Learning together / 有伴的學習

在寫今天的明信片時突然想到，如果連成年人學習時都需要友朋，那就更別提小孩或少年了，假如我們每天學的新知可以拿來當做寫信或設計問題給某個對話的對象，本來沒有意義或趣味的東西就會有個人的色彩了。想著想著，這個概念又變成上課可以用的練習。

When I am writing the postcard of the day, it occurs to me that if an adult needs company to make learning interesting, companionship will be even more important for children or teenagers. Suppose what we learn every day can be part of the mail in the form of a story or a question to a friend, we will learn it better because we impose personal significance on the knowledge that originally didn't mean a thing to us. I am definitely going to adopt the concept in my classes. 

        今天的報紙上說，十二年國教是令人最沒有幸福感的事之一，最近聽了太多太多雜音，不如先放下所有官僚性的語言，回到最基本的出發點︰學習本身是件快樂的事，如果沒有找回最原始的喜悅感，其他的目標都是白搭。

   I read from the newspaper that the yet-to-come 12-year obligatory education is one of the new policies that makes Taiwanese least happy. As a teacher, I have to admit that lately I've heard too much said, too much repeated. I think we should discard all the bureaucratic stuff and go back to the starting point: Learning itself is a happy thing. If we don't make children feel the joy of learning, then however much we try to give them, it's totally useless and pointless.