How to Create a Culture of Learning in Your Family
Let me ask you a question: when it comes to teaching your children, do you want to provide answers for them, or help them discover on their own what they need to know?
Both goals are admirable, but setting children up for success requires teaching them how to learn and fostering a love of learning that will carry them throughout their lives.
To do that within your family, you must create an enduring culture of learning, the first step of which is providing an environment that is conducive to learning. We must also, as is the case for most parenting goals, model the behavior and attitudes we seek to develop in our children and actively advocate for learning on an ongoing basis.
Creating an environment conducive to learning is perhaps a mundane detail, but it is nevertheless essential. Such an environment encourages the task and makes it easy.
For example, children need access to library cards and bookshelves full of quality, age-appropriate literature. They need a quiet and comfortable place in which to study, as well as stimulating experiences like field trips and cultural events. Our homes should provide both the freedom and the inspiration necessary to learn.
We further create a culture of learning in our homes by modeling both the use of resources and the curiosity that characterizes a lifelong learner.
However, it is insufficient to merely exemplify learning by reading, developing new skills, conversing, and engaging with cultural experiences. We must also draw attention to our efforts and share their rewards. We cannot read to ourselves only when the children have gone to bed, or they will never see us challenging ourselves in that way.
Similarly, when we actively learn new skills such as a musical instrument or the martial arts, we should share with our children the joy and the struggles we experienced.
When parents correctly model the experience of being a beginner in this way, they show their children that it is natural, even desirable, to be a novice. Counter to parental instincts, we want to admit that we do not yet know everything.
Learning connects us more to the world around us, making us more resilient. We must teach connection through modeling so our children can see how it’s done.
If we, as parents, approach conversations and cultural experiences as a student would (with a curious and open mind) we can demonstrate that we have a sincere interest in learning about the world. Model active listening; ask good questions of other people, and sincerely invest energy in connecting with them. If we adopt this mentality, we will benefit from the lessons the world has to offer and teach our children to do the same.
Throughout our kids’ childhood, almost in the background, we want to continually advocate for learning, extolling its value. There will be many opportunities to draw on life experiences for this purpose. When a child says she wants to be an astronaut, we can encourage her and explain the skills needed in order to accomplish that goal.
When our son diligently practices piano, we can explain what positive effects that will generate. We need to make sure that our children capture the idea that beyond the information gathered while becoming proficient in an area of interest, there is the overarching lesson that we are able to become proficient through learning.
Creating a culture of learning is the sum of all these factors: maintain an environment conducive to learning, provide access to a variety of resources, model the attributes of a good learner, and tirelessly advocating for its importance. If we consistently support this culture, our children will live in accordance with the principles of learning, greatly contributing to their creation of functional and fulfilling lives.