We believe that a concept must first be understood to be mastered. Any child can memorize. Since he enjoys repetition, he will easily recite whatever he is assigned—the alphabet, math drill cards, or The Declaration of Independence. The question is not whether a child can memorize proficiently. The question is whether by doing this he gain mastery of a concept.

Consider the following examples. By memorizing the chronology of presidents, will the child better understand what a president is? By memorizing the Twenty-third Psalm, will the child better understand the relationship between a shepherd and the Lord? By practicing fraction drill cards, will be better understand the concept of fractions? True understanding of a concept prepares the child for mastery; mastery (i.e. memory and other refinement skill) does not promote understanding. The development of true understanding requires active, personal, mental involvement such as imagining, generalizing, comparing, and evaluating plus time to do all these things. The child needs freedom to explore his environment.

While baking with Jessica, Jason, at five years of age, discovered fractions by measuring volumes of flour. His response was, "Oh, I see, 4/4’s equals a whole cup and 3/3’s equals a whole cup." This did not mean, however, that Jason had mastered fractions. He merely understood the concept, but the mastery of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division would come later. Education is more than merely learning information; it is the development of critical thinking skills, true reasoning ability. This is why KONOS includes activities conducive to discovery techniques. We encourage the child to figure things out on his own.

While studying the character trait of Attentiveness, we visit the zoo aviary to observe birds, being attentive to their distinctive beaks and feet. The children reasoned that birds with short, fat beaks eat nuts and grains, whereas birds with long, skinny beaks usually eat fish. In the Patience Unit when making bakers’ hats, we could have merely demonstrated to our children how to make a baker’s hat.. To be more challenging, we could have given them a pattern for making their own baker’s hat. But wanting to stretch their reasoning muscles, we showed them a picture of a baker’s hat and asked them to figure out how to make one.

Does it take longer to teach in this way? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. Dictatorships are always more efficient, but they do not produce creative, reasoning people. They stifle creativity and reasoning.

Specials!
Specials!