Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

David Hawkins and the Pond Study

2011; University of Colorado Boulder; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cye.2011.0036

1546-2250

Oakleigh Thorne, Sarah Lord Thorne Mentock,

Diverse Educational Innovations Studies

357 Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 21 No. 1 (2011) ISSN: 1546-2250 David Hawkins and the Pond Study Kellogg, Elizabeth (2010). USA: Kellogg & Xlibris.com; 259 pages. $19.99. ISBN 9781450031127. I worked with David and Frances Hawkins in the late 1960s producing several Elementary Science film-loops and I found both of these wonderful people to be great pioneers of hands-on learning—what David termed “messing about in science.” In the process, they became my friends, so it is an honor for me now to be reviewing this volume. My daughter, Sarah, at age 5 was one of the actors used in the film-loops that we (Thorne Films, Inc.) produced. She is now 49 and has contributed to this review. The author of the two combined books, Elizabeth T. Kellogg, worked with the Hawkins team from 1972-1978 doing photo documentation of their programs at the Mountain View Center for Environmental Education, which was located at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This volume is richly illustrated with over 230 of Kellogg’s photographs. Book One, David Hawkins and the Pond Study, deals mainly with the second grade’s field trips from Lincoln Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado to Varsity Pond on the University of Colorado campus. Many student-originated projects resulted from the excitement generated by these hands-on field trips, which the author describes in detail. Hawkins found that the pond was an appealing pathway for young children to learn by exploration and discovery. In addition, the class had two fine teachers, small class size, input from the Follow-Through Program and the Bank Street model with its rich sociological base, sound scientific and mathematical input from the Mountain View Center, and a reservoir of volunteers, such as parents and University of Colorado student interns. David and Frances Hawkins had a passion for the wonder and infinite beauty of the natural world. They felt this was the key to excitement, adventure, and, therefore, motivation for effective learning. No child left behind here! David believed that these firsthand experiences went hand in hand with learning the abstract tools of reading, writing, and arithmetic; that play is a natural and powerful tool for learning; that children see the world multi-dimensionally; and that each child is unique. After pondering the open-ended learning provided by the Pond Study, and some thoughts in retrospect, the author then includes excerpts from the writings of David Hawkins on play, motivation, spontaneity and engagement with learning, as well as the limitations of programmed learning, respect for the individual differences among children, curriculum (where Hawkins 358 differs from Dewey’s theories), and finally David’s thoughts on the teaching of elementary mathematics. Following David Hawkins’ obituary from the Colorado Daily, entitled “CU’s Hawkins Dies at 88,” Kellogg concludes Book One with these deeply felt words: As the historian for the Manhattan Project during the conception and delivery of the atom bomb, Hawkins, this gentle intellectual giant, knew all too well the dark side of man’s genius. He placed his hopes in the children—that they might be nurtured with the kind of education that instills in their gut the deep understanding and strength that they will need to protect the fragility of the planet he loved so much. Book Two, David and Frances Hawkins and the Mountain View Center for Environmental Education highlights the activities from the innovative hands-on workshops for teachers of young children that were provided by the Center during the years 1972-1978. The Prelude to this book was written by Barry Kluger-Bell, Ph.D., who worked from 1971-1978 as a graduate student assistant at the Center, a “place where classroom teachers and other educators could come to rekindle their love of learning and to rethink their ideas about teaching.” David Hawkins (1913-2002) and his wife, Frances Pochman Hawkins (1913-2006), an outstanding kindergarten teacher, knew that just about anything that interested a child could be used as a starting point for learning: a passion for trains, Indians, dinosaurs, monsters, or some curiosity aroused by a walk in the meadow and the discoveries therein. They felt that learning should be a meaningful...