| Description |
- Children should not build a birdhouse in order to learn the Pythagorean Theorem.
- Children should learn the Pythagorean Theorem in order to build a birdhouse.
Touch. Feel the texture. Smell. Duplicate a shape, a pattern or a color. These are examples of what we call "action transmitted knowledge." A young lumberjack once stood quietly, observing the older man whose job it was to load the logs onto the long lumber sled and drive them to the mill. The older man had his own way of moving, he nearly danced with each log, lifting it, rolling it a little, using small motions to push it this way and that. Until quite suddenly everything was in place, ready to be transported on the sled. One day the young lumberjack saw that the older man had brought his five-year-old son with him. The boy walked behind his father, watching him and doing exactly what he did, easing a log, dancing with the load, mimicking each of his father's movements. At that moment, the young lumberjack realized that he was observing a transmission of knowledge from father to son. |
