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Teachers Become Mentors
Teachers Become Mentors
With the ZERI Educational Initiative, the teacher must evolve from the traditional "giver of knowledge" to become a facilitator, an enzyme of learning, a catalyst - that is to adopt the role of mentor.
Mentors can help eliminate obstacles and they can ask the questions that help as students develop their thinking. The student needs to know their mentor is there when the student needs them. With this new kind of guidance, the student begins to asses their own learning, which leads to improved self confidence, and an enhanced sense of their potential. A mentor should be involved in their child's learning beyond the single year they are allowed under the traditional educational system. In this way, a teacher can remain an important figure in the life of the child, and can help them to develop in spite of the barrage of negative messages that the child may be exposed to on a daily basis as they grow older.
Learning in Systems
If the next generation is to truly learn to think, design, create, and dream in systems, then they must be exposed at an early age to systems thinking. Systems thinking is a complex skill, one that must develop over time in the child's long term memory. As children develop the systems perspective, in line with an emotional connection to their education (as provided by the fables) a synergy of learning is created that empowers them as they grow into forces of positive change for their communities.
ZERI's agricultural and manufacturing systems offer wonderful examples of the emotional appeal and the elegance of an open system. If we share the dreams of systems projects with children in an age appropriate fashion, then the critical concepts and concrete examples become part of the child's long term memory. The child can begin to see, dream, envision, and eventually design in systems. When a student has an intuitive grasp of the bigger picture, and the potential around them, then acquiring the intellectual tools that will enable them to interact with the world around them, becomes infinitely more appealing.
When students start with a fable that integrates ethics, economics, biology, and mathematics, and moreover reveals fantastic applications of these subjects, they will be far more keen to continue to engage with these disciplines as they get older. Today, many children dismiss these kinds of subjects as boring or irrelevant. As stand-alone subjects, they often are irrelevant. However, when approached from the systems perspective, students can easily see the interconnections between the disciplines, and the applications of them in their lives.
Questions Vs. Knowing the Answers
Teachers are aware of the endless and remarkable questions that come out of young children’s mouths. We have always been taught that it is important to have all the answers, and our current educational system reinforces this belief. So, over time children's seemingly outlandish questions are discouraged, as parents and teachers are disarmed and embarrassed by their inability to respond in what they perceive as the 'correct' way.
Performance in school is judged on the basis of examinations. Children are taught to accept the 'right' answers and to simply repeat them. However, if we want to create a framework where children can go beyond what we know today, does it not make sense to stimulate questions that we have not thought of?
Gunter’s Fables are written in such way as to promote these kinds of questions. They do not deliver all the answers. As teachers you can encourage children to keep their curiosity alive and continue to ask questions, using the fables as a platform. It is a great confidence booster for a young learner to see that the adults around them do not have all the answers either! By admitting the gaps in your knowledge, you can join the children in your care on their journey of discovery, and also help them to learn how to discover information for themselves.
What if children were encouraged to think about why zebras have black and white stripes, and how termites farm mushrooms? Do you ever wondered about this? Do you know the answers? Why not encourage your children to question how trout swim against the current? There are no limits to questioning; children need to be made to feel confident that they can ask anything. This kind of encouragement leads students to develop a never ending series of questions that open up whole new worlds of inquiry. We can only imagine where such students would eventually take our world. In elementary school, students learn "the answer" as to why the apple falls from the tree. The concept of gravity is a linear one - what goes up, must come down. What if this material was presented so that students instead wondered how the apple got up there in the first place? This way of thinking will expose the student to systems thinking - without ever speaking the term out loud. The fables are written to encourage questions and keep readers and listeners thinking. |
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