PART 2: REPLACE COMPETITION WITH COMPETENCE IN SCHOOLS

In continuation of Article Part 1: Schools: Seesawing between Complacency and Competition? https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/schools-seesawing-between-complacency-competition-mridula-shridhar/

Competition by its dictionary definition, “the activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others.” Even in its very definition, a very negative sentiment, and one that can cause havoc with emotional stability.

The definition of competence on the other hand is, “the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.” A strong and positive sentiment that will last a lifetime.

Competition is a driving force for many of us to excel and to do better, in the absence of which sometimes we become complacent and stop striving for betterment. This is an argument often heard and justified in adults and we tend to assume that the same would apply to young children as well. Most parents also feel that if the competitive nature of the child is not awakened early, it would be a loss in the long run. In fact, if being competitive and doing better than others becomes the driving force for young children, then it takes a lifelong toll on the emotional balance of the child.

So how then do we make young children competent in school?

Rule 1.        Challenge the child everyday

To drive competence, we must provide the child with a string of challenges that promote incremental learning. Pressure is something children enjoy if they can cope with it. Children thrive on challenges, they build a pressure within themselves to achieve, and push themselves harder without any external instructions. This is why children keep jumping off the top of a slide or jump from one chair to another pushing it further away each time. The challenge they set for themselves is never benchmarked with others unless parents/ teachers/ adults have directed them to do this.

Stress on the other hand is debilitating, when a child is forced to do something that they feel they cannot do. For instance, asking a 2-year-old to jump from the top of a slide because someone else is doing it, is stressful.

By constantly challenging young children, it gives them fodder to think and opportunity to bloom.

Rule 2.        No rewards, no punishments

Children are born with an innate sense of excitement and curiosity about the world around them and with an inherent spirit of collaboration. When this gets systematically destroyed by parents and teachers by asking questions like “Did you get a star?” or “Who finished their work first?”, it is very difficult to reinstate the natural sense of motivation.

Early Years is a stage where, children excel and perform without any external motivation if the environment is conducive. There is an inherent psychological need to explore and discover and learn more constantly. In fact, inane reward systems like “stars” or “points” or “clap for the best child” have an adverse effect and completely take away the child’s mind from learning and take it to the judgement passed by the adult. So a child who may have gone home and told the parent “I learnt something about addition today” would now say “Ma’am gave me 3 gold stars for my work”, and addition is forgotten as a point of interest.

Rule 3.        Balance emotional and intellectual development

Intellectual and emotional development go hand in hand, like a balanced diet. Imagine having only rice one day, and only curry the next. When both are had together, then the meal is balanced, nutritious as well as tasty. Similarly, when children work together and develop emotionally simultaneously while learning, it makes learning wholesome and palatable. It is not very wise to have one period maths and the next as a time for sharing thoughts. Children tend to look at socialization as something to be done while working or when busy. They take time in between work to look around, chat and interact which is healthy and provides opportunities to collaborate.

Rule 4.        Intellectual development to be skill based rather than theoretical

Every academic lesson introduced practically first gives the child ample opportunities to make mistakes and self-learn. It increases interest in learning and ensures that all lessons are learnt via skills and not facts. Factual learning or theory needs to happen after practical learning and not before.

For instance, introduce continents of the world via a puzzle first, let the child absorb and understand it practically and once the child is comfortable with it, it is a great time to do a lesson in the classroom via a story or do worksheets that the child now enjoys because she/ he is already familiar with the names of continents. Most schools, do the lesson first and then take children to a lab to “practice”. This reversal makes learning skewed, and difficult to follow.

These are all simple golden rules that can be implemented by all. Even in low budget schools there is a clear understanding of these rules when explained and they see the benefits of activity based learning and self -discipline. It decreases the teachers burden and increases learning outcomes significantly. Schools and parents are hence obviously thrilled.

So what happens with social distancing as an added element in this scenario. Imagine a situation with online education being the primary source of learning in young children:

Rule 1.        Challenge the child everyday

Easily possible every day in higher income segments by giving the child interesting digital content, more worksheets, animation, interactive lessons. Possibility of doing this in low budget schools is a little remote. It is a model that has been tried by many schools and they have given up in vain.  

Rule 2.        No rewards, no punishments

Tough to do this, most digital learning platforms have a “leaderboard” or point system, which is mostly based on relative grading or competition. Even when it is based on competence, the child would end up saying “I got 30 points” today rather than reflect on how she/he solved the addition problem.

Rule 3.        Balance emotional and intellectual development

Completely goes out of the window, with no physical socialization, opportunities to chat while working or help each other out, especially since classes will be held for children of the same age or same developmental stage. Socio-emotional development is an area that allows for emotional growth when there is socialization. So this will be severely impacted with online models , especially in young children who will find it difficult to collaborate online and have opportunities to offer or receive help, make decisions as leaders, learn social etiquette or share and care in a natural way.

Rule 4.        Intellectual development to be skill based rather than theoretical

Perhaps some percentage can be achieved if virtual reality is created with very similar stimulation, but still likely to be a far cry from reality.

An instance of tying a shoelace in real life versus tying a shoelace in VR, wonder if fine motor skills can be incorporated. Maybe we will not have shoes that have laces, there will be automated meals, automated shoes and more. But what about human interaction and emotions? Are we likely to live only with automatons instead of people?

All these rules that have worked from time immemorial in education and are based on the fundamental nature of humans and natural evolution. Change is a constant, but we need to be conscious of the outcomes that change will produce if the change is man-made.

So will we be rewriting these rules and move towards an intellectually advanced but emotionally regressed way of life? Or will social un-distancing and balanced emotional and intellectual development be something all of us will consciously work towards?

Will we take the obvious and easy path and make social distancing the new normal under the guise of “it is inevitable”. Using plastic was an "inevitable" change too, but now we are making a conscious effort to protect the earth. Will we choose what is “right for the child ” and make an effort to go back to some basics once the crisis is past

Is the crisis here to stay forever? Only time has the answers.