Foundation or furniture?

Foundation or furniture?

Brian Cox, Contributor, Jakarta

My wife and I have four children; all are now adults. Twenty-
five years ago the time came for our eldest son to start school.
We checked out a variety of schools but we couldn't find what we
wanted, so we started a school! It soon became obvious that the
things we wanted in a school were also desired by many other
families, as the school quickly grew to over 700 students. I
realize that not everyone can start a new school to satisfy the
needs of their children!

Why was it so important to our family that our son, and
subsequently his brothers and sister, should begin their more
formal education in a "good" school?

I believe that the foundations of a child's education are much
more important than the furniture that might be moved into the
building after the basic structure has been put in place.

We need to understand that the foundations of formal education
begin in the home and are reinforced in the early years of
school. What happens after the age of around eight years is a
progressive building on the foundations that have already been
established; it's fundamentally "adding the furniture".

Many parents are keen to find a good secondary school for
their sons and daughters so that they might be well prepared for
universities and careers. Often the quality of junior school
education is not seen to be quite so important, and as for
kindergarten, well, they just play don't they?

Education and human development experts will tell us that a
child's level of trust is formed mainly in the first two years of
life. The chief authority in the life of the young child at this
stage is the parent. Children who know that they are loved,
accepted and appropriately disciplined will develop trust.

Children who have their physical needs met, whose lives have
clear routines and new experiences that are safe will develop
trust. Trust is related to confidence. A young child who has
developed trust and who is consequently developing confidence is
in a great position to take on the challenges of learning.

Before you know it, you're sending your child to kindergarten!
He or she is now three or four years old. Typically they have
become quite energetic and inquisitive, they display a tendency
toward being self-centered and somewhat selfish. A great time to
be taught how important it is to respect and value others!

So a good kindergarten will help young people to explore and
discover new things; there will be lots of opportunities for
storytelling, for singing and expressing thoughts through ever
increasing language ability.

The opportunity to explore and to question is fundamental to
learning. Kindergarten activities might look like "playing" to a
sophisticated adult, but consider how many adults have bought a
new computer program put it in, without reading the instructions,
experimented with it and "worked it out" ... playing to learn!

Skills and knowledge that we "discover" in these ways add to
our learning, but also give the confidence to question and go
beyond narrow boundaries in the future. The foundations laid down
in the early years through exploration and interaction help
children to become confident in who they are and the place they
hold it their community.

Young children are full of questions about the world around
them and their place in it. A good kindergarten teacher
encourages this sense of "wonder", and deals with these questions
with respect and integrity. Asking questions and questioning
answers helps children to learn. Teaching young people to think
and investigate equips them with an essential learning tool.

Kindergarten needs to be a place of security and safety of
"controlled" exploration. This is an age where both confidence
and competence are foundationally developed. This is the time
when beliefs and values and attitudes are being formed for a
lifetime. Is it important to you as a parent that the development
of these important character virtues is in harmony with those
held by your family?

Is the kindergarten supporting the development of good
character attributes in these young children? Are they learning
to express gratitude, to recognize that other people have needs
too and that patience is a requirement for life? Are they
learning how to contribute to the resolution of conflict? Are
they learning to take healthy risks to explore beyond that which
is immediately known? Are they developing a healthy respect for
appropriate authority? Are they learning to differentiate between
appropriate and inappropriate actions?

Kindergarten is a time when young people will form strong
attitudes toward learning, and life, that can be positive or
negative. A good kindergarten should seek to develop a joy in
learning, a love of knowledge, an appreciation of language, an
encouragement of creativity and an appreciation of a sense of
community.

Sure, it's important for your child to complete an IB Diploma
or to graduate successfully from senior school. But remember that
their likelihood of success may well be determined by the
foundations laid at home and in the very early years of
schooling. The writer is the headmaster of Sekolah Pelita Harapan