different ways of learning

Just starting now to really see some of the differences in the educational system between Britain and Bosnia. I was talking to Adam's teacher yesterday who said that Adam wasn't very good at colouring in. Seems that he just doesn't want to colour in, stick collages, whatever - between the lines. I looked at all the pictures by other children stuck up around the nursery and sure enough they were all beautifully executed with not a mark, not a sticky piece of cotton wool, not a piece of glitter outside of the lines.

Now, I'm no expert in English nursery approaches, but I can't remember Adam ever being asked to do anything between the lines. I'm pretty sure that they took the approach that the child should create whatever he wanted, they viewed colouring in between the lines as limiting their creativity - or something like that. Anyway, Adam has obviously taken the decision not to be constrained by lines and draws his own thing, ignoring whatever car, sheep, cloud is on the paper underneath his efforts.

I feel that this is a difference which will continue throughout the educational system. The British system is about developing a child's creativity and the Bosnian system is, as I understand it, more about learning the facts by rote. This is something that we shall have to bear in mind when thinking about moving the boys between systems.