STOP teaching; START facilitating a natural learning process
‘Teachers have to stop teaching.’ This statement may sound outrageous, however, the fact remains that the act of ‘teaching’ destroys the entire natural learning process. ‘Teaching’ actually forces children to participate in the activities which are designed to fulfill curricular needs and expectation instead of focusing on children’s needs and their interest. This forced, mandatory and externally driven process crushes the natural learning spirit of children which makes them curious, enthusiastic and voluntary learners.

What will teachers do if they do not teach? Many of you may be thinking of this question right now. The answer is that they have to facilitate the natural learning and development process. Teachers need to become ‘Gardeners’ instead of seeing themselves as ‘Potters’ who try to shape the soft clay as per their own thoughts only. Gardeners let the plants grow on their own and ensure only that appropriate environment and the conditions for full nurturing are present. They believe that natural growth ability is within the plants and if the environment is nurtured properly then and only then will plants grow by themselves. Just like plants, children are also living beings and have a natural mechanism to grow and develop – a basic fact often defied and ignored by the prevalent educational system. Teachers need to have similar beliefs about children’s natural learning and development. Their key role should be to create an environment that allows children to follow their own path instead of forcing them to be passive recipients of teachers’ words. If the goal of education is to extend the brain's natural inquisitiveness then young children need an environment that offers them stability, challenge, values and cohesiveness that we attribute to functional loving families. It is through constant support and appropriate stimulation that the learning predispositions of the youngest children are effectively nurtured. These predispositions are so powerful that children, if they are not in degraded environments, will discover things for themselves. Children learn whenever and wherever they are stimulated; just what they learn is problematic.

To move from the role of a ‘teacher’ to a ‘facilitator’, teachers have to facilitate children to pursue their own interest and curiosity by creating a flexible and an open environment where children can work in the areas that interest them without interruptions. Children have boundless curiosity and urge to understand the world around them and make sense of it by themselves. Therefore the role of teachers in early years is to engage children in creative tasks that support children to explore various things, converse with one another, think in different dimensions, and use their innate problem solving skills. They can also encourage children to come up with interesting questions and queries to pursue and help them instead of worrying about teaching alphabets and numbers. Nurturing children’s curiosity, creativity and thinking skills will help them to acquire literacy and numeracy skills quite quickly at a later stage.

STOP threatening and bribing; START encouraging
Many teachers use a variety of control techniques such as threatening and bribing children by giving sweets, stars, gifts etc. All this is done to establish their own authority and to get children’s attention and make them work as per “lesson” plans! Early nurturing period requires children to have trustful and caring relationships with adults instead of having relationships based on threats, greed and insecurity. An environment where children are under constant threat and insecurity suppresses their creative abilities as well as the urge to know and explore. Teachers need to build personal relationships with them based on genuine affection and care. They need to be good listeners, have patience and a sound understanding of the way children learn, think and work. In the company of caring and affectionate adults children develop a positive self image and confidently work on various tasks. According to Friedman, a child development theorist, “The science of early childhood development has the most to say about the critical importance of mother-child relationships, but increasingly, evidence supports the great value of a youngster’s interaction with a wide range of loving, attentive adults within the family and beyond. When these relationships offer warmth, support, and intellectual stimulation, experts say, children develop greater social competence, fewer behavioral problems, and enhanced thinking and reasoning skills in school, among other benefits.” To nurture children’s capabilities, teachers need to become caring and affectionate facilitators whose company must not threaten children and make them insecure.