Monday thought of the week: because they have lived it

A thought:

My friend is anxious to show my children their new program, “Acorn Pond.” Her daughter skillfully clicks on areas around the pond and the animals come out and tell us what they were doing. When she clicks on “beaver,” the computer simply says, “Beavers build dams on streams.” I watch Sierra as a look of slight confusion covers her face. It brings her right back to our Colorado beaver friend… hearing the slap of his tail, seeing the light glisten on his wet fur, smelling the pond water, feeling the warmth of the lowering sun. The computer image didn’t have any of this.

This is when it hits me. How much we are already teaching our children just by placing the world in their path. Experiential learning is better than a book, better than a school building, better than a computer program. This kind of learning will stay with them for the rest of their lives, because they have lived it.

– Cindy Ross, “How We Spend Our Days,” cindyrosstraveler.com (March 19, 2012)