Can you start building a building on the second floor? While this may seem like a silly question to many people, I think it is extremely relevant to education. Of course, you can't start building something in the middle of the air with no structure underneath. It will fall. Even if you start on the ground and don't put in a foundation, it may last for a little while, but eventually, it too will fall. The more secure and long-lasting you want your structure to be, the more work you need to put in on the foundational level. This is also true with all areas of education.
I would like to share a story about one of the students that I work with. Many of you know I homeschool two missionary students here in Peru. What you may not know is that they both attended Peruvian school for the first portion of their education. The younger one went through 4th grade with all of the subjects being taught in Spanish. She faced various circumstances that set her back in her learning, including an illness that kept her out of school for half of her first-grade year, and then her 2nd and 3rd grade years were during the COVID-19 pandemic, where they didn't have in-person classes here in Peru. So, when she returned to school in 4th grade, she felt very behind in the subjects they were trying to teach her. She felt like she couldn't learn the information. When we started homeschooling, her mom and I decided to start where she really was. In math, this meant we began with the 2nd-grade curriculum. (Keeping in mind we were also transitioning from her learning in Spanish to learning in English). We decided not to stick rigidly to the schedule for learning, but to allow her to complete the work as she felt confident with the information. During her 5th-grade school year, she completed 2nd and 3rd-grade math books. Then during her 6th-grade year, she moved on and completed both the 4th and 5th-grade math books. She is now determined that this year she wants to complete both the 6th and 7th-grade books during her 7th-grade year because she has already proven to herself that she can learn the material. I am SO PROUD of her progress and determination! But I have to mention something very important here... she was willing to take the step back and learn what she had not understood before. Even though it was hard and many lessons ended in tears, her personal determination (and a whole lot of encouragement from me and her mother) to not give up produced results she never imagined would be possible. She has not only almost reached 'grade level', but we also took the time to make sure she understood what was being done. I am convinced that if we had tried to start her at the 'grade level' she was at age-wise, we would still be struggling in major ways with many of the more basic skills. Every day I remind her how far we've come! Every reminder serves as more encouragement to keep going!
Even as adults, in our personal learning, we need to be aware of what we do and do not know. We need to be willing to go back to the last place we understood something and learn it from there. As I have been teaching and tutoring subjects that I didn't do as well in when I was in school, I have found that having the humility to go back to where I got lost and looking at the material with the idea that I 'can' do it has made a huge difference!
Is there someone you know who is struggling to learn something today? Can I suggest to you that encouraging them might be part of the key to their success? You can be even more helpful if you are able to help them figure out what exactly they don't understand! You never know what a positive encouragement can do for a person's desire and will to learn.
Construction site in Nauta with part of the foundation and retention wall built.
H.O.P.E. For a Brighter Future - Peru
Website: www.hopeforabrighterfuture.org
Address: P.O. Box 36702 Canton, OH 44735.
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