reflection on Engaging our Youngest Minds

Angela Maiers hits the nail on the head for me, not just for education but for life skills. Those who succeed will be passionate. I feel that our job as educators, and mine as a PT is to find a child's passion and find ways for giving them what they need while feeding their passion. As a school system PT my caseload is filled with children who dislike motor movement because it is challenging. This creates a vicious cyle, they avoid motor movement, never practice and therefore don't grow without intervention. My half hour or hour per week of contact with that child is just the tip of my work's iceberg. During our sessions, my quest is to show them some of the joy of movement. If I can make a connection, tieing in movement with their personal interests, and present it at a just right level, I hope that I can inspire them to desire that movement. If that movement brings them some pleasure, joy and fun, perhaps they will incorporate it into their play repetoire...wouldn't that yield far more growth than my sessions with the child? If they ever develop a passion about these activities, my goals would be accomplished.
Angela Maiers describes the philosophy of a classroom that weaves differentiated instruction into its environment. We can only hope for passionate teachers who are willing to take the time and effort to explore their students' passions and capture the opportunity for incorporating that into their learning. The quote, "Passionate learners are an endangered species" is very sad, but I also don't believe it is true. Although there is very little respect for passion with all of the preparation for MCAS that currently occurs in schools, I do believe that most teachers try to incorporate students interests and/or passions into their teaching. This does become more challenging as the students age, especially in high school where they have multiple classes for shorter periods of time. It seems as though high school students are so overscheduled in their personal lives, that there is very little time left over after completing their "have-to's" to be able to explore their "want-to's".