Children come into our world with the desire to learn and are genetically programmed with explicit capacities for learning. They are tiny learning machines. Within their initial four years they absorb a huge amount of information and skills without any formal instruction. After four years their enormous desire and capacity to learn rather turns off, with our coercive system of schooling.

I observed the ways in which my young preschoolers mastered new skills. I also realized how different their time tables were. A few of them, rolled earlier and sat up later. Some don’t even crawl and they just walk. Information given to me through their parents had vast differences and I had always appreciated these differences in human development and wondered why we expect certain things at certain time, in certain ways from children. Their natural development is incredibly distinct. How control an age-segregated, one size fits all system of mass schooling possibly appreciate and accommodate the vast diversity of the human experiences? Schooling has become more standardized and test-driven as compared to the one we had. Pressure on children is increased , more parents are questioning this approach of education. They are seeing the striking correlation between decreasing childhood free play and increasing mental health disorders in children.

These parents may see how their childrens’ creativity has waned and their enthusiasm for learning has dwindled, replaced by extrinsic motivation and a determination to simply make it through the day without bullying or condescension (LEARNING FOR THE SAKE OF LEARNING DISSAPPEARS).

Imagine a system where creativity and ingenuity will be our key cultural and economic drives. Educators and  even parents should know that learning anything is most effective , most fulfilling, when it is self-directed, when the freedom to learn is provided , when the resources are available , when time and space for learning are offered , and when knowledgeable and supportive facilitators are available to help if needed.

Forced schooling might not help children in the years to come . Mass schooling , to some extent, ignores the cultural and economic realities of a new human era. Instead of robots, we need inventive thinkers, curious seekers and passionate doers. Inventiveness, curiosity and passion are all characteristics that young children naturally exude. We don’t need to train them for the jobs of the future. We desperately need to ensure a new paradigm of education.

We need to let go of the notion –something someone does to someone else-and instead reclaim learning-something humans naturally do in order to preserve a good planet in a new age of innovation ,information and imagination.