Finding diamonds in children's chat
TED talks and being told I (somehow) look like a soldier
Hi everyone
I spent last week re-enacting some Greek myths and Homer’s Iliad with kids at Nelson Primary. It was a lively week in and of itself, but there were plenty of fascinating and bamboozling side conversations.
Within literally the first minute in the class, I was blindsided by a 9 year old, who went on to entertain me for five days, with his unique take on the world.
He said,
Woah!!! You look like you’re from the military.
This confusing start set a tone for five days of lively, amusing new connections, lots of social learning alongside the academic, and plenty of joyful chat.
I left the school yesterday feeling my now-familiar mixture of happiness, sadness and tiredness, after a very physically and emotionally draining week of extroversion and making new bonds.
It was a week that made me think
Oh! I really wish I was a teacher with my own class again sometimes.
And then, in the midst of my freelancefrenzy of ruminations, my phone pinged.
My TED talk had just gone live.
Of all the times for it to publish, it caught me right as I was swimming through some reflections on a playful week of chat-based intellectual gymnastics.
One of the main parts of the talk is the idea of finding ‘diamonds in the chat’, and it was precisely this which has brought me some genuine joy in my teaching this week.
My belief is that in too many schools, too many of us narrow our expectations of what learning is and what it can be. We create a narrow set of criteria, to make our lives appear simpler, and nudge children to meet these criteria. Those who do, we call ‘good students’. Many of us operate in school systems that guide us to do this, yet we ourselves are the ones that follow up, and make it happen.
These limited criteria for learning should look like can close us off to the many other, richer ways in which we can learn, listen, interact and relate together.
And here’s the rub!
Our desire to give ourselves a simpler life actually makes it ‘fruitlessly complex’.
I saw this quotation from the educator Inge Rozendal today, and it captures it well.
The kinds of excellence we try to bring out of our students are often there on display already, glimmering unnoticed, yet we are too rushed, too narrow-lensed and (sadly, I see it sometimes) unbothered to notice.
‘The system’ brings this about, certainly, yet we are often complicit.
And the systems we bemoan do not change unless we do.
Relationships fuel connection. Connection fuels learning.
And for me, I find that taking time to seek out the diamonds in the chatter - the ‘treasure in the ruins’ - is at the heart of building meaningful relationships with learners, as well as being the roots of their poetry and creative writing.
And by god does it make teaching more enjoyable for us too!
—
If you enjoy the TED talk, I would love for you to please share it with anyone you think might be interested.
Perhaps it could be used to start a conversation about education or parenting with a pal?
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Brilliant talk packed with valuable concepts. So much respect for Jonny’s talk. Imagine a world in which all children grow up to believe their voices matter and their experiences are understood (as much as humanly possible). I mean, the impact would be enormous. Thank you for this.
Great post Jonny!
"Relationships fuel connection. Connection fuels learning." This is my ethos in teaching and engaging children in any form of learning. Well said!