“…We have to learn to view children as thinkers first and foremost. Researchers of themselves and those around them. We have to value that work. So, for NML, I knew I had to do that literally. As in, pay children for their art and labor…”
Rather than rote academics, your child will be better served, dare I say most ready, if they arrive at kindergarten equipped with strong social-emotional and intellectual dispositions. At the basest level your child will need to come into kindergarten knowing how to be away from home and participate a school community…
Read More“…Yet there, in my home, at 11pm on New Year’s Eve, was the echo of some adultified thunder I thought I had pushed aside.
I didn’t have a childproof room. I had a childproof heart, which was much worse…”
“…How can I ever know that I am teaching, parenting, living the “right” way? How can I know if this is the right way for these particular, uniquely spirited children? Yet, if we move past fear, the expanse of our vision can empower us to make the choices that are right for our families, our classes, or our communities…”
Read More“…Young children, especially, are scientists tenured at the intersection of nature and nurture. The drive to constantly learn more is natural -- children have a physiological need to experience novelty and integrate new information into their thinking. Supporting that growth is about providing meaningful experiences and useful, developmentally appropriate feedback. The way we as adults respond nurtures either the development, refinement, or inhibition of children’s understandings…”
Read More“…I see my role as a co-constructor of meaning as the single most important part of my work, so much so that I sometimes question the term “educator” itself. There are moments when I have been so equally invested, curious, and in it with the children’s thinking that I wonder a little, what is the difference between me and anyone else who might actually just listen to children and care about what they think and feel. What makes me a capital-T Teacher in an egalitarian classroom? It is this…”
Read More“…Granted, I was seventeen and seventeen-year olds love to know better than adults by default, but I began to develop something more than adolescent self-righteousness, I started to feel conviction that these children deserved at least as much respect as we “grown ups” were paying the annual paper leprechauns. …”
Read MoreMicah Card is a writer and educator in Los Angeles, CA.
No Magic Lecture is a blog about teaching, learning, and living alongside young children, though the principles here apply to all learners (including you!). Creating a meaningful life with children is about holding a vision and seeing it through together. The phrase “No Magic Lecture” means there is no one perfect thing that must make or break a moment, a behavior, a child, family, or classroom. It’s a reminder, reprieve, and an invitation. Welcome.
Micah Card is a writer and educator in Santa Cruz, CA. She believes in the power of children, thinking deeply and critically, and in reminding ourselves that the point of all this is to grow.
To learn more about Micah’s work and credentials, click here.
