If they're playing they're not learning!

"If they're playing, they're not learning" is what you might really think if you come and visit our school.  Actually, it is what our education system is set up to believe.   Despite what our curriculums, Te Whariki, and the NZC, which are world-class, say, the word on the street is that children need teachers to learn.  Children need schools.

Everyone has been to school, everyone knows how the system really works.
Remember!  The bell rings to tell you when to go to class.  The class is arranged with desks where you are directed to sit.  The timetable tells you what subject you will learn at what time.  A task is set for you by the teacher, which tells you how you will learn about that subject.  Then you are given a test to make sure you have learned it and if you haven't you are made to do more of it for longer periods of time.  And we believe that this is actually how we learn and that this is okay because that is the way we have always done it. We didn't all like school, but we did okay, so it must be correct, right?

Then there are the statistics which tell us that those in poverty, those with certain race backgrounds, those living in certain areas are most likely to fail.  Millions are spent on programmes of change. Research is published which 'proves' that these students do much better when they are explicitly told what to learn, earlier, even though the statistics haven't changed.   Tweaks are made to a system which in my opinion has grown into a force which overrides common sense, it even overrides brain research.  The system has grown into a monster which terrifies educators if they dare to step outside of it.

If we always do what we have always done, we will always get what we have always got.

Let me share with you some of my highlights from the beginning of 2019.

My heart is happy, and I love my job because I am trusted to make decisions which help children to learn.  I start each day in the mara, the garden, with around 20 students ranging in age from 5 to 17.  We meet in a shed, say hello, and chat about the day.  Relationships are key.  Each one at different stages. We have authentic, caring and real conversations.   "How are you today?"  is not just a throwaway line, but a topic we spend time on.  Do you need breakfast?  Sometimes, we cook food together.  Building relationships mean stopping to listen and then respond, sometimes the most powerful response is 'I'm sorry to hear that'.  Sometimes, building relationships are stopping to think about the behavior a person is displaying.  Why?  Then acknowledging the pain, providing the lack, giving the gift of space and time to process the pain.

 When ready, each student chooses what they will be doing for the day.  These choices are unique to each one.  Maybe, they are choosing to learn in certain spaces, playing with stuff, imaginary play, dramatic play, creative play, following deep urges which drive them.  Urges which are set up to support humans to learn urges which need to be listened to.  Sometimes, they choose a workshop on offer, sometimes, they are following an inquiry which they have decided to pursue. They choose the space depending on what they need.  The spaces enable students to practice self-regulation.

I can tell you, it doesn't look pretty, it is messy, ununiformed, not in order, not quiet, not still always but it is real.  And real means we can work with it and in it, and learn constantly. At our place, Haeata Community Campus, on the Teina side, the educators stay in spaces but the children decide where they need to be.

Around 10.15am we move back over to a building, which is set up with different options.

Teachers thoughtfully, with heart, acknowledge children as partners, design spaces, where children can be active participants without being wrong.  Teachers increasingly think about children as being capable of driving their own learning and the spaces reflect this.

At our heart are relationships.  A deep abiding belief that children are more than the system would have us believe, more than needing to be bossed about and told what to learn and where.  More than the traditional schooling system. Relationships and time enable us to notice a whole person and respond to that person in ways which are authentic.  And please, don't shout this too loudly, but children can learn without teachers telling them what to do!

That is why I am beginning to feel the way I am, deeply satisfied, like I, together with many others, can actually make a difference.  Like potentially, statistics will be written with positive outcomes, where research acknowledges that earlier isn't necessarily better, where those in poverty are empowered, where success is redefined from the majority viewpoint, where whole communities are changed, where people are living happy lives.

If I was to sum it up?

When children are playing, they are learning.