① A child learning to talk does not

① A child learning to talk does not learn if you correct him all the time. If the child is corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, children learn to do all the other things without being taught—to walk, run, climb, ride a bicycle.② But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes and correct them for himself. we do it all for him. We think that he will never notice a mistake unless we point it out to him. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what his word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this.* If it is a matter of right answers, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. ③ Let the children learn how to measure their own understanding, and how to know what they do not know. In short, no matter what happens, give the child a chance to find out for himself first.