The girl from Leoville, Sask., looked skeptically at the seminar leader.
Janett Booker had just been asked to perform a rope trick, something she had never done before.
Jeff Goodwin told her how to do it and then showed her.
“Do you think you can do it?” he asked the 4-Her.
She wasn’t sure, but grasping the rope she began twirling it, creating the flat circle he had earlier demonstrated.
Goodwin, an extension professor from Texas A& M University, was using three different teaching techniques at an Oct. 25 seminar held during Saskatchewan 4-H’s annual conference of leaders and senior members.
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He summarized these as “tell me and I might forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I’ll understand.”
Think like a kid
He said leaders must create teachable moments and think like a nine year old who gets bored if an activity is either too easy or too hard.
“Allow kids to screw up,” he said.
“As 4-H leaders, you need to put your hands in your pockets and let those kids do and experience – as long as it’s safe and not learning to use a chain saw.”
He urged leaders to entertain and end their meetings on a high note so children will leave talking about the fun they had in 4-H that night. If the learning is not fun, the kids will vote with their feet and the leader will be the only one who turns up at the next meeting.
Goodwin called his teaching style “sneaky prophylactic (preventive)” education.
“If we take an eight-year-old kid and keep him there (in 4-H) nine years, he’ll be a more productive member of society, versus letting that kid run loose for nine years.”
