Learning without Labels

Written By Margy Hillman

Schools are hard on kids and parents. Because they are run like intellectual factories, the way an individual child thinks is mostly disregarded. For some kids this is fine. For others, it's a travesty. And so schools stick labels on these certain kids -- probably with good intentions -- to call the kids out as outliers. In this way we protect the system, even while it has long outgrown its industrial function. Even while the size of the outlier population increases.

After years in education corporations, I now work one on one with kids and parents and teachers. The view from the ground has disrupted my thinking. I’ve stopped thinking from general to specific and now try to stay in an inductive mindset.

I get to work with kids not knowing their school-based labels. My work might involve helping them figure out how to focus, or how to think abstractly, or how to make meaning of a particular content area. It sometimes involves helping them celebrate MAKING MISTAKES or THINKING DIFFERENTLY or NOT KNOWING. In fact, I believe that this is where learning begins.

More to come.

Margy Hillman

Margy Hillman writes plays, poetry, and children’s stories.

Children’s books: Recently she has turned to children’s literature with an aspiration to create really engaging stories and characters and mesh these with an underlying message of environmental protection and respect for ecosystems and their inhabitants. Her first book, The Beavertons and the Mystery of the Disappearing Pond, is self-published and available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book and as a paperback.

Poetry: Margy began writing children’s poetry for educational games, but then switched to poetry for grown-ups. She recently self-published her first volume of poetry Still Breathing More or Less on Amazon as an e-book and a paperback.

Playwright: Margy began writing plays about 20 years ago. Her play Kangaroo was her first entrée into the world of playwriting. Both brutal and funny, the play has had three staged readings: one at University of Santa Cruz, one at an Art2Go function in San Francisco, and one at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach, California. She is currently working on two other plays: In Exile, a play that integrates a contemporary dramedy with a Greek chorus and Stones Throw, a satire about family intervention.

https://www.margyhillmanwriter.com
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In Praise of Curious Kids!