Anskuling: how I allowed the child not to learn

The journalist and mother Inna Pribor conducted an unusual experiment that dispelled fears about a lazy childish nature. She arranged an anscaling month for the child (without study, circles, and complete freedom of choice) to confirm the theory that the child would reach out to knowledge. Or not.

Human ideas about how to teach children have changed repeatedly. For example, hunter-gatherers allowed children to play a lot, did not force them to take constant tests, they did not threaten, just a hunting child would lie down to take a nap: “Why aren't you preparing for the test? To initiate that is. Soon you will have to kill a deer and stand on one leg all night long on a high pole! ”

In the agrarian society, children first helped adults, and then they studied. And although there was nothing special to learn - neither the list of references for the summer, nor organic chemistry - it was considered important not to feel sorry for the rod for children. The stronger the teacher presses the students, the more sense they will turn out. Well, at least they will remember the text of the prayer! Until the last centuries, even in the most civilized societies, it was believed that knowledge should be transmitted by cuffs, standing on peas and other tough ways that contribute to the assimilation of the material.

Humanist enlighteners, of course, tried to tell something about education, but no one listened to them in particular. It’s one thing - humanists, and another - a son is ignorantly growing!

In the 20th century, mankind changed its mind a bit: progressive educational practices arose, based on the belief that the child already has a desire to develop and comprehend complex matters. It is only necessary to remove the bore with the rod and the dull learning structure. Schools, classes, schedules, pressure - all this is superfluous fuss, many theorists asserted.

However, now unscaling (this is a form of training without a specific program and intermediate certification to the 9 class) has many supporters.

Experiment: anskuling on 1 month, 9-year-old child and patient mother

The idea is terribly attractive. First, the child immediately sees that his mother trusts him, since she did not take him to school, but left him alone with a cat and a collection of an old German epos. Secondly, it relieves of the torment associated with homework, visits to the director and reading parental chats.

I had to try. My almost 9-year-old son is not burdened with domestic work anyway: he is enrolled in family education and goes to a private club where children do everything (from the development of emotional intelligence to robotics and ancient history), but not by a public school program.

It always seemed to me that funny stories about Aristotle are a much more valuable thing than that set of facts that feed children in elementary school.

In fact, sometimes sad thoughts gnawed at me that sooner or later all children, even those who program a robot with emotional intelligence, will have to pass tests and retreat two cells. And in order to relieve my anxiety, I sat down Egor for the recipe and the “Divide into a bar” simulators.

But at the time of the experiment (1 month) I got rid of these cowardly antics and gave my son the opportunity to spend his leisure as he sees fit: if he suddenly did not want to go to some class, we did not go (it happened only a couple of times). No reminders about lessons, no notebooks, no olympiad tasks: “But look - an interesting task with matches!”. We did not even watch the training videos with experiences. And I behaved as if a person already has a desire in the genetic code to get rid of typed letters and use only capital letters.

Let's see to what bottom a person is able to develop in a month, I thought. On the one hand, I was tormented by vague fears that the guy would shoot pneumatic glasses into glasses and sing obscene chastushki. On the other hand, Alexander Nill, Peter Gray, Ken Robinson and other clever guys who believed that they didn’t feed the child with honey, let me understand the world’s structure, or at least disassemble an alarm clock with me.

“The child is initially smart and practical. If you leave him alone, without any pressure from an adult, he will develop to the extent to which he can develop at all. ”

Of Alexander Neill's books “Summerhill. Freedom education

First week

At first, these limits, about which Nill wrote, did not strike the imagination. For example, an iron pipe attached to the wall of the wall turned out to be an annoying achievement on the path of development. In the tube, he let the balls on top, and his sister forced them to collect around the apartment. Hearing the sound of a ball in an iron pipe, I threw bitter glances at the collection of Perelman's problems. But then the pipe was overgrown with details: plastic branches were attached to it, wrapped in layers of adhesive tape and made an e-mail system to which you can send orders and samples of subject letters to younger ones.

From other achievements:

• Crawled in the duvet over the floor, depicting a black monk.
• Rehearsed somersault run.
• Listened to the album The Prodigy (oh my god why The Prodigy? How did he dig them out under a layer of normal music?).

If you suddenly gave the child the freedom not to learn, then you should not expect that he immediately begins to reveal his talents and confirm the words of Alexander Neill. First, he will make you senseless and wild pursuits. For example: with a business look, peel the ice with a rusty 30 iron bolt for minutes on end.

“We are driving the children into the frame and make them adapt. We force them to an abnormal situation, when they have to spend most of their time under adult supervision, sit at their desks, listen and read what they are not interested in, and answer other people's questions that mean nothing to them. We give them less time to play and search for something really interesting. ”

Of books by Peter Gray "Freedom to learn"

The second week

The search for something really interesting continued.

• He played the piano. Very similar to The Prodigy.
• I read teen stories and fantasy.
• The rest of the book dumped out of the closet, and together with my sister, putting them on the roots, made a huge maze throughout the apartment.
• He called a friend, with whom they shot for five hours in a row from toy dart-fighters.
• Played the Vietnam War. Broke a chair.

It is impossible not to notice that the child left alone begins to take the initiative and realizes his creative impulses. Our problem is that we do not particularly appreciate them. We like good kids who do what they are told to do. And if the nervous parent is unbearable to look at the fruits of children's initiative, you just need to remove sharp objects away, buy dirt-repellent clothes, wrap antiques with polythene, and then move away somewhere far away to rid yourself of premature gray hair.

And a good soothing device is to pick up the right words for children's activities: he does not bludgeon with all his strength on the drum, but develops a sense of rhythm. Do not quarrel with his sister - and pumps the skills of the discussion. It does not spoil the interior (“Where did you drag the writing desk ?!”) - but learns how to organize the space yourself. Thus, any idiotic undertaking, as you yourself will notice, will prove to be a very useful and good work.

“Nowadays, children are more irritated than ever in the history of mankind. ... But they can not be distracted by this, otherwise they will be punished. Distract from what? From the dullest boredom that is taught in schools. ”

Ken robinson in TED-speech

In exchange for any boring child, the child will have its own burden.

Third week

By the third week, the academic interests of my child prevailed over all others. Egor began to record the events of the past day and make long lists "What kind of pens I will buy in the stationery store when they are invented."

• Delved into reading. Among the reads are hundreds of pages of The Chronicles of Amber, Stephenson, and Herbert's Dunes. The five-year-old sister recounted the adventures of Sufir Havat, although she tried to leave the premises.
• Corresponded with friends from my account in social networks. The correspondence was in the mysterious language of emoticons and gifs. I noticed that little boys love to send each other kittens crying.
• Made a presentation of five slides with pictures and text on the topic: "Why I do not want the winter to end." In the pictures, besides the types of winter, there were for some reason kittens.
• I made a toy in Skratch - witches play football. He asked for help from his uncle programmer. On the way to learning overcame the resistance of the programmer’s uncle.
• Opened the "Entertaining Physics" Perelman! Thoughtfully looked into her (Yes!).
• Found under the bed comics "Economics. How the economy works. ” At dinner, he was tormented by adults: “Dad, tell me about communism. And why Karl Marx was wrong in his theories?

Perhaps many people listened to Marx's theories forcibly only because they did not find information about him under the bed. If you desperately need a child to master something, it is better to remove the educational materials in some hard-to-reach place, as in Soviet times they hid sweets for the holiday. In addition, many children, such as my child, are happy to do exactly what is forbidden to him. This is a subtle point.

You bring a book home and say: "Read, cool thing!". Before the phrase is completed, you understand that interest in it will never wake up. The man sluggishly nods and forgets your recommendation forever.

Why did Egor read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Because I said that this is a terrible book and he should not read it before going to bed.

Why did he jump on Zelazny? Because grandma said that this is hellish nonsense and you shouldn't keep her at home. Why the child does not let go of the 1000-page "Dune"? Dad said that Egor read it early.

Heaps of parental problems can be avoided by remembering a simple thing: no one likes being told what to do. But everyone likes to make independent, sometimes daring and risky decisions.

“The school teaches children to be employees and consumers; teach your children to be leaders and adventurers. The school teaches children to obey reflectively; teach your children to think critically and independently. Children who are well-trained by the school quickly get bored; help your child develop his inner world so that he will never be bored. ”

John Taylor Gatto

These are beautiful words, but unfortunately, it doesn’t say what to do in order to develop the inner world of the child. Do blows with an iron bolt in the methods of development of the inner world? Hope so. In any case, none of us were bored this month.

Of course, the smart guys who pour inspirational quotes and cite the example of the Sudbury Valley Democratic School are somewhat right. But you will always have an excuse: they just did not sit at the parents' meeting at your school and did not see the head teacher Tamara Mikhailovna. How can you not force a child to learn if he gets worse? For his own good!

But coercion is something that really works poorly. Trite, but to generate a steady interest in learning is what helps:

• Creating a competent environment: there are people who enthusiastically study, conversations, libraries, museums, theaters, and also books, games, the right computer programs, things to study (antiques wrap up) around.
• Feeling "I'm doing well, I can."
• Some freedom of choice. The right to be wrong. And no matter how blasphemous - the right to refuse writing in favor of a shootout.

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