Why Great Schools Need to Be Fun

Every child is a gift and is special. The insane 400 trillion to 1 odds of becoming a human being is enough to deserve a learning environment that can support the individual potential of each and every child.

Nevertheless, many children struggle at school and are bored by the whole school process. The reason for this is that the majority of schools are built as “teacher centered environments”: for the teacher to deliver the same message to all children, at the same pace, with standard assessment via a repetitive pattern of “teach-assess-teach” – assuming all children learn in the same way!

In this process, students sit at a desk, facing the teacher, while the teacher instructs, explains and gives assignments. The full learning process is predominantly academic. The entire class is going through the material at the same pace. Chairs and desks are often uncomfortable. Children are obliged to sit for hours, cannot stand, relax, connect, complement their learning digitally or team-work with their peers.

All this in spite of the fact that the ultimate purpose of education is to help students learn. Learning, which comes in different forms – (a) from expert (teacher), (b) from peers (team-work), (c) from individual study (d) from doing (experimentation) – requires an engaged and passionate mind willing to learn.

A significant and growing group of more modern schools are quickly evolving with the single objective to create an environment where children can better “learn to learn” and can better capitalise on their unique skill sets by designing environments and learning processes facilitating team-work, multi-disciplinary learning, digital integration, and debating to ultimately stimulate engagement and exponentially accelerate learning.

Starting is easy. There are many initiatives schools can drive keeping in mind children learn best through play, when they are relaxed, happy and when they can have fun. Play is far more powerful for children, however, than many parents realize. It’s actually the key to learning. Researchers and educators across the world have found that play can help enrich learning and develop key skills such as inquiry, expression, experimentation, and teamwork.

“We need to consider those young children learn in quite different ways [than adults]. They learn by comparing physical experiences, by interactions with other people and their own feelings. And they learn an enormous amount through their imagination…. Play is what pulls together the logical and creative parts of the brain,” explains Professor Doris Fromberg, Director of Early Childhood Teacher Education at Hofstra University.

For young children, play is often a full body activity that helps them develop skills they will need later in life. Running, dancing, climbing, rolling—these activities all foster muscle development and help fine-tune motor skills. Children also build their mental and emotional muscles as they create elaborate, imaginative worlds rich with a system of rules that govern the terms of play.

This role playing helps children build social skills and helps them become the kind of adults who are able to thrive in a range of personal and professional environments.

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they’re learning.” – Fred Rogers