Our Vision
ThinQ views the ultimate purpose of education as the well-being — survival and flourishing — of the individual, society, nation, humanity, and the planet with its biosphere and all its creatures.
Learners' Voice
No Why Day
By Avi (8) and Lalli (8)
Farmhill Learning
1 Nov 2022
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I often sit and wish that I
would have no teachers who ask me “why?”
And run and jump and dance and play
And not learn anything all day.
We love this poem, and here is why:
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It shows how eight-year olds whose mother tongue is not English can yet learn to write impressive poems in English, with proper rhyme and rhythm.
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The poem comes directly from the learners' experience, and expresses what the children WANT to express. Unlike the run of the mill assignments that students are required to write in school, this is not a piece of writing in which students regurgitate or summarize what teachers or textbooks have told them.
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The lines, "run and jump and dance and play/And not learn anything all day," give expression to an archetypal yearning of primary school children, and perhaps even secondary school students.
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As the primary stakeholders of school education, children’s voices — and their expression of both the joy and the pain of learning — need to be heard, and listened to. This poem shared with the teacher reflects the freedom to express themselves without fear that the children feel. In it, while underlying it is a joy of learning, there comes the wish for a short break from it — with no teachers and questions.
Learners giving such expression to their inner thoughts can happen only in a system of education that is learner-centered, not parent/teacher/school/school board/examination-centered.
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