Trust Children: Natural Learning for Twenty-First Century Students

HOW TRUSTING CHILDREN OFFERS TEACHERS A PATH TO TRANSFORMING EDUCATION

Children are our most precious resource. What if full development of their innate capacities becomes the goal of our education system? Anne Cummings Jacopetti explores this question by identifying the connection between the natural ways that children have learned throughout human history and the activities in school that they respond to with enthusiasm.

Jacopetti stresses that all children are born learners whose survival depends on their ability to make sense of the world. Every child wants to succeed. Drawing on five decades of experience teaching grades 1-12, she identifies and describes the activities that inspired enthusiasm and awakened multiple capacities in all of her students.

Twenty-first Century children need capacities such as empathy, curiosity, creativity, patience, perseverance and self-confidence in order to thrive as they work together to transform our troubled society into a life supporting body politic. The good news is that preparation for this path of transformation is not only possible, it can be a joyful experience for teachers and students. That hope resonates through the voices of her students as Jacopetti takes us on a journey through the grades as a teacher striving to reach, touch and teach each child.