Learning from Scratch

My son very early on developed an affinity for computers, like most kids today. He tinkered around and found a programming language which he could enjoy – Scratch. Developed by a team in MIT, it is a fun and simple way to introduce programming to children. As the years passed, his interest expanded to Python. But every now and then, he goes back to see the latest developments in Scratch. Now that he is in high school, he was looking for a way to contribute to the community and he came up with the idea of introducing programming to children in a Government school.

What really caught him and his friends off guard is the amazing speed at which the children took to Scratch. Their efforts started by getting some old desktops installed in the school. The curriculum built by my son and his friends involved first teaching the children to gently switch on and off the device, to understanding objects, loops and <if, then> conditions. They are having a hard time keeping up to the super speed at which the kids are learning. Their appetite to learn more is insatiable!

What if every high schooler would take to spending a few hours with these children? Wouldn’t we help them escape(for a few hours) from the rote of traditional education, and allow their imagination to thrive? Showing them what is possible would only allow them to think differently right? After all what the experts say on what is required for tomorrow’s life, is not necessarily a degree, but the power to imagine the impossible! What I have observed is children learn so much better from their seniors – the Montessori style of learning. Encourage your children to share their passion with other children and see the magic spread.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_%28programming_language%29