When I was growing up, my father wouldn’t tell me anything. Well, he did teach me philosophies and morals and stuff like that. But when I asked him a simple question, like, “What does obsequious mean?” he would point me toward the dictionary and say, “Look it up.” What kind of help is that?
He wouldn’t tell me the location of Liberia or the circumference of the Earth, or how spiders killed their prey. He was a library man. When you needed to know something, you went to a book and looked it up. If you couldn’t find it in a book, you visited a museum or got out a globe or a microscope or telescope or a spider and found out yourself.
So I learned how to find out. When I had my own children, I kept my tools close at hand. I had my trusty encyclopedia and when questions came up – Bam! We found out the answers together. I always wanted to keep it in the kitchen where it would be really handy (and where I seemed to be most of the time).
My kids and I found out a lot and, as a teacher, I continued this practice. It is much easier, of course, to just answer the questions children pose. But it is much more productive to teach them how to find the answers themselves and more fun because you are doing it together.
So I am suggesting a list of tools all parents and teachers must have in order to raise curious and independent children, at least academically.
- Everybody ought to have a globe. I love my globe. Every year, I put a happy face sticker on our state so we could orient ourselves and then ventured out with my class into the great world. When we looked for any country, river, ocean, or island, we always started by pointing out where we were (like all those maps in malls – YOU ARE HERE – how do they always know) and then traveled. Maps adorned my walls. Again, we started by saying, “Here we are in our town, in our state, on the eastern coast of the United States, in the Western Hemisphere,” before setting out on our journey. The kids got a good sense of place and distance.
- A dictionary is amazing (astounding, astonishing, remarkable, wonderful, marvelous!) A thesaurus is great too. A teacher always refers to “my friend the dictionary,” when word issues come up. A dictionary is not just for spelling. It is full of interesting information about word origins and histories, maps, diagrams, and photos. My students loved browsing through it or searching through an online dictionary.
- A magnifying glass enlarges learning. Studying things up close opens up your eyes and your imagination. Pull one out and become a detective. The universe which is invisible to the naked eye is as diverse as the world around, above, and below us. Get a telescope and sky map too!
- A pencil and pencil sharpener are vital to learning. Highlighters, crayons, colored pencils, and pens are important too. Keep records of what you learn. Draw pictures. Label diagrams. Take what you learn and embellish it with your kid’s own ideas. Lead others to what you have discovered.
- An inquiring mind needs texture. Folks today usually turn to a computer or TV for details. While efficient, these are not nearly as satisfying as unfolding a map, thumbing through the mighty OED (Oxford English Dictionary – Unabridged), or crawling through the grass looking for beetles. Feel the facts. The more senses you involve in learning something, the more you retain.
So don’t tell your kids everything. Teach them how to find out for themselves. Join them in their pursuit. Oh, and by the way: “Obsequious: willingness or eagerness to...”
No, I think I’ll let you look that one up yourself.
