What do we understand by learning?

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In Semillas al Viento learning is a vital process that arises from an innate need to survive. As stated by Francisco Mora (2013): “When one is born, learning is the first brain mechanism that is set in motion to adapt to the environment” (p.92). Thanks to this process that arises automatically; for example, we do not teach babies to walk or speak, we accompany them in a process that they themselves decide to submerge; we can know and understand more about life and the environment and integrate it into our own experiences. Thanks to curiosity, experimentation and consequently learning, we give answers to the questions that arise within us. Mora (2013):

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But to learn, you have to be in permanent contact with the world, "live" the sensory nature of the world and "touch" it, express your behavior with movement.

No gazelle would ever learn to run like its fellows if after birth

It will be isolated from its natural environment and it will be taught to run only by showing reports and films of how other gazelles do. (Mora, 2013, p.92)

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As Mora explains well, for this, girls and boys need to be in contact with the environment, explore and try. Just as we place our trust in our babies in their speaking / walking abilities, we do not force them, in Seeds in the Wind we go one step further and extend that trust over time because we consider that each human being is the true author of their own learning and this occurs on their own initiative.

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To summarize, in our space we do not teach, but each girl and boy will create their own experiences, whether academic, personal or professional, or decide if they want to participate in those we put at their disposal. Each girl and boy will take the steps they consider necessary in their learning process when they feel intrinsically prepared / motivated for it.

 

We quote below an excerpt from Rebeca Wild's book : Learning to live with children,

it shapes our way of understanding the learning process.

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Prenatal development would correspond to the sprouting stage, when the plant forms its roots, which will provide it with food and physical support in the soil.

Stem growth starts from these fundamental structures.

In the human being, this would be comparable to the development and interaction of the limbic structures with the environment. Only when the stem is strong enough can the plant proceed to unfold its branches and leaves in a generous and beautiful way.

Well, the stem has to support the future expansion of the plant and, at the same time, lead the vital sap to all its parts. In this analogy, the growth of the leaves would represent the operative stage, when the child interacts in a novel way with his environment and activates his cortical structures, which will then allow him to continue developing mature intelligence. Flowering would correspond to the stage of formal development.

This coincides with adolescence. And the ripening of the fruits would be comparable to the human potential to solve complex vital problems in a judicious way and to enter creatively into the world of culture and science. (Wild, 2007, p.17)

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What happen? That at present our boys and girls do not represent beautiful trees, but due to the early maturation of the boys and girls, they develop intellectual capacities that make us proud but that are still samples of bonsai that, by not being able to develop strong and well-established roots , bears fruit. (Romero, 2012, p.92)

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