TJEd Milestones: The Transition To Scholar
by Rachel DeMille
If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? I'm not talking about plastic surgery or losing a few pounds. But seriously, if you could really, truly improve the inner you and become more like your very best self, what would you change? Whatever it is, there's a good chance that if you could go back in time to change it you'd end up dealing with lessons most naturally learned between ages 9 and 14.
This transition from Love of Learning Phase (childhood) to Scholar Phase (youth) is a sort of sub-phase that needs special treatment. We call this pivotal time “Transition to Scholar,” and it is one of the most important facets of a young person’s education. Those who transition well during this time will almost invariably have an excellent youth experience; those who do not will likely continue to struggle even into adulthood. Fortunately, this transition is natural and most healthy children will quite automatically make many of the transitional changes on his own.
The challenge is that parents who were trained on the conveyor belt may not realize what is happening, and may in fact, block, slow or otherwise frustrate this natural process. This is why it is essential for parents to recognize and understand this vital transition in a young person’s life.
Transition to Scholar occurs in most girls between ages 9 and 12, and in most boys between 11 and 14. Some psychologists speak of this age as the root source of most problems in men, who are often pushed too hard at this age to “put away childish things” and take on adult responsibility. One of the biggest issues many boys face at this age is pressure to perform academically. Girls are usually ahead of boys at this age, yet boys are often pushed to keep up to girl “grade levels.” And girls can struggle because of the enormous amount of social pressure put on them during this Transition.
The key words of this period often conflict in parent’s minds: independence and protection. Children at this age need to feel both. In a healthy child, without undue parental or societal pressure, this is a positive, happy and enjoyable age. Speaking of important life transitions, Montessori observed: “The middle age crisis signals that the adult is on their way to death; in contrast, transition excitement about learning signals that the child is on their way to life.”
J. S. Ross expressed that a “being from another planet, who did not know the human race, could easily take these ten year olds to be the adults of the species; supposing they had not met the real adults.” Just as puberty signals physical readiness to enter Scholar Phase and getting certain permanent teeth signals the move toward Love of Learning Phase, a height spurt between the ages of nine and eleven (later for boys) often signals readiness for Transition to Scholar.
Transition Discoveries
In addition to academics, Transition to Scholar is the ideal and natural time for a child to make a number of interesting, fascinating and exciting discoveries. If we take away this time of discovery, or push for it too soon, a “hate of learning” ensues rather than the healthy love of learning most children will encounter. Some of the discoveries that a child will naturally make during a healthy Transition to Scholar include the following:
• Learning never ends
• Learning is used in adult life
• I will someday help educate children as part of the cycle of life
• Learning combines doing with talking with practice (and later with thinking)
• Imitation speeds up the learning process
• Unconscious creation needs to be followed by conscious work
• Not everything has an answer (but most really important things do)
• Character flaws hurt
• I can contribute to society (or make the mistake of trying to achieve to impress)
• I have an impact on my own future
• Mom and Dad have flaws
• Mom and Dad also have authority, so I live in a potential tyranny that must be closely watched
• There are other cultures, many of which are different than my own
As you can see, the discoveries of Transition to Scholar are numerous and wonderful. It is so important that parents help provide an environment where children can make these discoveries in a natural and healthy manner. As they do so, they will also learn the following Transition Skills, as outlined by Wayne Dyer in What Do You Really Want for Your Children?:
• Take smart risks
• Don’t put yourself down
• Inner Approval: Don’t emphasize external measures of success
• Don’t complain or whine
• Don’t be judgmental
• Never get “bored”
• Learn from mistakes
• Learn to lose and win well
• Practice smart self-reliance
• Choose to feel at peace and serene
• Realize that life is about smiling
• Never fear your own greatness
Consider how important this list of lessons is, and you'll realize just how vital this period is in each young person's life. Leading child developmental psychologists Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget taught that adults can go back and "renegotiate" this phase if they didn't fully learn the lessons, but what parent wouldn't want their children to learn these as children/youth?
The healthy child naturally learns all of these skills openly or subconsciously—unless they are squashed. Unfortunately, the conveyor belt often rejects Intuitive Thinking and simultaneously over-emphasizes the need for Higher Thinking skills at an early age. To compensate, many young students turn to memorizing as a way to fake Higher Thinking skills that their brains are unprepared to utilize (and which are developed during puberty). They fail to truly emphasize the vital lessons of Transition to Scholar and beyond because they get stuck in memorized learning.
Many who learn to substitute memorization for Higher Thinking as children maintain this habit through adulthood, resulting in a nation of highly-trained but narrow experts. In such a society, expert training passes for education, rote expertise substitutes for independent thinking, and the number of midlife crises increase.
Parents can have a significant positive influence on all this simply by helping children identify and choose wisely in the Transition to Scholar age between nine and fourteen. Of course, this starts by not pushing too hard when the child is still learning Intuitive Skills, and in waiting to push higher-order academic subjects until the child’s natural maturity has equipped him for Higher Thinking.
When done well, Transition to Scholar is an exciting and wonderful time for a child on the leadership path, and parents have great impact on which path the child will take—at least at this point in her life. The right choice can make a huge difference in the education of each child, and in the life mission she will pursue and the success she will have.
Apart from your children's progress, if you want to revisit and renegotiate anything on the list above, it is never too late. In fact, one of the most effective ways to gain (or strengthen) that inner lesson you never quite mastered is to actively help your child through the process.
There are Three Indispensable Choices parents should make during each child’s Transition Phase. If any one of the three is forgotten or ignored, Transition is slowed down or negatively impacted. And while it may be hard to do all three as well as you would like, understand that good parenting is hard and that doing all three will be worth it.
First, parents must remember that the child is still in Love of Learning! This is incredibly important. All the Ingredients and other principles of Love of Learning Phase still apply; few, if any, of the Scholar Phase methods should be used until later.
Second, you must be effectively progressing in the Phases! Some parents may be in the process of renegotiating their Foundational Phases. For most adults in today’s society this means: time for Scholar Phase. There is a growing number of families whose parents have gotten ahead of the game (actually, who did things in a more convenient time and season) and are ready for Depth Phase when the children come. In any case, a child in Transition needs to see her parents setting the example. Your children need to see you actively progressing in your current phase during their Transitions.
Third, as you apply correct principles you must truly relax and trust that your youth will do a Scholar Phase and do it well. Like riding a bike, driving a car, being physically fit (in a home where physical activity is the norm) or going to college (with parents who are college graduates), Leadership Education comes naturally in homes where the parents are on the Leadership Path. Pushing them too soon will only slow down the process, and may actually push them off the Path of Leadership.
Remember that you are the expert on your home and your children; trust your feelings and impressions more than the views of the so-called experts, neighbors or extended family members. Trusting does not mean giving in to your pride or paranoia at the expense of tried-and-true principles. It means applying principles according to the vision and counsel of the FEC and not allowing other voices to incite you to second guess your hard won inspiration.
Be cautious when you become aware that your feelings can be characterized as “fear,” “guilt,” “pride,” or some other self-centered, basically negative emotion or motivation. If these elements enter in, your feelings and impressions need to be double checked with prayer and parental counsel (we call this the Family Executive Committee, and I’ll write more on it some other time) so that you don’t subconsciously apply your past experience in place of your new vision.
Parenting is an incredibly challenging endeavor; certainly, it’s about the most difficult and demanding task I have ever undertaken. Yet by applying true principles, just as in any other life challenge, we know that we can find success and have a lot of fun along the way.
In short, there are few things in life as enjoyable, as rewarding or as downright fun as living through a great Transition to Scholar with your child during Love of Learning Phase. Enjoy it. Slow down and savor it for as long as it lasts; and smile, hug and laugh a lot more.
The Transition to Scholar Phase is a powerful, pivotal time in the life of a person. Your valiance, serenity, affection, acceptance, patience and vision will help to establish from this time a relationship that will endure whatever else comes along; and the growing independence, character and competence of your youth will bring you satisfaction and joy for the rest of your life.
(More details on how to facilitate the Transition to Scholar, including a list of 35 points for parents, are found in a free download sample from our book, Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning. This sample download is available here: http://tjed.org/purchase/books/lead-phases/.)
Rachel DeMille is the editor of This Week in History, a daily offering for educators to correlate historical events with learning resources and activities in math, science, writing, geography and more. She is the author, with her husband Oliver DeMille, of the Thomas Jefferson Education educational resources. They have eight children. For more about Thomas Jefferson Education visit http://tjed.org.
by Rachel DeMille
If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? I'm not talking about plastic surgery or losing a few pounds. But seriously, if you could really, truly improve the inner you and become more like your very best self, what would you change? Whatever it is, there's a good chance that if you could go back in time to change it you'd end up dealing with lessons most naturally learned between ages 9 and 14.
This transition from Love of Learning Phase (childhood) to Scholar Phase (youth) is a sort of sub-phase that needs special treatment. We call this pivotal time “Transition to Scholar,” and it is one of the most important facets of a young person’s education. Those who transition well during this time will almost invariably have an excellent youth experience; those who do not will likely continue to struggle even into adulthood. Fortunately, this transition is natural and most healthy children will quite automatically make many of the transitional changes on his own.
The challenge is that parents who were trained on the conveyor belt may not realize what is happening, and may in fact, block, slow or otherwise frustrate this natural process. This is why it is essential for parents to recognize and understand this vital transition in a young person’s life.
Transition to Scholar occurs in most girls between ages 9 and 12, and in most boys between 11 and 14. Some psychologists speak of this age as the root source of most problems in men, who are often pushed too hard at this age to “put away childish things” and take on adult responsibility. One of the biggest issues many boys face at this age is pressure to perform academically. Girls are usually ahead of boys at this age, yet boys are often pushed to keep up to girl “grade levels.” And girls can struggle because of the enormous amount of social pressure put on them during this Transition.
The key words of this period often conflict in parent’s minds: independence and protection. Children at this age need to feel both. In a healthy child, without undue parental or societal pressure, this is a positive, happy and enjoyable age. Speaking of important life transitions, Montessori observed: “The middle age crisis signals that the adult is on their way to death; in contrast, transition excitement about learning signals that the child is on their way to life.”
J. S. Ross expressed that a “being from another planet, who did not know the human race, could easily take these ten year olds to be the adults of the species; supposing they had not met the real adults.” Just as puberty signals physical readiness to enter Scholar Phase and getting certain permanent teeth signals the move toward Love of Learning Phase, a height spurt between the ages of nine and eleven (later for boys) often signals readiness for Transition to Scholar.
Transition Discoveries
In addition to academics, Transition to Scholar is the ideal and natural time for a child to make a number of interesting, fascinating and exciting discoveries. If we take away this time of discovery, or push for it too soon, a “hate of learning” ensues rather than the healthy love of learning most children will encounter. Some of the discoveries that a child will naturally make during a healthy Transition to Scholar include the following:
• Learning never ends
• Learning is used in adult life
• I will someday help educate children as part of the cycle of life
• Learning combines doing with talking with practice (and later with thinking)
• Imitation speeds up the learning process
• Unconscious creation needs to be followed by conscious work
• Not everything has an answer (but most really important things do)
• Character flaws hurt
• I can contribute to society (or make the mistake of trying to achieve to impress)
• I have an impact on my own future
• Mom and Dad have flaws
• Mom and Dad also have authority, so I live in a potential tyranny that must be closely watched
• There are other cultures, many of which are different than my own
As you can see, the discoveries of Transition to Scholar are numerous and wonderful. It is so important that parents help provide an environment where children can make these discoveries in a natural and healthy manner. As they do so, they will also learn the following Transition Skills, as outlined by Wayne Dyer in What Do You Really Want for Your Children?:
• Take smart risks
• Don’t put yourself down
• Inner Approval: Don’t emphasize external measures of success
• Don’t complain or whine
• Don’t be judgmental
• Never get “bored”
• Learn from mistakes
• Learn to lose and win well
• Practice smart self-reliance
• Choose to feel at peace and serene
• Realize that life is about smiling
• Never fear your own greatness
Consider how important this list of lessons is, and you'll realize just how vital this period is in each young person's life. Leading child developmental psychologists Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget taught that adults can go back and "renegotiate" this phase if they didn't fully learn the lessons, but what parent wouldn't want their children to learn these as children/youth?
The healthy child naturally learns all of these skills openly or subconsciously—unless they are squashed. Unfortunately, the conveyor belt often rejects Intuitive Thinking and simultaneously over-emphasizes the need for Higher Thinking skills at an early age. To compensate, many young students turn to memorizing as a way to fake Higher Thinking skills that their brains are unprepared to utilize (and which are developed during puberty). They fail to truly emphasize the vital lessons of Transition to Scholar and beyond because they get stuck in memorized learning.
Many who learn to substitute memorization for Higher Thinking as children maintain this habit through adulthood, resulting in a nation of highly-trained but narrow experts. In such a society, expert training passes for education, rote expertise substitutes for independent thinking, and the number of midlife crises increase.
Parents can have a significant positive influence on all this simply by helping children identify and choose wisely in the Transition to Scholar age between nine and fourteen. Of course, this starts by not pushing too hard when the child is still learning Intuitive Skills, and in waiting to push higher-order academic subjects until the child’s natural maturity has equipped him for Higher Thinking.
When done well, Transition to Scholar is an exciting and wonderful time for a child on the leadership path, and parents have great impact on which path the child will take—at least at this point in her life. The right choice can make a huge difference in the education of each child, and in the life mission she will pursue and the success she will have.
Apart from your children's progress, if you want to revisit and renegotiate anything on the list above, it is never too late. In fact, one of the most effective ways to gain (or strengthen) that inner lesson you never quite mastered is to actively help your child through the process.
There are Three Indispensable Choices parents should make during each child’s Transition Phase. If any one of the three is forgotten or ignored, Transition is slowed down or negatively impacted. And while it may be hard to do all three as well as you would like, understand that good parenting is hard and that doing all three will be worth it.
First, parents must remember that the child is still in Love of Learning! This is incredibly important. All the Ingredients and other principles of Love of Learning Phase still apply; few, if any, of the Scholar Phase methods should be used until later.
Second, you must be effectively progressing in the Phases! Some parents may be in the process of renegotiating their Foundational Phases. For most adults in today’s society this means: time for Scholar Phase. There is a growing number of families whose parents have gotten ahead of the game (actually, who did things in a more convenient time and season) and are ready for Depth Phase when the children come. In any case, a child in Transition needs to see her parents setting the example. Your children need to see you actively progressing in your current phase during their Transitions.
Third, as you apply correct principles you must truly relax and trust that your youth will do a Scholar Phase and do it well. Like riding a bike, driving a car, being physically fit (in a home where physical activity is the norm) or going to college (with parents who are college graduates), Leadership Education comes naturally in homes where the parents are on the Leadership Path. Pushing them too soon will only slow down the process, and may actually push them off the Path of Leadership.
Remember that you are the expert on your home and your children; trust your feelings and impressions more than the views of the so-called experts, neighbors or extended family members. Trusting does not mean giving in to your pride or paranoia at the expense of tried-and-true principles. It means applying principles according to the vision and counsel of the FEC and not allowing other voices to incite you to second guess your hard won inspiration.
Be cautious when you become aware that your feelings can be characterized as “fear,” “guilt,” “pride,” or some other self-centered, basically negative emotion or motivation. If these elements enter in, your feelings and impressions need to be double checked with prayer and parental counsel (we call this the Family Executive Committee, and I’ll write more on it some other time) so that you don’t subconsciously apply your past experience in place of your new vision.
Parenting is an incredibly challenging endeavor; certainly, it’s about the most difficult and demanding task I have ever undertaken. Yet by applying true principles, just as in any other life challenge, we know that we can find success and have a lot of fun along the way.
In short, there are few things in life as enjoyable, as rewarding or as downright fun as living through a great Transition to Scholar with your child during Love of Learning Phase. Enjoy it. Slow down and savor it for as long as it lasts; and smile, hug and laugh a lot more.
The Transition to Scholar Phase is a powerful, pivotal time in the life of a person. Your valiance, serenity, affection, acceptance, patience and vision will help to establish from this time a relationship that will endure whatever else comes along; and the growing independence, character and competence of your youth will bring you satisfaction and joy for the rest of your life.
(More details on how to facilitate the Transition to Scholar, including a list of 35 points for parents, are found in a free download sample from our book, Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning. This sample download is available here: http://tjed.org/purchase/books/lead-phases/.)
Rachel DeMille is the editor of This Week in History, a daily offering for educators to correlate historical events with learning resources and activities in math, science, writing, geography and more. She is the author, with her husband Oliver DeMille, of the Thomas Jefferson Education educational resources. They have eight children. For more about Thomas Jefferson Education visit http://tjed.org.
