Formal Education

Formal education usually ignores children’s need to have fun. Teachers begin to create conformity through an attitude where the same assignment fits all children. They are sometimes very dull, boring assignments. The fun that creates vast learning is suddenly taken out of the equation. Children can become very passive in their learning and non-responsive to what is now called “work.” The magic seems to be gone.

If the teacher is not an up-beat and joyful person, then he or she conveys a sense of dread to the children and the potential for learning diminishes. Attitudes toward learning are conveyed to our children through educators.

Once children are behind in learning, they have a difficult time ever getting caught up and advancing again. Many high school students and graduates cannot read, cannot do mathematical calculations nor are they able to integrate and assimilate information. Deductive and inductive reasoning are processes that are lost to them forever.

When children begin going to school they lose a lot of freedom. That loss becomes a real devastation to the learning process. Confinement and rote learning together become the prison of ignorance. If a student is fortunate, he or she has teachers that allow for free thinking and continued play as valid and encouraged forms of learning. That particular student may progress very nicely within the educational system.