Modern education explained

As children education is at the heart of our business as educators, teachers or parents, we thought it useful to provide some concepts around this function: education.

We start with three observations.

Significant changes were made in Western societies for children education. Now appears some reluctance between the desire to develop the methods of modern education and the wish of a nostalgic flashback to traditional methods.

Due to the increasing difficulties in managing children who tend to question the authority of adults and the explosion of behavioral disorders, new methods of education based on behaviorism are emerging.

Behaviorism

Children need to feel involved in management and transactions in which we wish to have them live. Also, we should avoid to propose or impose to a child a preformatted contract straight out of the head of the adult as the child may simply reject it.

Children learn by themselves, but they also learn from others, it is vicarious learning and modeling (“I see the other’s hand get burned in the fire, I do not need to burn myself as well to learn how to avoid the fire”).

Children have a strong demand for justice and are very sensitive to the coherence of the environment. It is hard for them to accept a frame that others, especially adults, do not observe themselves on their side.

Hence it is consistency that is needed and in addition to giving a framework and to want to enforce it, it is necessary to pose as model adults who comply themselves with what they require from children.

Frameworks

However, it is possible to create frames varying according to age (what is forbidden as a child, I may do as an adult) and topic.

However, it should be remembered that this differentiation may be difficult because of feelings of lack of differentiation between adults and children that some young people have.

These frames can differentiate and be placed according to age and level of maturity of a young (your sister is 15, she can leave up to 21 hours, but you at age 12, you should stay home).

When a young person’s is successful with his contracts, some of his peers and siblings may, by modeling, claim the same or similar contracts. So there is an effect of contamination of the framework contract.

We can therefore rely on this generalization by targeting a young, preferably one that tends to be a leader or elder siblings, that are placed under contract with the possibility that it is a model for their peers who are willing to turn a contract for themselves.

There are limitations in this model though. We can describe the principles and concepts, but implementing them in the field of daily care with children is another thing. So, do not believe that we will easily draw good recipes that will work every time.