Kohn: What 'ready to learn' really means
This was written by Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including "The Schools Our Children Deserve," "The Homework Myth," and the forthcoming "Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling." He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn. This post appeared on Kohn's Huffington Post page. By Alfie Kohn The phrase “ready to learn,” frequently applied to young children, is rather odd when you stop to think about it, because the implication is that some kids aren’t. Have you ever met a child who wasn’t ready to learn -- or, for that matter, already learning like crazy? The term must mean something much more specific -- namely, that some children aren’t yet able (or willing) to learn certain things or learn them in a certain way. Specifically, it seems to be code for “prepared for traditional
