In my last piece, How Do I Make Sure There Are No Gaps In My Child’s Learning?, I addressed the fact that, in fact, there will always be gaps. Our goal as parents and educators is to create “lifelong learners.”
But what is that, and how do you do it?
Model the behavior
Pretty much anything you expect of your kids and students comes back to you. If you aren’t polite around your children, you can’t expect them to be polite when you aren’t around.*
* expecting them to be polite to YOU is another subject altogether!
If you ignore your kids and stare at your phone when they’re in the room, they are likely to do the same.
Being a lifelong learner is yet another place where you have to lead by example. Do your students or children see you learning? Do you try always to sound like you know everything? Then you are raising them to shy away from admitting they don’t know something and finding a way to attain that knowledge.
Make a model of yourself. Talk to your kids about what you learned. Tell your students that you are struggling to relearn to play piano after 30 years.
Assess your role
An older teacher once said to me, “I’m always the dumbest person in the room.” It wasn’t a comment on his self-esteem, but rather on his teaching method.
Of course, he had many of the answers that his students were searching for, but his job was not to be the Sage on the Stage. It was to be a guide and mentor.
Some parents seem to think that if they step back from being the authority on everything, they will lose basic parental authority. But that’s simply not true. Children are more likely to respect the authority of someone trustworthy and open than someone who cuts off debate.
Join in the fun
Let’s face it: being a lifelong learner is actually fun. And your kids are more likely to blossom at this task if you’re by their side. Consider everything that you come across in daily life to be a learning opportunity:
Weird bug in the house? Look it up and identify it.
Relative states an offensive opinion at a family dinner? Go home and engage your kids in learning about the issue.
Kid is suddenly fascinated with a topic you find mind-numbingly boring? Unnumb your mind and find out more.
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