Gleeful Learning is the Best

There are different levels of learners. They can be measured in various ways. We can measure learners by rating their preparedness to learn, commitment, skill potential, performance level, or test outcomes. We can also measure their attitudes. Wouldn’t you like to meet the child who ranks highly in all of these areas?

Of the six areas described above, we find many children who exhibit high levels of four or five of these qualities. We believe that not all of these qualities are equal in value. One of them rises above the rest. That is the one which we separated from the rest, namely attitude.

What is attitude with regard to learning, and what does it look like? Others may define attitude differently, but we choose to define it as how a child views his own learning. Is he pleased with his learning? Does he derive satisfaction from learning? Is he secure with what he knows and how he learns? These constitute attitude. What does this attitude look like? It looks gleeful. What does that mean?

We have been blessed with children who love to learn, so we get to see this firsthand. We have some children who have attended school as students, and others who also attend school as teachers. Both exhibit gleeful learning. We detect glee when we listen to their words and observe the look in their eyes. Gleeful words are unsolicited and sound like “I am really excited about learning about…” or a spontaneous “Can I tell you something interesting that my teacher taught me?” Gleeful eyes sparkle while these words are spoken. Where does gleeful learning come from? Two things.

First of all, gleeful learning comes from a sense of security regarding what one learns and how he learns. The learner feels comfortable with his knowledge of what he has learned or the skill he has adopted. He feels self-assured and confident enough to share what he has learned with others. Even things that were not naturally interesting or attractive in the past can make their way into the gleeful learning collection if the learner develops comfort with the material or skill. Aren’t you sometimes pleasantly surprised when your child chooses to share something he learned in school after he repeatedly criticized it in the past? He obviously became more comfortable with what was annoying him in the past. He now understands the material fully and feels like he owns it well enough to pass it on to others.

The second thing that promotes gleeful learning is related to the first. Environment. Gleeful learning needs to feel welcomed. Children will express their excitement about what they have learned and present it to others when they do not feel intimidated. They sense from the people around them that their words will be appreciated and respected, not evaluated or criticized. They find themselves in an environment of mutual respect and sharing. In our family, we experience these special moments most often when our family is gathered together for dinner. This is a time when we share recent experiences and ideas. We chat freely about almost anything.

Curious minds lead to gleeful learning
when there is freedom to explore.

Freely was the key word at the end of the previous paragraph. Freely means with the freedom to share, as we said above, without the worry of being judged and evaluated for everything that we say. Of course we are careful and respectful and we choose our words, but if something is exciting, we feel free to talk about it. We may discuss a news item we read or heard, or we may mention a fascinating or zany thing we observed that day. We listen to each other and we comment positively about the subject. Dinnertime is welcoming and interesting.

We stated earlier that attitude is the quality of learning which rises above the others. That is because attitude drives the other qualities. It motivates pursuit of the others. When we are excited about what we learn, we will learn more. We love to learn all kinds of things. Our love for learning becomes less specialized, and more generalized.

Curiosity is the innate quality which leads to excited and gleeful learning. Children show intrigue and a need to know. Curious minds lead to gleeful learning when there is freedom to explore. We should always encourage gleeful learning. We should always give our children opportunities to follow their curiosity and to explore. We should always give children a respectful forum for expressing their excitement as they learn. This is the responsibility of teachers in school and parents at home. Excited learners want to learn more. They love to learn. By enabling this to happen we are “helping children to help themselves”.

© 2006 Educational Support Services, Inc. Monsey, NY All rights reserved.