moment to movement

What do our hands offers learning? Some research has shown that we learn science more effectively (and it's remembered) when we learn hands-on, even when less breadth of material is covered.

I suggest a revolution in schooling to make use of concrete learning to a greater degree than we do now. The covid-19 epidemic is likely to divorce learning even more from concrete learning unless we can figure out how to become a channel for propelling kids to get off their digital devices and into the real world. Many years ago, a friend had suggested to me that my brains are in my hands, and that threw me for a loop. I realized he was right, and over the years became aware that was not only true for me, but for most others as well.

I would urge all teachers and all students, even those in academic subjects to thoroughly examine their own learning experience sand particularly those a-ha life changing moments that brought them to an extreme interest in a particular subject area, and assess how deeply their hands were engaged at the time. Were they doing something real, were they out in a real place, and did they connect what they were learning with actual real world experience? I believe effective learning for all of us, must involve engagement in reality. And where the hands and mind are equally engaged, the heart follows. 

This is what I try to write about in this blog. So let's see how we can build this moment into a movement. There's a real world out there folks. Let's examine it hands-on and learn from it, and build a better world from what we've learned.

In the meantime, I'm working on boxes and trying to figure out how to get tools and materials distributed safely to our kids. Thanks, Dana,  for the ostrich. You can discover such cool things when you're paying attention to wood.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning lifewise.