Back to those words from yesterday-“A humble man”- what does this mean for children?
Humility is not a popular virtue anymore and most children would not have a clue of its meaning.
So-is it worth teaching and modelling? I think so. It is interesting to examine the current crop of extension children at ICE. Most of them are quietly confident but not over-proud and do not boast. They seem to be at home in their own skin and actually quite humble. I notice when I compliment them on achievements they are genuinely pleased and often surprised.
Is it easier to show humility when confident and achieving well?
The strange thing is-I mainly witness boastfulness with kids with massive problems-“Oh that is far too easy Vicky, I learned those words last years. That book is much too easy for me. I already know all those sums”. etc., etc! The sad thing is the words and books selected are NOT known-but the kids perceive them as “too easy” and so desperately wanting to be at a higher level they put up this smokescreen of I KNOW, I KNOW.
So it seems the hurting ego and low self-esteen contribute to lack of humilty.
So-if we had a system of education where we had less competition-would this help? It seems it might. Finland is leading the world and they have less competition, hardly any homework, no external exams, hardly any worksheets-just good teaching, “hands-on” multisensory, relevant teaching and lots of collaboration rather than competition in the classroom.
Can we do this in Australia? Should we consider it? With 46% of our adults and teenagers with poor literacy skills it might be an idea! We might end up with a more flexible, less IT’S ALL ABOUT ME society and with a population who can all read and write!