Childhood is supremely a time of
learning, and every theory of child development has its favourite
terms and categories. There is motor coordination, cognition,
language or trust - depending on your perspective - to be
learned, and plenty of manuals describing how each is best
facilitated and understood. But what are the essentials that
underlie all these processes? A fortuitous opportunity to
re-read Rowan Williams’s Lost Ikons (T. and T. Clark,
2000) gave me the link I was seeking.
The
first chapter of this profoundly original text focuses on
childhood. Issues of children’s literature, choice in
education, abortion and sexuality are explored in an attempt
to identify what is unique about childhood as a stage of life,
and therefore what is to be nurtured and supported by significant
adults. It is vintage Williams: thoughtful, measured and up
to date. (The fact that he has two children may help, of course!)
If I were to select one phrase from
the chapter indicative of the whole it would be “learning
to choose”. Childhood is a phase of real choices about
movement, sound and activity, but it is also a period when
a person prepares for choices later in life. Education makes
sense in this context, giving a child the tools for sensible
choices and decisions, but the child’s preferred medium
for this preparation is play and make-believe.
Williams notices the popularity of
the books of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl and traces it in part
to their creation of a world in which the young heroes and
heroines take responsibility for actions and decisions in
unlikely circumstances, but with the knowledge that the adult
world is near enough should things get completely out of hand.
And it is precisely this “space”
which is vital for learning to choose. If the adults supervised
the adventures rather like a modern outdoor centre’s
safety-first approach to outdoor activity, or if the children
were left completely to their own devices as were the characters
in Lord of the Flies, then the process of learning would be
jeopardised. Yet it is a subtle art to create just such a
“world” in everyday life as a parent, carer or
teacher.
This is where games have such a vital
role to play. I am struck by the overwhelming popularity of
Monopoly, especially in its new Disney version with palaces
and cottages. Young children like an adult to be banker but
otherwise seem perfectly happy making decisions about what
to buy and what to develop, how much to save, and when to
do a deal with another player. It’s very intense while
it lasts, and then a week later the players often find it
hard to remember who won the last game.
We would do well to ponder its enduring
popularity. The important thing is that the children have
opportunities to make mistakes and to see how these mistakes
work out in practice, and that they have responsibility for
their own affairs in an adult world.
Television
and computer games have not, it seems to me, the same power
to create such a learning world, but this may be because of
my limited acquaintance. Certainly the space and opportunities
for children to explore the natural world in this way has
been reducing especially for those in urban areas. Unsupervised
play and exploration, that were so important in the lives
of previous generations, are relatively rare. There is a growing
fear of crime coupled with an attempt to minimise risk and
the likelihood of harm. And uncommodified space is at a premium,
a far cry from the bombsites of the post-war generation.
As I have pondered Rowan Williams’
phrase, I have been struck by the difference it makes if one
sees childhood as the most important period for learning to
choose. It adds a new dimension to observation of, and interaction
with, children. The activity may not seem to be “going
anywhere” or developing skills of coordination or language,
but what if a child is making decisions and learning to live
with the outcomes? What if fear of failure is being outweighed
by the joy of discovery? What if it is just fun?
The great mystery is that I doubt
if anyone could invent a curriculum for “learning to
choose”. The child and adult are at similar stages of
learning, and the wise adult will probably err on the side
of non-intervention rather than specific supervision. Is this
why I have always warmed so much to Swallows and Amazons,
I wonder?
