are you teaching your children?

“Because you’re an adult”, she said. The little girl’s friend and business partner handed me my pink lemonade.  I suggested that they greet each person who came to the garage sale and invite them to drink the lemonade.    

My question to them?  How do I know this stuff?

“Because you’re an adult”. Her answer made me laugh. Oh, if only it were that easy. Imagine being smart only because you’re an adult! Too bad its not that simple. No one starts smart. Every brain is  wired to learn, yet we have to learn for ourselves. Mom and Dad can’t walk or talk for us.  The learning comes by doing. 

 I  learned how to ride a bicycle when I was five. My brother Tobey, a year younger and more coordinated than me could get on the bike, ride it, stop it, no problem. Me, I could get going but I couldn’t stop. I would drag my bare left foot on the sidewalk to stop which left  scraped toes.

Mr. Wall, our neighbor, saw me struggling. He challenged me to learn how to brake  within one week. If I did, he would build a model airplane for me.  That was exactly the encouragement and incentive I needed. Within 5 days I had it down. “Hey, Mr. Wall, watch me!” He smiled and congratulated me. Three days later he came over to our house and presented me with a model with three small airplanes on a stand. My first official reward for learning something new. 

PhotoReading by Paul Scheele and Thresholds of the Mind by Bill Harris describe four stages of learning:

Unconscious Incompetence - when you do not follow the steps or principles and you don’t know you are not following them.

Conscious Incompetence - when you are are aware of the steps or principles and you know you are not following them.

Conscious Competence - when you can follow the steps or principles, but only when you’re consciously making an effort.

Unconscious Competence - when you have consciously followed the steps or principles so consistently that it is second nature and no longer requires conscious attention. 

I am  a conscious  incompetent  about some technical details, So, I  call Mary, our web developer and programmer.  She sends an e-mail detailing every step by step.  The instructions end with  voila! you’re done.  For Mary, it is voila! because she is competent without thinking about it.

We all have to start at the beginning. The challenge is to keep learning until it becomes automatic. Then the challenge is to remember what it is like to learn.  Some call it “having a beginner’s mind”. Mr. Denton, my college symbolic logic teacher had it. Whenever he introduced a new concept, he would phrase it by saying, “this is how I learned it.” It  helped me relate to him and to the subject.  

Your comments and feedback are always welcome.   To take our survey on learning click here. We will publish a summary report soon.

Start learning, stay smart life-long. 

We-Learning Manifesto

Reading was my first “official” learning. I learned the alphabet at home through the song “ABCDEFG”. In first grade I discovered the magic of letters forming words combined with other words to form sentences. Wow, a whole story!

Learning begins in the home and needs to continue there. Our family and homes have the potential to be the green house environment to nurture life-long learning. Each one teaches while learning – a mutual we-learning system of person to person, and peer to peer. Mom and Dad learn and teach each other. They then teach and learn side by side with their children. The children in return teach and learn. It grows beyond the home and into the community – an ecosystem of learners throughout the planet.

“Who needs a university when we have Google? All the world’s knowledge is available at a search. We can connect those who want to know with those who know” writes Jeff Jarvis in his book “What Would Google Do?” Jarvis quotes Will Richardson’s open letter to his children Tess and Tucker. Richardson said that education may take them to classrooms and lead to certification but it may also involve learning through games, communities, and networks build around their interests. “Instead of the piece of paper on the wall that says you are an expert, you will have an array of products and experiences, reflections, and conversations that show your expertise, show what you know, make it transparent. It will be comprised of a body of work and a network of learners that you will continually turn to over time, that will evolve as you evolve, and will capture your most important learning.”

I love the possibility of a “network of learners” that supports each of us in our interests and learning styles. So, when we greet each other from text to Twitter, let’s ask “what did you learn today?” The details could include our learning about ourselves, others, the world. Each little learning contributing as new facts and new skills are practiced, applied and taught.

I propose a manifesto as a challenge and a call to arms to claim our right and responsibility to learn and teach. We take ownership of the direction and content of our learning. We establish a learning tradition of life-long learning and a legacy of learning.

We, as a community of learners integrate the best learning processes and programs to support us to learn personally and together in fun and easy ways.