Unlikely Unschooling Advocate
August 27, 2008
This is fascinating, but not terribly surprising to homeschooling parents!
(And by the way, if you haven’t discovered Ted, you must check out the site. The videos are interesting and wonderful to share with your kids to stimulate thinking and discussion on a lot of meaningful topics.
This particular video I had to tell you about because it beautifully illustrates how children are capable of teaching themselves without any adult assistance.
According to the site:
“Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they’re motivated by curiosity and peer interest.”
Sugata repeated the experiment over and over, and found similarly remarkable results each time. In one, a 13 year old boy spent 8 minutes browsing the internet and using the computer (he had never used a computer in his life), yet by the end of the day, 60 kids had been taught by him to do the same.
In another city, a group of kids taught themselves not only how to use the computer and programs, but had learned 200 English words! None of them spoke English previously. They had to learn in order to understand the computer. Amazing. 
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html
The concluding message?
“Education does not have to be imposed.”
From Ted.com: “Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own — and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?”
More Posts By Carrie:
- How to Live Stress-Free By Saying “No”
- Business Coaching – What’s It About?
- Barb Thinks I’m Interesting
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