Good learning is inefficient
2002: Oliver
We’ve kicked a ball about on the pockmarked pitch and now take a seat on the park bench. Tom indicates that he wants to scramble over the rockery. In a heartbeat he is over the low retaining stone wall and halfway up the nearest boulder; a smooth, almost spherical mass of granite easily the height of him and wider than anything he could wrap his small arms around. Oliver, just under 2 years old, only has eyes for his brother and so makes his way over to the low wall. My first problem is that this terrifies me - you know what is running through my mind - and my second problem is that I don’t actually want to stop his engine running. He doesn’t see risk - that’s my job - and he won’t be categorising it as a challenge - that’s how we speak - no, he just wants what Tom has. Against all my instincts I allow things to evolve. He grabs the top row of stones and starts to heave himself up. He manages to retain his balance, but makes no vertical progress initially. He tries again, his left leg seeking a grip it doesn’t get. He grunts. I realise that this is my time to intervene. I step forward and with hands either side of his narrow hips I ease him up onto the grassy plateau that leads to the first rock and then release him, withdraw, but remain there. He moves forwards and places the palms of his hand against the stone surface. I glimpse the tightening in his tiny fingers as he attempts to grip the smooth surface…
2017: Chloe
The pre-show warm up was underway under the massive aluminium rigging that dominated the performance space. Families were taking their seats. There was a nervous energy. Chloe stood stock-still as those around her limbered up, taking instructions from the director. I waited, but she remained steadfast in her cold fear. She looked furious, but I knew what it really was. Following fruitless non-verbal encouragement from the seating area, I went to speak to her, but she was not to be moved so I retreated. I was momentarily distracted with a question, then the announcement came followed by welcomes and intro, and the show was suddenly underway. I looked for her and there she was, delivering her part as she had done through hours of rehearsals.
2024: Oak
I regularly reflect on both of these moments in terms of a person’s capacity to exceed well beyond their own or others expectations. I mean, isn’t it extraordinary that barriers that to others (me watching Oliver) or the self (Chloe) seem overwhelming and unyielding one minute, only to fall away; that the goal (Oliver, again) or sheer sense of personal responsiblity to deliver (Chloe) enables the person to shred their reservation, hesitation and fear, and achieve extraordinary things. As I watched a ‘stay and play’ session at The Oak, I witnessed multiple examples of young people, certainly younger that 5, achieving extraordinary things: exploring, experimenting, failing and starting again; accompanying adults showing, guiding, checking and correcting, talking, coaxing, coaching, validating, smiling: there for them, there with them. And me, marvelling at the intrinsic motivation of these tiny people, often wordless, vibrating with joy, emboldened by the innate ability to identify a challenge meaningful to them and the tackle it; embracing failure as part of the process.
This all happens so naturally until formal measures say enough is enough and takes these fearless explorers, these destroyers of boundaries, these happy, willing failers, and sits them in seats, directs them to the front, and snuffs out the flame of powerful, purposeful endeavour. The child, hitherto, the setter of its own challenges, self-differentiator, buccaneer, is now munching on a diet selected by others, validated only really by the experience of those that surround her. In this shallow space, natural instincts for learning are flattened out and with activity not sustaining enough in its own right, now requires adults to advocate for it, declare its value. If the Victorian educational imaginary was driven by a need for efficient, mass education, we must now explore the notion that good learning is actually inefficient, costly and small scale.