Every abandonment, every betrayal, every hateful act towards children returns tenfold a few decades later upon the historical stage, while every empathetic act that helps a child become what he or she wants to become, every expression of love toward children helps society and moves it in unexpected, wondrous new directions.
Lloyd de Mause
journey stories
3R's
At the very beginning we asked the students (aged 5-10) what they did and didn’t want to learn. Based on their previous experience, every boy was resistant to reading and writing. And not one girl enjoyed the abstract way of learning maths that they had previously encountered.
This told us something really important about the natural, fundamental differences between boys and girls long with the dangers of standardised classroom teaching. In fact one 9 year old boy, couldn’t read at all and didn’t believe that he could ever learn to. In short, there was no desire or real willingness to engage in those subjects in the traditional way.
So here we were, on day one being put to the test. The 3R’s are just as important at Seven Oaks as at any other school, but we were determined that learning would be a positive, motivational experience rather than being dominated by boredom, frustration or a host of other negative experiences. So we brought reading, 'riting and ‘rithmetic to the kids through a variety of activities that they enjoyed, such as cooking, knitting, building, bottle rockets, making games and comics.
Suddenly the girls were excited that they were learning and applying maths in ways that were meaningful to them. The boys were slower to get excited about reading and writing, but have all come to it in their own time and have since asked their educator to help them learn to read and write. A year after we opened, the father of the boy who didn’t believe he could learn to write announced that his son had written a note to his mum, letting her know that he was just popping out to the hardware store with dad.
