From Edition 4 - November 2007
Education, like life, is a journey. And our children’s journey is a rapid one, travelling from unknowing to assuming they are all-knowing by the time they are teenagers. As parents, teachers and child-care workers, we have a responsibility to steer this journey in the right direction, argues Rachel Buchanan.

To best facilitate learning, a balance needs to be struck between ‘structure’ and ‘novelty’. Structure means to have a routine with security and safety enabling kids to learn. Novelty provides the enjoyment, engagement and fun component of learning at play, that demands children’s attention and inadvertently forces them to learn new things.

Learning is not just what happens in the classroom. It’s happening everywhere your child is, and travel is a great way to include excitement and novelty into their lives. It can provide lasting memories, trigger imagination and discussion, and provide a platform for a greater understanding of the world.

Travel for children need not be as involved as an annual trek up the Himalayas, or even the North Coast every summer (although some of my family trips have formed some of my most treasured memories). A simple walk to the shops and a play in the park can suffi ce, as a rich journey full of wonderment for a young child.

Twice a week, as I hurry the kids for daycare, I am reminded that children do not understand deadlines or outcomes – but are engaged with the journey itself. My daughter dawdles; she picks flowers along the way, talks to her shadow and looks out for trucks and trains. For her, as for children in general, life’s all about the journey, not the destination.

The same can be said for education. Children acquire new skills but take pleasure in the journey, not the outcome, and for them seeing a new place can only enhance the novelty and learning experience. For every picture that resembles what it is purported to be, there have been hours of work done for the sake of it. Paint or textas are swirled and colours are mixed as children experiment with movement and texture, manipulating the media and enjoying the process of art making and producing yet another colourful blob. Likewise pre-literate children often scrawl across paper, believing themselves to
be writing. While the outcome of scribble on a bit of paper is inauspicious, this process facilitates their future writing ability.

The journey is as important as the destination and this is something that children instinctively understand. They can educate us that the getting there is meant to be as fun as the being there.

Rachel Buchanan is studying for her Ph.D. in Education at the University of Newcastle and is a mother of two.