The Self-Starting Learner

Abstract

Abstract The pedagogy that is detailed in this chapter features the child’s innate tendencies to observe carefully, to eavesdrop on conversations, to imitate others, and to play with and learn to use commonplace objects like tools. These inherited abilities are the foundation upon which Indigenous pedagogy is built. Systems of childcare, social relations, and subsistence are open and transparent. Communities freely provide access to the raw material children need to make sense of their world and to become helpful and accepted community members. Deliberate instruction is not, except under limited circumstances, considered necessary or efficacious. Adults encourage and invite children to accompany excursions that take them beyond the home and neighborhood. Children are processing all this novelty is their inevitable efforts to replicate or imitate what they’ve observed. The child’s initiative in play is accommodated by the community by the provision of child-sized canoes and paddles; among forest dwellers, would-be-hunters practice with smaller bow and arrows supplied by an older sibling; would-be-foragers dig for tubers with donated digging sticks made to size.