When young children encounter difficulties in work, play, or social relationships, our first instinct is often to tell them how to solve the problem right away. Sometimes we need to resist that urge in order to help children gain valuable experiences and learn how to do things for themselves. At school, we try to constantly keep in mind the idea of how to best help children work through problems. There are times, of course, when it is best to give a child an answer or help with a solution, but there are other times when asking some guiding questions or simply letting that child work through the struggle may be the best response. We see time and time again how when children work through a rough spot, they often gain greater knowledge, understanding, and a firmer grasp of the thing they worked through than if someone had just told them how to do it. Each day, we see children working on solving problems.
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In blocks, trying to solve the problem of containing the marble once it reaches the bottom of the ramp
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Each of us, in our days, inevitably encounter difficulties and it is interesting to think about how we work through those challenges. For the children, as they learn to use their own words in solving problems with each other, as they puzzle through how to make a block structure stand strong, think about what that puzzling new substance in the sensory table might be, or figure out how to draw something that looks the way they want it to by making several drafts, they are developing many habits that will serve them well throughout their lives.
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| Struggling to build a structure that will be big enough for all of the Three Little Pigs to fit. |
As you know, we have been focusing on 20 habits as a school this year. One of the Habits of Learning (“processing, active and continuous pursuit that builds expertise”) is persisting—learning and practicing with perseverance, tenacity, grit. When a child works through something that is hard, he or she understands it more completely and remembers it better. Children gain great confidence when they figure something out on their own, rather than just being told what the answer is. How great do you feel when you have worked hard at something and come out with a successful result, even if--and maybe especially because--you have made many mistakes along the way?
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| Working to count and remember how many 10s make 50. |
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| Struggling to fit 50 pennies into the roll. And then, SUCCESS! |
This week, I overheard two students working together at the marble run, an activity in which the children set up some magnetized ramps that allow a marble to run through the entire set of ramps and hopefully land in the “bucket” at the end. It can be difficult to figure out how to place the ramps so that the marble runs all the way through and doesn’t fly off somewhere along the way. I heard Nicholas say “Here’s your challenge!”’ When I asked about it, Noah said, “I like these challenges. Nick has good challenges because they are really tricky. It’s fun because I figured out a lot of tricky ones.”
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| Setting up a marble run challenge. |
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| Testing the marble run. |
After admitting that it was hard, Noah told me, “I figure it out. I kind of work on it.” What an amazing feeling it is when you have accomplished something that was a challenge. Later, Finley was working on trying to make the marble run through and he said to me, “I just want to try to see if it works. If it doesn’t, then I’ll just move it to different places.” It struck me that they were so enjoying the process of creating difficulty and working through it. Persistence. Perseverance. Tenacity. Grit. Expertise. In action!
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| "I just want to try to see if it works." |
Finding the struggle in something and working through it, can be so empowering for children. That is what makes learning exciting and interesting.
