The Button Lady of Warrandyte South
Learning with Soul
This old-fashioned teacher wants to bring more play back into the classroom. She insists that children really learn when they play.
Jo, the relief teacher, takes a seat on the floor and invites the children into a circle. It’s the first time she’s met this class. She tells them that she is a collector, and shakes the heavy bag in front of her. The students call out with unprompted guesses about the bag’s content:
“Shells!”
“Lego!”
“Marbles!”
Soon she reaches into the bag, draws out a full bowl of buttons, and sprinkles them around on the floor.
“Buttons!” “Buttons!” The children love to say the word, and they become excited.
Jo pours more buttons out onto the floor. There are several thousand in her bag. She tells the class that they can come and get a bowl of buttons, and then they can play with them.
It’s noisy in the room, but it’s the sound of engagement. And everyone’s doing something different: sorting, trading, making patterns and pictures; some on their own and others in small groups. Most children begin by just running their hands through the piles. Some will begin to collect their favourite colours. Others will hunt out lovely patterns or textures. Soon there will be a trading system set up. Everyone has his or her own ‘special’ favourties. Pictures and words are made.
Jo recalls: ‘I once had a Year 2/3 class that organized themselves into a city council, assigned roles and developed a system for conveying the buttons from one end of the classroom to another. They worked this out entirely amongst themselves. It was awe-inspiring! I wouldn’t have set that as a learning intention, as I would not have expected such a detailed process to occur.’
After the session, the children’s class teacher comes and tells Jo that her students had the biggest smiles on their faces after the “performing arts” class! ‘‘What did you do?! This boy is smiling and laughing! Thank you!’ ‘This boy’, Jo later discovers, is a student with special needs. Everyone loves buttons.
Jo Pfitzner, friendly-faced mother of three sons, began primary teaching in the 1980s before working in adult education. She took a long career break to raise her family and returned to paid work as a casual teacher. In the past several years she has visited many different classrooms, and taught children from kinder to Year 12. Most days, there is usually a tight program to be followed when the regular teacher is away. But, as often as she can, she brings in her buttons. Many children have dubbed her ‘The Button Lady’. A vintage moniker from simpler times.
‘Sometimes I feel I should use the buttons in some kind of “targeted educational” context,’ Jo says. ‘We’ve made rhythmic sentences to play percussion music, classified to our hearts’ content, worked out maths problems, and done many other directed activities. It’s more fun than not using aids at all, but it reminds me of when six-year-olds are asked to use coloured plastic blocks to do their maths problems. What they’d really like to do is to play with the blocks. Play can be directed or undirected: we need to acknowledge the difference between the two and ensure both types are incorporated into the curriculum. For me, the best times are undirected; I just tell the students to play with the buttons. When they are engaged in their play, I have ample opportunity to unobtrusively observe the myriad effects. They are working on their creative, social, intellectual, communication and motor skills, and much more.’
Too Much, Too Soon*
Over the past few years, Jo has observed that children are being introduced to theoretical and academic concepts at a much earlier age. Many prominent educators and specialists support her observations.They also warn that this practice will have a negative effect on many children, taking away a love of learning and creating a feeling of failure among those just not ready.The nation-wide NAPLAN results have plateaued. Government decision makers have demanded that the 3Rs be introduced to children earlier, reasoning that they will reach higher levels sooner.This approach does not logically follow the stages of development. It’s best for an infant to crawl before it walks; a school-aged child needs to experience what experts describe as preliminary skills (mark making, socialising, etc) before tackling more complex and readily identifiable academic skills.
Research in Australia and overseas is suggesting a completely different approach to early education. This includes Finland, where children begin formal schooling later and the entire school system is based on child-focused, play-based learning*. Further, researchers also believe that play is a critical factor in developing innovation in people of all ages***.
Looking through a child’s eyes: the play’s the thing
Play is considered to be ‘real learning’ and Loose Parts are the catalyst for play. Loose Parts don’t have a defined purpose: buttons, stones, shells, rocks, wood, nutshells and sand are some examples from the natural world. Lego and craft items from the built world are also popular. The playing child engages with the loose parts and creates purpose. When children play together, they also share ideas; they have to negotiate the who, what and why. Without instructions they count and classify. Without a stated learning intention and success criteria (terms now in common use to bookend lessons), the play can change freely.
Jo has turned her own passion for buttons into a personal mission to influence the reintroduction of truly free play into the classroom. She wants to encourage discussion amongst parents, education professionals and government decision makers; to challenge the dominant educational paradigm and look towards a more balanced curriculum. Acknowledging that she can’t force great change, Jo is being realistic about her goal to work ‘with small steps’.
The demands of the highly detailed curriculum and reporting requirements can be discouraging to educators wanting to incorporate more play into their programs. The Button Lady of Warrandyte South continues to use her buttons in schools when she can. But she’s also set up a blog and a Facebook page to educate, inform and entertain those seeking to address the curriculum most effectively: by looking at the child first, and not through an adult lens.
Button, Button, Who’s got the Button?
Last week Jo was working at a local secondary college. ‘I met many students from primary schools at which I relieved at up to seven years ago. “Hey! You’re the Button Lady!” “Are you still collecting buttons?” A Year 10 girl called out: “I remember you. We played with buttons”. ‘
‘“Yes we did”, I replied.’
Poet and activist Maya Angelou said: ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’
The Button Lady of Warrandyte South is a Facebook page where Jo Pfitzner curates information about play and other issues of educational interest.
https://www.facebook.com/thebuttonladyofwarrandytesouth/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Jo blogs at
https://thebuttonladyblog.wordpress.com
Further Information (to be presented in the appropriate manner in print and online)
There is a host of information and research connected to the ideas discussed in this article. These are a few examples:
* toomuchtoosoon.org is the aptly named campaign running in the UK
** Finland Education System:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-why-finland-has-the-best-schools-20160324-gnqv9l.html
*** How Play Shapes the World – audio podcast http://one.npr.org/i/511670498:511670717
A selection of references to research and commentary:
Lisa Burman Consulting in Pedagogical Growth: http://lisaburman.com.au
Protecting Childhood – Facebook group
NAPLAN results plateau: www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-13/concern-as-naplan–results–plateau/8114548
Gabrielle Stroud: https://griffithreview.com/articles/teaching-australia
Steve Biddulph: http://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/talking-point-too-much-too-young-is-dangerous/news-story/c7ebbcf4385e17af446e582c5c3bc9df
thebuttonladyblog 
I love buttons and my experience is that children love them too. I have seen much rich play with buttons and remember having a lovely time with them in my childhood years too 🙂 You may be interested in this article? https://wp.me/p928R3-19
LikeLike