Listening to the Eleven Plus Child

Parents working with their children towards the Eleven Plus will be aware that there is sometimes a great difference between the way a child learns a new topic and that taken by an adult.

A young child is willing to learn by imitation and memorising. An older child will be more willing to question. An adult will be more inclined to try to learn by synthesising and evaluating information – and may be more inclined to accept independent study.

A child learning a new Eleven Plus topic may want to be taught by a different teaching method that used by his mother or father. (In my day we did it like this.)

Where some bright children are able to accept a rule or definition, the adult (or parent) may want to pitch in with far too much explanation and detail.

Grand parents, however, will tend to work their way through the same problem in yet another manner. The grand parent will possibly be most concerned with selecting the correct teaching strategy.

Thus three generations may have different approached to an Eleven Plus problem.

A number of Eleven Plus children will accept being told how to work on a new topic.

Parents (some) may be inclined to go on and on just a bit too much for their child to stomach.

Grand mother or grand father could spend a bit too long working out how to tackle and then explain the problem.

The Eleven Plus child should listen to the parents, the parents should listen to their parents. The parent of the parent will need to listen to the Eleven Plus child – because in their day there was no such thing as an Eleven Plus examination.