Walking through the woods of Karuizawa is a great way to slow down, take a step back from moving from task to task, and think about stuff.

What came to my mind when I was walking in the forest behind Hoshinoya is this question – the purpose of education. Schools were invented at the turn of the 20th century to churn out young adults with sufficient knowledge to work in factories. This knowledge-based education model survived more than a hundred years and even today, a large part of mainstream education is about knowledge. In the last decade, there has been a growing emphasis on skill-based education – equipping students with the skills to be successful. Perhaps why there are so many coding schools for kids popping up everywhere. Even adults are being told to upskill and reskill. The Singapore government’s SkillsFuture initiative is exhibit #1.

While skills are important, I believe the next evolution of education will shift focus from skills to mindset.

More precisely, the mindset of being curious, asking questions, and being a lifelong learner. The world is evolving too fast for any education system to keep up. That is why a skill-based education model will not work. Nobody knows what skills our kids will need in 2050. The only way to prepare for an unknown future is to stay curious, be resilient, and keep learning. As Noah Yuval Harari puts it, “To stay relevant   you will need the ability to constantly learn and to reinvent yourself. To keep up with the world of 2050, you will need to do more than merely invent new ideas and products, but above all, reinvent yourself again and again.”

The job of educators in a world where learning is about mindset rather than skills or knowledge is to first and foremost inspire curiosity. We should encourage kids to learn through play and to become self-directed learners. Second, we need to get kids to see the world with a wider lens. Help them understand they live a sheltered life and that there’s a whole world out there for them to discover, that humanity is running out of time to solve some of the biggest issues we are facing. Climate change for example. Third, educators need to give kids the creative confidence to be able to solve any problem they set their heart on.

Singapore – or the world, for that matter – doesn’t need more lawyers and bankers. We need our kids to be mavericks, to be original thinkers. The world has many problems we need our kids to solve, and equipping them with the mindset and confidence to solve those problems is key. 

What we’re trying to do through Saturday Kids Unplugged is give kids the space to develop that sensitivity and awareness to the world beyond themselves, and to cultivate the innate curiosity that they’ll need to tackle the world’s wicked problems.

My kids had a great time going unplugged in Karuizawa during the camp – catching (and releasing) tadpoles, making new friends, and learning about their place in the great outdoors – and I believe the other kids who joined us did too.

If what I’ve shared resonates, here are a few things you can do. Embrace our philosophy of getting your child curious, give your child the time and space to learn through play. Second, tell your friends about us – who we are, and more importantly, what we stand for. Third, get your friends to sign up for the same camp next year. We want to bring hundreds of kids from Singapore to Karuizawa, not just because they’ll have a great time but also because they’ll benefit so much from the experience of being outdoors and learning through nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson has this great quote. Trust thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string. For Emerson, the task of every human being was to find his or her voice and give expression to it. He believed in the importance of authenticity and unique thinking. Let’s help our kids work towards higher order ambitions than simply better grades. Let’s help them become mavericks and original thinkers. The world needs it.

…

John originally delivered this as a closing speech at our very first Saturday Kids Unplugged Summer Camp in Japan in June 2019. Keen to join us at the next one, or just curious about what this looks like? Find out more here! 

Check out more of our #postcardsfromKaruizawa:

• Gone unplugged: Reflections from our summer outdoors
• What kids learn from the outdoors, and why we’re going unplugged

The post What’s going unplugged got to do with solving the world’s problems? A perspective on outdoor education from John appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

Everything is interesting.

A contrast to tightly spun lesson plans and curricula, the kids’ time was only lightly structured with broad stroke anchor activities for each day (e.g. trekking to the waterfall, a high ropes course, scavenging for materials for the bridge building projects). What this meant is that kids had the leeway to run wild and free at the campsite and to just play and be – whether that was catching butterflies, playing football and catching, or going on adventures in imaginary new worlds at a natural playground. 

What we found kids loved the most was getting wet during a trek to the waterfall, wading in a stream, and catching tadpoles. It’s not rocket science, but the simple things that being in nature (and a little bit of encouragement) allowed them to do that made it to their highlight reel. One of my favourite moments is finding some of the girls using foraged twigs, leaves and flowers to build a little home for bugs – one of them even successfully bugged her parents to return to the campsite the day after camp ended to check if any bugs ended up nesting there!

With Japan the home of many of the world’s engineering marvels, our camp was themed around building bridges – physically, socially and culturally. This saw kids scavenging for logs in the forest to prototype their own designs, and learning to use saws, drills and the like along the way. We watched kids eagerly approach this project with enthusiasm under the watch of trained facilitators who very clearly set the ground rules, because you know, as one instructor bluntly put it: “I don’t want any of you putting a hole through your hands!”. As a parent of 2 young girls, I particularly enjoyed seeing the older girls undertaking this activity – who says tools are just for boys? 

Care and friendship come naturally.

We were glad to have a batch of diverse kids from the age of 4, to pre-teens, join us for this camp, and for a good part of camp the kids were split into groups for age-appropriate activities, before reuniting for activities where everyone was involved – such as the afternoon treks to the river and to the waterfall. On many occasions, we saw how the kids organically took on the responsibility of looking out for each other – giving each other a hand when they needed to cross the river, encouraging each other during the high rope course, and more. It made our day to see a kid as young as 7 volunteer herself to look after a 4 year old, and to find the experience delightful.

Do what scares you.

Away from their parents and in a foreign country, kids had been signed up to venture beyond their comfort zone, and as adults we were awed by the many, many instances where we saw how the kids challenged themselves to do things that initially scared them (think high ropes, and getting their socks and shoes wet in a shallow stream) – and turned out to like it so much they asked to go again and again. Speaking of victories: even the sheer fact that none of the kids really kicked up a big fuss of being with a group of strangers after getting dropped off by their parents is commendable.

When we took a moment to step in the kids’ shoes, we’re humbled by the kids’ courage.

Nature is all around us!

Yes, it is quite special to be able to do this in Karuizawa, and we and the kids were very privileged with the cool summer weather and the change in environment that made it an especially pleasant experience for everyone on the ground.

But it does not have to stop there! We are very lucky in Singapore to have access to an abundance of nature (albeit in hot and humid weather conditions), and whether your child is 4or 12 years old, there’s nothing stopping you from recreating similar experiences (thanks NParks!). A hike up Bukit Timah Hill, an early morning walk at Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve (try spotting some interesting birds and crocodiles), looking out for monitor lizards at MacRitchie Reservoir, and many, many more – the point is, we have a lot at our doorstep to explore, not just for your kids, but for yourself too. 

. . .

My 4-year old twins had a blast and were flat out every day (camp activities ended at 3pm daily). They speak fondly of time spent catching butterflies, playing catching, dipping their feet at the chilly waterfalls, finding twigs in the forest, AND they absolutely loved sweeping the campsite (!).

As an organiser, parent and facilitator, I personally find it quite touching to observe how over the span of just 1 week, all these kids who were strangers prior, came together, formed friendships, proactively helped each other out, took it upon them to challenge themselves and overcome their own fears, and really got into spending time together in the beautiful surroundings of Karuizawa. The Japanese call it “forest bathing” – they believe that it’s good for health, it’s not hard to see why. 

. . .

This is just the beginning of #SaturdayKidsUnplugged, and for the parents who joined us on this first trip, we are very thankful for your support and trust. We’d love to continue doing this and to continue to curate learning experiences for kids from Singapore, and to that end, will be sharing more details about our plans for 2020, so keep a look out for that. Special thanks to Anli from EtonHouse International Preschool in Tokyo, and his team – we couldn’t have asked for a better partner who shares a similar philosophy with us to do this together. 

Questions or comments, and just wish to chit chat over coffee? Email us at [email protected] or reach me directly at [email protected]. 

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For one, learning takes place in an environment that looks nothing like the classrooms we’re used to. And secondly, no coding is involved (for the most part!).

Come June, with the help of our friends from EtonHouse Tokyo, we’ll be organising Saturday Kids Unplugged in Japan – a summer camp with a twist, spanning 3 days of immersive, unplugged outdoor learning in the gorgeous mountain town of Karuizawa and a first-of-its-kind urban inter-cultural coding jam in Tokyo with students from Saturday Kids Japan.

So how did this come about?

Rewind to November 2018: The Saturday Kids team ventured to Tokyo to lay the groundwork for the opening of Saturday Kids Japan (watch this space!). Besides doing necessary but unexciting things like opening bank accounts, we also got to meet really cool, like-minded people who’re equally passionate about leaning into kids’ intrinsic curiosity to inspire them to create a better world.

One of these people was Anli who heads the Tokyo branch of EtonHouse – the international preschool powerhouse known for its inquiry-based curriculum.

What most people may not know about the Saturday Kids team is that our priority is cultivating curiosity first, and the ability to code, second. While we don’t doubt that programming is a skill that will come in handy, our team shares the conviction the ‘soft’ qualities of being curious, inventive, and resourceful will serve every kid well, regardless of whether they grow up to be an artist, engineer, bus driver or magician.

For some time, we’ve been looking to expand our programmes for kids beyond digital literacy, and in meeting Anli, we found a serendipitous partner, aligned with the values that we stand for and equipped with the expertise in outdoor learning to do just that.

Find out what he shared about what kids learn from being in nature, and what skills we’re excited to have kids pick up at camp this June:

1. Risk-taking

Whether it’s choosing to study for a test, go for the ball, or taking on the class bully – the ability to calculate and take risks is crucial to every child’s decision-making. All of us make small and big decisions pretty much all the time, and the ability to evaluate and take risks makes or breaks the most significant turning points in our lives.

The outdoors is a hands-on sandbox for testing boundaries, pushing limits, and experiencing failures and success in a tangible way.

In embarking on a ropes course or climbing a tree, kids are compelled to confront their fears, weigh consequences, and grapple with the implications of their decisions independently – skills that will serve them well when they take on vaster and more complex challenges in life.

2. Resilience

In a VUCA world, resilience – the process of adapting in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or stress – is key not just to surviving but thriving.

While we promise that kids will have a lot of fun at camp, the experience won’t come without its challenges.

From our experience, getting kids out of their comfort zone through activities like long hikes in the woods, or building a sturdy, workable bridge using only natural scavenged materials won’t go down easy with every kid.

It will, however, build their resilience by proving to them what they’re capable of, and that through enduring a trying and difficult process they’ll come out stronger on the other side, and happier for it.

And as they discover what they’re capable of, they’ll also learn that these truths apply not just to physical challenges, but can help them persist and endure other trials in life as well.

3. Science, and how the world works

The natural world is the greatest science teacher. What’s missing from much of conventional classroom learning these days is the connection between theory and practice, information and application.

One of the things we’re most excited about for Saturday Kids Unplugged in Japan is the luxury of having nature as a resource to get kids to further develop their curiosity about the world around them, learn from the intrinsic inventiveness of wildlife, and practise resourcefulness in a different environment.

In this edition of the camp, as kids learn from the mechanisms behind naturally occurring bridges (think spiderwebs for example), they’ll be bridging their own theoretical understanding of STEAM and its real world applications, exploring concepts like biomimicry in the process, and bringing them to life.

. . .

What have your kids learned from nature, or what have you learned from your time outdoors? Let us know in the comments below!

Wondering how to keep yourselves occupied while your kids are having the time of their life at camp? We’ve got you covered – from hiking to outlet malls, check out Saturday Kids Guide to Karuizawa for the big kids.

Our next edition of Saturday Kids Unplugged in Japan will be postponed due to the global COVID-19 outbreak. Stay tuned for the latest updates here! If you’re interested in outdoor camps in Japan (and around the world), shoot us an email here!

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So, I decided it’s probably a good idea for my kids to learn skiing from an early age. I spent the last 7 days in Niseko with the wife and the two older kids. Camper turned six in January and this is his third ski trip. He started when he was four. Summer is four and a half and skied for the first time this week. Both of them were taught by professional ski instructors from GoSnow, the largest ski school in Japan.

Here are a couple of observations.

Kids Are Fearless Learners

Kids have no fear. Summer was seeing snow for the first time, and here we are asking her to put on a pair of oddly shaped objects and get down the mountain. She didn’t even flinch. Camper was the same when he had his first ski lesson. I certainly don’t have kids who are prodigious skiers. There were many other kids in Camper’s and Summer’s ski class who were confidently skiing down green slopes by the third or fourth day.

Adults, in contrast, take longer to learn and are generally much more tentative and fearful when they ski down the slopes for the first time. Not too different from coding. Put a kid in front of a computer, show her how code blocks work and what she can make with those code blocks, and she will be exploring on her own within minutes. Ask an adult to learn coding and she will give any number of reasons why it’s not for her, chief among which is the fear of learning something new, especially something as ‘technical’ as coding.

Kids Learn Better When It’s Fun

Sounds obvious, but ask any child who goes for hour after hour of tuition and she will tell you school’s a chore, exams are a pain, and academic subjects are boring. Can we blame them? At GoSnow, there’s a different theme everyday of the week (Crazy Hat Wednesday, Race Day Friday) and kids are grouped by ninja colours (Yellow Ninja for beginners all the way through to Black Ninja for more advanced kids).

I can’t emphasise enough the importance of fun. Learning how to ski is tiring, even for kids. They spend six to seven hours a day constantly falling over and picking themselves up in sub-zero conditions. At the end of each day Camper and Summer are exhausted, and they struggle to wake up in the morning.

But when we threaten to go skiing without them, they will jump out of bed, put on their ski gear, and get going. They look forward to ski class every morning because it’s fun! Perhaps it’s a little unfair to put math and skiing on the same fun scale, but the point is that learning can be a lot of fun.

Mainstream education, with its endless stream of tests and exams, takes the joy out of learning.

Kids Learn By Doing

Kids learn skiing by getting on the snow, pointing their skis down the hill, and making pizza turns and stops. Inevitably they fall, pick themselves up, and give it another go. They don’t learn skiing by sitting in front of a whiteboard listening to the instructor talk about skiing.

In the context of academic subjects like math and science, kids can internalise knowledge way better if they are able to apply what they learn.

A great example is MIT professor Walter Lewin’s video of using himself as a guinea pig to demonstrate to students how the law of physics apply in real life. Similarly, kids don’t learn digital literacy or programming by memorising the theories of computer science. They learn digital literacy by making stuff, whether it’s a micro:bit stop watch timer, or a simple maze game, or a littleBits light up magic wand.

Start Them Young

So whatever it is we want our kids to learn, it’s probably a good idea to start them young. Injecting fun and making kids active participants in the learning process will go a long way in keeping kids engaged and excited.

Camper staring down the slope before conquering it

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