Connection between
lightheartedness and learning
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Diane M Nickerson, MS Ed.School Founder and Director,
Castle Island Bilingual Montessori
Por / By Diane M Nickerson, MS Ed.
I remember such a feeling of
confidence in the feeling of independence as I carried the manila envelope (for important documents only) from our classroom to the Main Office to make a delivery from my 4th grade teacher to the school secretary. And it was a great feeling that I remember clearly to this day – forty years later. “My teacher trusts me.”
From that thought I extrapolated that I must be a responsible child. I then felt certain that I am smart and capable. And, as I walked down the hallway alone with my task in hand, I felt pure joy at being a student in school. Can you remember a similar experience when you had a feeling of real happiness at being at school? What would it be like if that experience was the norm rather than the exception?
For more than 25 years in education I have used a scientific approach to observing children, from K – 12, to studying what they can learn, and more importantly, how they learn.
I have observed that children who feel content in their surroundings, within an appealing school and classroom environment and among a community of peers and adult role models, dependably develop deep knowledge, broad understanding, and in addition, strong self-confidence. They are happy children and young people who also, by the way, excel exceptionally well academically.