Love of Learning Our Goal 

I love to learn. I spend much of my spare time reading about diverse topics and subjects. Writing this has prompted me to start a newsletter page focused on a book each fortnight. I share a few snippets about what I have learned from the book and why I would recommend it.

But back to learning. In 2018, the South Korean Ministry of Education paid for me to visit their country and talk to Ministry advisors and local principals. They were revisiting some of their country-wide approaches. 

Their research showed that South Korean students were the second-highest achievers in the world in internationally accredited testing. They were also second to last in the world for student happiness and well-being. As a homestay parent of scores of children for more than 25 years - one student lived with us for two years - I saw first-hand the pressure these children were under to keep up and achieve. Most would be working on additional maths exercises until late into the night - every night.

What the South Korean Ministry discovered is that as soon as formal schooling and these tests were over, their students were well and truly "over" learning. They had had enough.

I shared our "relationship-based" education approach with their people. This approach celebrates each child as a unique individual. It aims to make learning contextualised and relevant to each child. To make learning challenging, relevant, fun and engaging. Our goal is for children to get hooked on learning and have it become a life-long habit.

As with everything, balance is a key to success. We want our children to be engaged and have fun learning. We want to avoid stress and pressure to avoid turning them off learning.

We also want to make sure they are achieving their potential and learning the foundation skills, habits, attitudes and dispositions that will ensure success in life.

That is a balancing act, and it is tricky to get right.