From Preschool to Theoretical Physics - Coach Roland on Life Long Learning

When I say learning is supposed to be fun, I mean true learning is a discovery process that is quietly exciting. Learning is natural, easy, and occurs when you least expect it. Kids learn at lightning speed. Within a few months they can walk, talk, and do all manner of interesting things. I will give you a couple of examples from my own life. . School wasn't that great when I was a kid (and it's far worse now). But when I had an interest in something, I could learn at lightning speed. I knew all the baseball player's averages, for example. I could tell you the make, model and year of any car on the road. And I knew the frequencies for every major shortwave broadcaster from around the world. Why? Because I was interested in these subjects. I know you can think of similar examples from your own life: things you were genuinely interested in, and how much fun it was to learn about them effortlessly. I never studied cars in school, or shortwave radio, or baseball; but I knew mor...

Update February 2010 Editor's note: If you enjoyed and appreciate Roland's book My Daughter Does Not Want to Clean Her Room: a Handbook for Parents and Kids , you'll love the new book he is working on. Here's a little preview. Learning is supposed to be fun. No, I don't mean party fun, balloons, exciting visuals, rock music in the background, excessive excitement, hype and entertainment. False fun--mixing in balloons, loud music, clowns and animals in costumes, excitement, and pizza and sugary junk food--is what adults do to make something appear to be fun. . Nor do I mean having a little child move a mouse around to click on images on a computer screen (when their methods fail miserably, educators always reach for the ploy of saying they didn't have enough money for computers). Finally, when I say that learning is supposed to be fun, I do not mean dumbing down the curriculum or teaching the test, so that the material becomes stupid and boring. When I say lear...