Making Mistakes In Front Of Others
Is A Major Slipup

Why is homeschooling such a positive experience?
Why is it such a positive academic experience?

Anyone who has either homeschooled their child or was homeschooled themselves knows there are many reasons for both.

However, there is one in particular that is often overlooked:

Children don’t like making mistakes in front of others.

They especially don’t like doing so when there are “lots of others”; such is the case in the school environment. The fact that most children attend school having to learn with an audience means this aversion to making mistakes gets amplified.

In turn, most adults don’t like trying new things either for fear of failure.

But if a child can develop skills and knowledge in a relaxed, unpressured and more personal environment, they not only learn more quickly and deeply, it also develops their belief and self-confidence that they can teach themselves anything.

Over time, any fear of failure gently recedes as does anxiety of making mistakes in front of others. My father used to say:

“It’s better to be a big fish in a little pond
than a little fish in a big pond”

Of course, fears, anxieties and feelings of overwhelm have the potential to rear their heads at any point. They linger in the background.

However, if a child has time and space to flower in their own time, rather than being picked, prodded and pulled in unwanted directions, they also build more resilience to manage difficult situations.

In this light, we can ask ourselves: How we can provide time and space to flower? Not only for our children, but also for ourselves. This has the opportunity to be an open-ended source of fruitful contemplation.

Mick.