I can explain it (maybe)

A friend in my ESSA box making class gave me a t-shirt with the message shown. "I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you." And that seems to be the case in American education and everywhere else.

Learning from another is a two way street, and what the teacher teaches must be met at least half way by student interest and attention.

An associate of Froebel, Adolph Diesterweg, was the educator who laid out the basic principles that evolved into the principles of Educational Sloyd. Start with the interests of the child, move from the known to the unknown, from the easy to the more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract. Adherence to these principles is the means through which the teacher's presentation of learning is carefully paced to conform to the student's growing interest and engagement. To follow these principles requires that the teacher actually know his or her students. That's a difficult challenge when you have 25 to thirty kids in a class.

Abandon these principles and students become disinterested and disruptive. Apply these principles to all areas of instruction and students blossom.

Today I have meetings at ESSA, and will continue preparing for my teaching in Connecticut.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning likewise.