Il Che Fare Degli Adulti

I always find myself in the summer time returning to the roots of what inspired me when I began teaching. I keep a core set of books on the desk in my office that I go back to and read again and again. Every time I read these books I notice something different that normally has something to do with what I am struggling with at that time as a teacher.

The title of this blog comes from a book published in 1995 titled "Le Fontane," or "The Fountain." In this book Loris Malaguzzi discusses "The 'what to do' of the teachers." The role of the teacher, according to Malaguzzi is to "offer carefully measured, pertinent loans of knowledge and skills."

When I reflect on my conversations with the children in my class, I rarely feel as if I am taking the time to "carefully measure" what I am lending to my children during the day. I spend a great deal of time leading discussions and guiding children, but all to often I find myself controlling the flow of the discussion. I wonder if I would listen better if I thought of my understanding of different concepts as something I was "lending" the children. And with this, I would also question how much of what I say could be classified as a pertinent loan. A lot of times I find myself wanting the children to "get there faster." My impatience often times takes away from the time that they need to really make deep connections to help them understand what they are investigating. So my questions would be....

• How does the concept of "lending" information take us away from a direct instruction model?
• How can we make sure that we are "carefully measuring" the amount of information that we lend to children?