At the age of four, our oldest son wanted to take up guitar. We enrolled him in the Suzuki program, and before we knew it, his left hand was flying up and down the frets, and his right hand adeptly fingerpicked classical tunes and, to our delight, pop tunes. He continued to work his way through the Suzuki curriculum, but his interest waned as the years progressed. By the time he reached his junior year of high school, his spark for guitar had evaporated. He had grown tired of the rote demands of classroom learning and weekly guitar practice. Much to my personal, huge disappointment, of which he is fully aware, he discontinued his guitar lessons and allowed his instrument to become a dust collector.
The high school students I see today reflect his burnout. Their love of learning, presumably once intact, has now faded. Their high school coursework is largely predetermined. They must take the required courses, dictated by educating bureaucrats who have categorized learning into core subjects, such as English, math, science, history, and foreign language. The mere categorization of students’ learning has long ago become stale.
What seems missing in today’s classroom, in my opinion, is that spark and love of learning. Students are disengaged, systematically memorizing historical facts, mundanely performing mathematical operations, and anxiously cramming for assessments. We can blame the teachers who fail to inspire our children, and we should, but, more proactively, we can take ownership for instilling a love of learning, that curiosity, in our children.
Summer is an excellent opportunity to rediscover curiosities and to reignite a love of learning.
When he traded in his guitar, my son turned to another interest: yo-yoing. Initially, his study of yo-yos seemed trivial to me. I could not fathom his turning away from a life-long musical interest to pursue a mere pastime, yo-yoing; however, he truly loved it. He watched hundreds of yo-yo YouTube videos and developed serious skills, performing “off-string” feats that are truly mind-boggling. Most importantly, though, yo-yoing helped him rekindle his love of learning.
Seize these summer weeks and encourage your children to pursue with intense curiosity their own interests, however trivial they may seem. The ramifications of such exploration may later benefit their classroom performance.