What's Special About Today?

I have been involved in teaching for quite a few years, in various capacities. I’ve been a tutor to disadvantaged teen girls in a group home setting. As a manager at different jobs I was involved in training new and current employees. At my old church I held positions teaching children and adult women. In my current church I am the president of the Junior Sunday School, ages five through sixth grade. I even became a better cell phone sales person once I realized that selling was nothing more than teaching people about your product. Being a teacher has been my dream since childhood.

Even though I have been teaching most of my adult life in one way or another, I experienced my greatest teaching insight at the end of school last year.

Children learn best when they don’t know they’re learning.

That’s it. My great aha! moment. If I ever write a book about my experiences teaching children, it will be exactly once sentence long.

The process of discovering that profound truth began in August, 2007, shortly before my first day at the home school co-op. I received an email that I almost deleted---an educator’s calendar that listed some fact regarding each day. I looked at that calendar and thought how fun. As I skimmed over the trivia listed for each day of the year, I experienced a sense of joy. (Seriously—joy. I’ll admit my nerdish tendencies here without shame. Trivia gives me the rush that some people get when skateboarding out of airplanes.)

What if…each day at school, we took a small break to discuss the event-celebration-trivia item of the day? And since learning cool new facts gave me such joy, what if we named that break a break for joy? Thus began what eventually became known throughout the school as the fourth grade Joy Break.

Each day, at 10:00 a.m., my students began asking, “What is special about today?”

Today for example, was Bald Eagle Day. I hung a poster of a handsome bald eagle specimen. We learned that eagles prefer fish and are not bashful about snatching a fish from someone else’s talons. We passed out yardsticks and measured the average 6-8’ wingspan. And of course the camera-happy teacher took a picture.

I passed out Hershey’s Nuggets with almonds on National Chocolate Almond Day. We read the Emily Dickinson story and learned a poem on her birthday. The scallywags in my class wore black hats and eye patches for Talk Like a Pirate Day (and learned some—ahem—interesting new words.) Glasses of apple juice were raised in cheer on Johnny Appleseed Day. They cried on the anniversary of Kristallknacht. I took advantage of them this week on Clean Out Your Desk Day. Sparks flew on National Static Electricity Day.

Joy Break. Free learning. No tests. Ever. And guess what? They remember everything.

I can ask them ten questions about what they learned in history last year and I will be greeted with blank faces at each of the questions. But they can tell me in detail all about Mae Jemison, Rosa Parks, Jim Henson, Hank Aaron, Mother Teresa, Anwar Sadat and Walt Disney. They learned about them during Joy Break.

If I ask them what they learned in language last year they still probably can’t pick out a noun over a verb. But they can tell me that Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and BFG. They can tell me that R.L Stine writes the Goosebump series and that Emily Dickinson could usually only be coerced out of her home by her brother’s children. You guessed it—Joy Break.

I doubt they could tell me what their favorite science lesson was last year. Why? Because instead they will tell me all about Galileo’s theories, facts about Neptune, why situating New Orleans below sea level is a bad idea, the prizes that Alfred Nobel started and why leaves turn red. Um, Joy Break again.

Being of a curious nature, and desiring to become a better teacher I of course have spent a lot of time trying to figure out this phenomenon. Why can they remember the most obscure factoids from Joy Break, but it’s like pulling teeth with mittens on to get them to study for a test?

The only thing I could figure out is exactly what I said before.

Children learn best when they don’t know they’re learning.

That’s it. The big secret. Don’t let them know they’re learning and they’ll remember it forever. Tell them they will be tested on it tomorrow and they will forget about it in a week.

Oh, and remember to celebrate National Strawberry Ice Cream Day tomorrow.