KINDERGARTEN CONCERT

I teach English to little kids - or maybe it's truer to say I play games, sing, songs and read storybooks to little kids, and somehow they learn a little English. Recently my school put on a end of year concert for the families of the children attending their kindergarten and day care center.

And my goodness, they went all out! They hired a huge hall with a beautiful stage, lighting, and sound system, and they put on quite a show. The children seemed to really enjoy themselves. In the whole three hour extravaganza there was only one tearful episode, where one of the year old babies fell on his nose. And he only cried for a couple of minutes, which I find remarkable under the circumstances. 

I enjoyed every minute of it, but for me the highlights were the babies in Santa suits (because they're my baby class), and the boys in black who performed a very cool dance.

None of the children involved in the concert were over six years old. I wasn't involved in the preparation so I don't know how the teachers managed to produce such a high standard of performance with little kids. But I suspect magic...

CHILD-DRIVEN EDUCATION

I just watched an incredible video. As an educator it seems obvious to me that the systems we have (schools, teachers, text-books, examinations, etc) are not very efficient. These systems exclude whole socio-economic groups. They damage or destroy children's interest and creativity. They waste time and resources. It's not that they don't produce any good results, but they do it so haphazardly and unreliably. We absolutely should be looking for a better way, and Sugata Mitra has been doing just that with his research.
Check this out!
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html