Beautiful Learning

Beautiful learning is possible all of the time. Beautiful learning can happen anywhere: around a table, at a sink, on the front stoop, from a windowsill, in a forest, or on a patch of grass. Beautiful learning can happen anytime: while reading a book, putting on socks, kneading dough, washing clothes, watching fish, climbing a hill, holding a button, or doing nothing at all. Beautiful learning can happen close up or far away. It can happen through ideas spoken, written, or expressed through music, drawing, or dance. Beautiful learning can happen on a lap, in a morning circle, or through a screen.

As we enter this new school year of 2020-21, there are oodles of conversations (and plans) around technical questions and safety procedures. There is a zoomed-in lens looking for “solutions.”

None of this feels very beautiful.

If beautiful learning is possible all of the time, how might we keep our focus on what’s beautiful?

 

Notice beauty everywhere.

What we focus on, grows. If you don’t do this already, start noticing and naming beauty wherever you find it, especially at times when things don’t feel very beautiful. If you are an educator and find yourself watching an overly structured procedural webinar introducing a new online platform, focus your attention on noticing for beauty. Maybe a colleague is watching, too. Maybe you are in comfy clothes and a flock of geese is flying overhead. Maybe you are looking forward to connecting with a particular family at your school. Be present with the webinar, but keep your lens on beauty. It will grow.

Let learning breathe.

As schools, educators, and parents design and plan for learning this school year, a key question to ask for each “unit” or “day” or “lesson” or “activity” is: Does this allow learning or does it arrange for learning? It is common, particularly when using online platforms that can hold a lot of content, steps, and options, for learning to be arranged. It might be playfully arranged or arranged with high-quality resources and thoughtful experiences, but if it is arranged too much, learning can’t breathe because it isn’t trusted. And learning needs to breathe to be beautiful.

Focus on small moments and small bits.

All of life is a series of small moments. When we keep our focus on fully experiencing each small moment, everything—including learning—feels light, joyful, beautiful. If you are a parent supporting your child’s online learning and you look at the thick scope of content and endless resources on the platform being used, it can feel overwhelming. Instead, focus on the small. Focus on one piece of something that sparks a bit of joy for you and your child and pull that small bit out. Allow your child to engage with that one small bit right now, and the moment will expand (breathe) into many small moments grown from lightness and joy.

Slow down.

American schools are typically places that are heavily timed and tightly scheduled. One of the first things I noticed when I left the classroom after 23 years was that I could use the bathroom whenever I wanted. What a luxury, I thought. But time to be fully human is not a luxury. Since March 2020, we’ve all had at least some practice in what it means to slow down. If we want learning to be beautiful, we need to hold slowing down as an essential practice, not as a romanticized notion or temporary incident. As we design and engage in learning this school year, let’s hold a lens for noticing slowness. Where are the opportunities for us to reflect, explore feelings, connect new learning to current realities, be with nature, sit with silence, allow beauty to emerge from inside ourselves?

Annie Dillard says, “How we spend our days is, in fact, how we spend our lives.” Let’s take this to heart and create a school year full of beautiful learning by living each small moment as beautiful.

With love and light, Melissa

 

To read about what we can learn about beautiful learning from Fred Rogers, check out this essay on the Fred Rogers Center blog:

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Small things you can do to grow beautiful learning…

For educators:

Look through your plans for the upcoming school year and look for opportunities to:

  • Be your honest self with children

  • Share ordinary, everyday objects as an invitation for learning

  • Trust and allow learning (How might you loosen up something you’ve arranged?)

  • Encourage exploration of feelings (in integrated, authentic ways, not as a separate topic)

  • Zoom into the bits that feel light and joyful (What might you remove so only what’s essential and beautiful remains?)

For administrators:

Review your plans, policies, and platforms for the school year and look for opportunities to:

  • Allow educators to be in genuine relationship with students

  • Encourage play-based, constructivist learning inside and outside of online platforms

  • Leverage everyday objects and routines of home into curriculum design

  • Extend exploration of feelings into all learning (not as a separate SEL strand or only for the first weeks of school)

  • Reflect on what Fred Rogers said: “the best use of television happens when the program is over.” Is this true for your use of online platforms/screens?

For parents:

Think about what you know of your child’s schooling situation for this school year and:

  • Ask questions about your school’s learning plan (How will your child connect directly with teachers? What kinds of play are encouraged away from the screen?)

  • Notice what your child is talking and playing about right now. Listen for how your child is understanding and processing things

  • Create some home routines for the school year that feel easy and light

  • Meet directly with your child’s teacher to ask for help in making adaptations with online platforms that feel too heavy or too much

  • Remember that schooling isn’t the same as learning; keep your focus on learning and encourage your child’s joyful curiosity about themselves and the world 

small shifts, big impact

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Melissa A. Butler