In 2018, I had the privilege of interviewing three teachers about their work with Year 2 students. They reflected on how early it’s possible for children to view themselves as active citizens in Australian democracy, built on the belief that their voices have power and agency. The discussion began with Mary Boutros pointing out the commonality between how parents and teachers deal with a child’s developmental milestones.
There’s no point in giving them ‘answers’. I think some people want that control which dispensing knowledge gives them. They just want to get to the end result.
To change the technology, we need to educate from the ground up, on decentralization and distribution. We need to understand about distributed networks, as opposed to all these single points of failure for all these systems.
It’s time for our students to see themselves differently. How do we build in them incredible character and an eternal thirst for learning? How do we develop them into people who don’t settle for the status quo or content to be passengers passively sitting in the backseat?
It all started with the overarching idea we were exploring that year around the theme of identity. As a teaching team, we knew we wanted the kids to feel empowered, empowered enough so that they would be motivated to take action in some way to have a positive effect on their world.
It pushes you so hard, sometimes it’s overwhelming. But it pushes you to find a balance between teaching kids those really important skills, those building blocks, and then, allowing kids to be independent, autonomous … to teach each other, to create spaces, to research, all those things.
I have a belief in children as being very capable human beings. They have a lot to offer, whether they’re 5 or 12.