We all have a basic human need to connect with others. Spending too much time alone is detrimental to our emotional, spiritual and psychological well-being. We're all aware of this, and so we make an effort to get out and meet people. As parents, we arrange "play dates" for our children and take them to social gatherings. As homeschoolers, we actively pursue opportunities for meeting and keeping in touch with other homeschooling families. Usually, friendship and a sense of community are the main goals, but there's an added benefit: "social learning," or learning through collaboration and discussion within a group. Studies have shown that learning with others is good for our intellectual development. As John Seely Brown and Richard Adler write in their article, "
Minds on Fire" (
Educause, 2008):
". . . our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions. The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning."
What does this mean to us, as educators? It means we need to remember that studying and socializing are not necessarily separate things to be done at separate times. Like chocolate and peanut butter, they go better together. It isn't enough for kids to get together to play after all their studies are done. They also need opportunities to learn with, and from, each other.
