Importance of Choice
From the desk of Leigh Ann . . .
“The 3 C’s of Life: Choices, Chances, Changes. You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change.” – Unknown
The children in our classrooms make choices all day long. They choose to obey or ignore the rules, say kind or unkind words, walk or run down the hallway, and listen or chat during our wonderfully prepared lessons. One of our greatest tasks as educators is to help students develop the ability to make wise choices throughout their learning day. Providing children with these opportunities is beneficial to their development and helps them build the confidence and independence needed to develop self-control and self-esteem.
We all need to feel that we have some sense of control in our lives. It helps us develop autonomy, build initiative, and increase self-control, so our students need opportunities to actively plan and pick activities that affect their learning and shape these skills. To stimulate and guide their thinking we can pose questions, provide problems to solve, and make suggestions that stretch their minds. Before they can make wise choices, we need to help them learn the skills and expectations for creating healthy positive outcomes, and realize that they are responsible for the choices they make.
Self-esteem grows when we successfully do things ourselves. Our children can learn to handle mistakes and use them as learning tools if we guide them to evaluate and rethink problem situations that arise. A child who has a good sense of self-worth can handle a mistake without feeling defeated. As teachers we can guide students by helping them deal with consequences, evaluate tasks, develop problem solving strategies, and model how to make meaningful choices. By allowing students to help determine what is going on in the classroom, they learn to make decisions and are better equipped to value the decisions of others.
If we have a classroom where everyone has a chance to share in the decision making, everyone has a voice, and it is easier for children to see and respect the ideas of others. With more choice comes the opportunity to build greater self-regulation. Children do not have a choice about going to school and they spend a great deal of their daily lives in the classroom. We need to provide them with activities that inspire learning, meet interests, and develop real life skills. We can maximize learning, minimize conflicts, and make school a whole lot more fun by allowing out students the chance to make some healthy choices along the way. Our kids have to come to school, so it should be a place that is meaningful and stimulates them to become lifelong learners who will become sound decision makers.