Discovery

My wife is a genius.

Really. The things that she comes up with to do with our two boys blows my mind. She creates these amazing projects and activities that throw fuel on their fire of awe, wonder, and amazement of the world around them.

One activity in particular stands out to me from this winter. It was an especially hard winter of cold, and snow, snow, snow. My oldest son was knee deep in an obsession with pirates, treasure, and maps. My wife took out our ice cube trays one night, put drops of food coloring in each of the little sections, filled it with water, and put it in the freezer overnight.

The next morning we had a set of "ice gems." I went out back, dug holes in the snow, buried an ice gem in each hole, and then marked the spot with an "X" made by a spray bottle filled with colored water.

We then gave Eli and Sam a shovel and bucket, and told them there was treasure buried in the snow. What ensued was incredible. They were so excited to combine their passion for digging (yes, that can indeed be a passion) and playing in the snow. Their smiles lit up their faces. Eli's eyes shone as he called out, "I found another one!" They filled their buckets with beautiful ice gems of yellow, blue, red, and green.

The gems themselves were cool looking, but I believe had we just handed them to the boys straight from the freezer, they would have lost interest after a short time. Instead, it was an activity that lasted close to an hour, which, for those of you with children 5 and younger know, is an eternity.

What was the difference? Why did this bring so much joy? Why did they stay engaged for so long?

They got to dig. They got to trudge through the snow. They got to explore.

They got to discover.

This is the childhood I want for my boys. For them to be given multiple opportunities to discover, explore, question, tinker, experiment, fail, succeed.

I want the same for my students.

I believe that the most important thing to do in a classroom of learners is to create the conditions for authentic and organic growth. I believe that it all begins with me letting go of the need to control and lead, and allow my students the freedom to discover. Just like with my boys, I can guide them, I can give clues as to where those ice gems are buried, I can give them the tools, but the most important thing to give them is the ability to explore and discover on their own.

This freedom to discover is in direct opposition with a culture that more and more wants to cram students into boxes that are easily labeled, sorted, weighed, and distributed. I see this happening all around me and it saddens me.

But I have also seen firsthand what happens when you give students the freedom to explore and discover. My students are in the third month of exploring and discovering the importance of and crisis facing honeybees. They have poured enormous amounts of effort and time into learning all that they can about the topic. They have read. They have researched. They have interviewed master beekeepers. They have watched documentaries. They have given presentations to our superintendent, school committee, members of the Wells Reserve National Estuarine Research facility, as well as our entire staff of teachers. They are assembling beehives that we purchased to place at the Wells Reserve. They are learning about beekeeping and how to create the conditions for growth for the bees. They are expanding their presentation to bring to local elementary schools, libraries, Rotary clubs, and any place that will have us. And it was all their idea.

They are engaged.

They are learning.

They are growing.

They are owning their education.

They are exploring and discovering.

It is absolutely amazing to witness.