Victor Wooten argued that music, like language should be taught through living and interacting with others rather than taught in a traditional structure (Music as a Language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolaIsland 2013). This made me think about what learning are we stopping by interrupting children’s play for ‘intentional teaching’.

 

Children best learn through involving their whole body in their exploration of what interests them (Dance Teaching Ideas 2023). Children are doing so much learning while interacting and imaging within the environment, engaging with their whole body, we aren’t assisting children’s development by forcing them to ‘sit still and don’t talk’.

 

Play is reality, especially for a child, play invites a child’s whole mental self to surrender to the possibility of the impossible (Kilby 2017). A children’s role play is a way for them to create meaning of their world through imagination. The more we dictate a child’s learning environment, it becomes more likely that we are closing children’s possibilities to explore new worlds.

 

I’ve been having this internal battle about the kind of teacher I want to be, through these experiences and my current learning journey  I have decided that I want to empower children, to encourage imaginatively, encourage individuality and creativity.