Like the story about the teachers who missed the potential of their block builders, some parents think their job is to smooth things out — e.g., if a child already likes art, then we need to gently push them into other areas.Both at home and at school, we tend to focus on deficits. We concentrate on smoothing, balancing, trying to make things even.We miss the opportunity to use that intense interest as a gateway.That intense interest is so valuable — it shouldn’t be tossed away. It should be exploited.
Intense interests as opportunities for learning - not for "smoothing out" or diverting to fill a deficit in knowledge.
I connected with this article quite a lot as I can feel this with a number of particularly disinterested learners. Those ones that cringe when you say "time for writing" (which I now fully attempt NOT to!)
I have found that for those learners who are having trouble in our traditional learning environments you really MUST find a way to turn their intense interest into their curriculum.
This is my argument for MINECRAFT in our classrooms... my suggestion still not taken seriously by anyway I have spoken to in my current range of colleagues!
Perhaps mostly due to fear of the unknown?
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