The NPL Program – We Are the Champions
Posted: Friday, January 11, 2008
by Dr. Peter Pierro
Peregrine Press of OK
In the Natural Path to Learning Program, you and I are Champions -- that's our job and our responsibility. We're there with our kids as they go grow up. We share their joys and sorrows with them. Exactly what is expected of us in our role as Champion? Let's take a look.
Years ago, in those days of yore, the weak person (O.K., the Lady in Distress) was allowed to choose a Champion to defend her. This Champion was someone who was able to deal with the situation in a way that the Lady couldn't because of her status, size, strength, or whatever.
Let's make this personal; your son or daughter (fill in the blanks) _____________ is ____ years old and there are times when ____________ needs support and/or needs help in learning the necessary skills. ____________ needs a Champion - Guess who that is. That's right; it's you.
It's your job whether you like it or not -- whether you know it or not. Since you have the job; wouldn't you like to be the best possible Champion? That's what this series of articles is about -- how you as a caring, knowledgeable, involved parent can be the best possible Advocate, Supporter, Defender, Guide for your child in his venture into the world. Adults; Parents and Teachers are in this together with the primary goal of helping each and every one of the Kids have a great life experience.
Here are the Champion's Roles and Responsibilities in Your Child's Venture:
The Advocate -- A person who stands up and speaks for your child so that he is treated fairly and humanly.
The Defender -- A person who prevents anyone from physically or psychologically abusing your child.
The Supporter -- A person who is there who cheers your child on in a positive, proactive, and caring way.
The Guide -- A person who knows the ways of the game, who helps your child make the correct choices, and who then travels with him as he goes for his goals.
The Expert Champion A person who is that Advocate, Supporter, Defender, Guide for your child who can carry out the correct role of Parent in this arena -- who learns as much as he can about how children learn who becomes a partner with him in his growth.
We are going to look at the qualifications and the skills needed by the Expert Champion as we go through the NPL Program. Let's take a look at one of these right now:
Your Child's Readiness to Learn
The skills your child will learn must be in absolute harmony with a) his Physical readiness, e.g., visual discrimination, b) his Psychological readiness, e.g., attention, and c) his Emotional readiness. e.g., ability to take criticism. Many parents try to teach skills to their children that they are not ready or able to learn. Learn what children at the age of your children can do generally and then be alert to the individual readiness of your child.
In Psychology 401, we learned that E. L. Thorndike had developed three Laws of Readiness for Learning and how we teachers should work with our kids in the classroom and how we parents should work with our kids on the kitchen table:
# 1. Janet is ready to learn cursive writing and she is allowed to learn it; she will have a happy experience.
# 2. Janet is ready to learn cursive writing and she is not allowed to learn it; she will be frustrated.
# 3. Janet isn't ready to learn cursive writing and she is forced to learn it; she will have a negative, perhaps even a traumatic experience.
Number 1 is the ideal situation. Janet is ready to learn; you are ready to have her learn; and everyone is happy.
Number 2 happens quite often. Janet is ready and able to learn she wants to learn, but someone or something is standing in her way ("We don't do cursive writing in First Grade.") and she is feeling unhappy about the whole business.
Number 3 is the really scary one and yet you and I have seen it many times. This is the one that brings out the verbal abuse and insults. Janet is just not able to learn the skills of reading that her parents expect of her and they are not willing for that to be O. K. They keep pushing her, abusing her. "You're not trying." "What's wrong with you?"
They're not willing to wait a little while longer until Janet has developed physically and mentally to the place that she can do the task. Janet has known those traumatic episodes in which Mom and/or Dad pushed and shoved her to do things and being abusive to her, making her feel guilty or an embarrassment to her family when she wasn't able to do them.
Pierro's Fourth Law of Readiness (A Variation on a Theme by E. L. Thorndike)
We have often wondered why Thorndike stopped after giving those three laws because in the education business this is a 2 x 2 matrix and there has to be a:
# 4. Janet isn't ready to learn cursive writing; she is not forced to learn it at this time and that's O.K. and she's O.K.
Here we have reasonable, caring parents who accept Janet right where she is and deal with her in terms of what she can do and what she can't do. They also waited patiently for her to take her first steps, to be able to use the bathroom by herself, to speak her first words, etc.
Well, there are a lot of other jobs to be done and skills to be learned by us Expert Champions and I'm sure you're Ready (and hopefully, Eager) to get to them. That's the topic for our next article. In the meantime, enjoy your Pat or Dale or whomever just as we are enjoying our Reese.
Peter S. Pierro, EdD parentscoachesasteam.com
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