EDUCARE’ LATIN FOR LEARN FROM WITHIN
A child’s interest is not necessarily a distraction from education.
It may be the doorway into it.
Find what awakens the child—then teach through the opening.
I remember kindergarten.
It was a pleasant experience—except for the moment I discovered my mother had left.
That produced desperate crying and sobbing.
Once I recovered, the rest was pretty good stuff.
The teacher sat at a piano and played “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”
I had never heard the song.
I did not know the words, even though she sang them aloud.
But when the E-I-E-I-OH part arrived, I caught on quickly.
My voice could be heard during every chorus.
I did not know the entire lesson.
But I found the part through which I could enter.
THE MOTH AND THE LICE
Just as I was becoming comfortable, they brought in a speaker to discuss head and health hygiene.
He explained that children could get bugs in their hair.
As I grew older, I understood that he meant lice.
But kindergarten Richie did not possess that information.
I looked toward the girl sitting beside me—and at that exact moment, a moth landed in her hair.
I went nuts.
I started rubbing my head and screaming until the adults calmed me down and explained that this was not the kind of bug the speaker meant.
LOL.
Education had my complete attention now.
Perhaps too much.
EDUCATION
Educating a child traditionally takes place across approximately twelve school years.
Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic—the famous three R’s—worked then and remain foundational now, even if only one of them actually begins with R.
At some point while progressing through the grades, however, I began losing interest.
BORING
I compared the classroom with what happened at home, after school, and on weekends.
Playing ball.
Climbing.
Running.
Sports.
Friends.
Freedom.
Subway trains.
Trips to the candy store.
All of it seemed more important than sitting in a classroom.
The outside world felt alive.
School often felt scheduled.
NO BLAME
Teachers tried to make lessons interesting.
But my insides and desires remained more interesting to me.
Then they really messed up:
They introduced homework.
Now school interfered with time away from school.
What an infringement upon a child’s life!
School can be crazy.
I AM NOT ALONE—OR THE SAME
My wife, sister, and many others loved schooling.
Okay and fine.
Schooling is subjective because children are individuals.
A school system, however, must create enough structure to serve many students.
That is the tension.
The system needs shared requirements.
The child needs individual discovery.
Richie’s use of “educar’e—learning from within” points toward this idea:
Education should not merely place information upon a child.
It should also draw curiosity, ability, personality, and purpose outward.
WATCH WHAT A CHILD LIKES
Observe the child.
Then reach and teach through what attracts them.
Animals?
Sports?
Working with their hands?
Travel?
Cooking?
Arts and crafts?
Asking questions?
Playing ball?
Jump rope?
Baseball cards?
Cartoons?
Little toys?
Yo-yos?
All these things belong to the child’s world.
What part do adults not understand?
Interest provides an entrance.
A child fascinated by baseball can learn mathematics through scores and statistics.
A child who loves cooking can learn measurement, chemistry, culture, timing, and responsibility.
A child drawn to animals can learn biology, reading, empathy, and observation.
The subject they love can become a bridge toward subjects they have not yet learned to love.
WORTHY NOTE
You are a child for a short time.
You are an adult for a long time.
Why can’t this be reversed?
LOL.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
Childhood is not merely preparation for real life.
Childhood is already life.
BUT C’MON NOW
The school system has a plan for how students will spend those years.
The plan cannot be based entirely upon what each child likes because children also need foundational knowledge, discipline, exposure, and skills they might not voluntarily choose.
But the blanket rule can become too heavy when it stops recognizing the person beneath it.
Society created both a stick and a carrot to encourage participation.
THE STIGMA
For many generations, leaving school early carried severe judgment.
“High-school dropout.”
“Only public school?”
“Held back.”
“Summer school.”
“Didn’t graduate with the class.”
These descriptions could become brands placed upon a young person—as though one educational result settled their entire human value.
Being required to repeat a year might carry embarrassment beyond the academic purpose.
And threatening a child who already dislikes school with even more school?
The irony writes itself.
Alternative routes such as equivalency credentials offered another opportunity.
Now the person had a way to demonstrate learning outside the original timetable.
A second route should not be treated as a second-class human life.
THE CARROT
A diploma opened doors.
Employment.
Military service.
College.
Training.
Social acceptance.
It suggested positive things and sometimes acted like a license to participate and advance.
The credential carried real practical value.
But a diploma should certify learning—not substitute for it.
A student can hold paper without confidence.
Another can possess tremendous ability without the expected paper.
The wisest system develops the person and recognizes the learning.
THE INCENTIVE
Some children were threatened, punished, or even physically harmed over school performance and homework.
The reward was that the pressure would stop—provided the child complied, completed the work, and graduated.
There were positive reinforcements too:
Praise.
Recognition.
Encouragement.
Opportunity.
A teacher’s approval.
A parent’s pride.
A child generally learns better when correction does not destroy curiosity.
LEARNING FROM WITHIN
If I was learning, doing, and participating in something I liked, I would finish what I started.
No problem.
Mix necessary “must-do’s” with plenty of interesting “fun-do’s,” and a diploma becomes more reachable.
After all, did they not create a fun song to teach the ABCs?
Music carried the information.
Enjoyment helped memory.
The lesson entered because the door was open.
When I received permission to go outside and play, I did not return until it became so dark that you could no longer see your friends’ faces, the ball, or the bases.
Nobody had to remind me to remain engaged.
Interest supplied endurance.
INDIVIDUAL LEARNING
When classrooms were smaller, teachers often had more time for individual students.
Children showed their progress and received approval, correction, and encouragement.
During parent-teacher conversations, a teacher could share valuable observations:
What the child liked.
What they resisted.
Where they struggled.
What special ability appeared.
Spelling.
Drawing.
Arts and crafts.
Helping others.
Leadership.
Curiosity.
The teacher became more than a person delivering content.
The teacher became a witness to development.
THE SYSTEM UNDER PRESSURE
Crowded classrooms, limited resources, administrative requirements, testing pressures, and many different student needs can make individual attention difficult.
Teachers may be expected to teach in bulk.
Students may advance while important gaps remain.
The missing foundation follows them into the next grade.
Eventually, the teacher, family, system, and student discover that advancement did not always equal mastery.
This is not the failure of every teacher or every school.
It is a warning about what happens when passing through the system becomes more important than learning within it.
PUBLIC, PRIVATE, HOME, OR OTHERWISE
Private schools may offer smaller classes or additional resources—but price does not guarantee excellent education.
Public schools can contain extraordinary teachers and life-changing programs.
Homeschooling can provide individual attention while creating other demands.
No setting automatically solves everything.
The better question remains:
Is this child being reached, taught, challenged, supported, and genuinely educated?
PEARLS INSIGHT
Information can be delivered to a classroom.
Education must occur within a learner.
The teacher provides material, structure, encouragement, and guidance.
The student’s curiosity, effort, interest, and growing understanding transform instruction into learning.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Do not merely ask whether the child completed the assignment.
Ask:
“What did you discover?”
“What interested you?”
“What confused you?”
“What would make this come alive?”
Then listen.
The answer may show you the doorway.
FINAL THOUGHT
Children need literacy, mathematics, knowledge, discipline, and preparation.
They also need wonder, movement, play, attention, and opportunities to discover what makes them come alive.
We should not have to choose between fundamentals and fascination.
The strongest education joins them.
FINAL SAY
Watch what the child loves.
Reach them there.
Teach them through it.
Then help the roots grow strong enough for every branch still waiting within.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
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