Learning Through Experience

You've no doubt heard it said that learning is a multi-sensory experience. The educational philosopher John Dewey often wrote of the importance of connecting concepts with real-world experiences.

In our latest installment of American Girl books, my 2nd grader read of Josefina, a girl living with her father and sisters on a rancho in New Mexico prior to the Mexican American War. In the books, a severe storm devastates the family's flock of sheep, and Josefina's savvy aunt comes up with a plan to weave the rancho's wool stores into blankets that can be in term sold for money to replace the lost sheep.

Everyone, including 9-year-old Josefina, is instrumental in the plan, from gathering plants for dyes, dying the wool, spinning it into yarn, and weaving it into blankets to be sold. It is one of the many reminders in the series that children lived their lives very differently in history.

It might seem implausible to a child that such a young girl would be capable of doing such labors - until you make that child do it herself! Granted, a small plastic loom and cotton craft loops are a far cry from the work of a girl living on a New Mexico ranch in the early 19th century, but a struggling to get a few stubborn cotton strands woven properly provides an opportunity for understanding that cannot be gleaned from reading alone.

To quote a Chinese proverb:

     "Tell me, and I will forget.
     Show me, and I may remember.
     Involve me, and I will understand."