The most popular discussion these days between parents is how well their child is doing in school. Often we hear parents complaining, that ‘my child is not a good student, he always fails a test. What should I do?’ We constantly discuss what we want children to learn and more importantly HOW we want them to learn, forgetting the fact that each child is an individual with different learning capacities. In recent years, tuitions have become a fad. Children come back from school; have lunch and half an hour later bundle up again to go to a tuition centre. All because these centres help them ‘learn’ in a better manner. I have known of children as young as 3.5 and 4 years of age whose parents send them for further tuitions after school hours. However, has any one us, ever stopped for moment and thought about what exactly is the manner in which children learn? Why do parents, who send their young children for tuition, feel the need even after the children have come back from a full day at school? The reason for this is pure and simple competition between parents, about whose child is a better student, a better learner and more intelligent. What these parents forget is it is actually the competition between themselves that their child is sucked into.

Even within schools, the story is the same. There is immense competition encouraged between students, to be the best in everything. This is the reason that tests and exams are conducted on such a regular basis and grades and honours’ standing awarded to those securing the highest percentages. For all the talk of learning amongst educational policymakers and practitioners, there is a surprising lack of attention to what learning actually entails. For example, theories of learning do not figure strongly in professional education programmes for teachers and those within different areas of informal education. It is almost as if it is something that is unproblematic and can be taken for granted. Get the teaching methodology and the curriculum right, the message seems to be, and learning (as measured by tests and assessments) will follow. This lack of attention to the nature of learning inevitably leads to an impoverishment of education. It isn't simply that the process is less effective as a result, but what passes for education can actually diminish well-being.

Young children learn by doing. The work of Piaget (1950, 1972), Montessori (1964), Erikson (1950), and other child development theorists and researchers (Elkind, 1986; Kamii, 1985) has demonstrated that learning is a complex process that results from the interaction of children's own thinking and their experiences in the external world. Maturation is an important contributor to learning because it provides a framework from which children's learning proceeds. As children get older, they acquire new skills and experiences that facilitate the learning process. For example, as children grow physically, they are more able to manipulate and explore their own environment. Also, as children mature, they are more able to understand the point of view of other people.

Knowledge is not something that is given to children as though they were empty vessels to be filled. Children acquire knowledge about the physical and social worlds in which they live through playful interaction with objects and people. Children do not need to be forced to learn; they are motivated by their own desire to make sense of their world.

This article discusses the basis of learning. How learning takes place and how it should take place are two different concepts. We all want our children to learn, but when it comes to contributing towards their learning, we teach them what we want them to know and expect them to remember everything. We tend to forget the fact that young children are young explorers and they learn best when exploring, experimenting and experiencing the world around them.