Learning in the Absence of Education
Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine
Index
Homeschool
Australia
Dispelling a Myth - 'Practice Makes Perfect'!
(continued)
Not only did his spelling tend to improve over time without practicing writing, but also his grammar. I eventually found that all I had to do was help Roger with a writing form once or twice, like a letter or a story, and he felt competent to work alone. This all happened between the ages of eleven and fourteen, and gets easier as he gets older.
I am finding the same effect with Thomas’s reading progress. We could work at it daily, doing specially devised activities, reading practice and word lists, but we have found that this often leads to a lowering of self esteem, frustration and an unwelcome elevation of the status of the problem. If we don’t do any specific practice or learning activities he seems to progress just as fast!
There are now many areas of our lives where we have seen that practice is unnecessary to obtain positive results. There seems to be some kind of background, unnoticed learning taking place all of the time, ensuring readiness for finally performing a task, or knowing something fully.
Last December a piano entered our house. I am being very careful not to say 'practice makes perfect', but to let the children experiment in their own way with the music and the instrument. Each person approaches the piano differently, and each gets a different sound out of it. I was amazed at the speed with which April moved through the piano course books 1 & 2, rarely practicing each piece more than two or three times. Every afternoon she comes in, plays her favourites tunes and attempts several new pieces of music. Time away from the piano seems just as important as playing it.
Another interesting facet of this phenomenon I have noticed over the years is the practice of tidying personal space. As much as I tried to coax the children when they were very young into tidying their bedrooms, it was suddenly at age eleven they began to work their way into it. A natural tendency to want to find their favourite toys, gadgets and pieces of paper at this age emerged, and for the older two, by the age of fourteen their spaces were wonderfully kept - the less I pushed working at it, the more naturally it happened. As with my other lessons in 'practicing' I have found patience and 'holding my tongue' to be invaluable. By providing my children with a model of an efficient organisational routine, and by 'helping' them occasionally with tidy ups (no more than twice a year!), I have children who miraculously organise their many hundreds of possessions, with very little angst from me!
Over the years I have had to recognise and trust this invisible learning force! How much do we trespass on our natural abilities when we force ourselves to 'practice'? Does it hinder our ability to achieve that elusive quality 'perfection', by stifling the natural urge to express ourselves in our own unique and creative ways? I shall be very wary of quoting 'practice makes perfect' in the future!
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Excerpt from Learning in the Absence of Home Education: Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine, 1999
