Teaching kids at a very early age is counterproductive to their learning

What is more beneficial- to teach a child how to use an object, or to allow them to explore the object without direct instruction? The research outlined in Alison Gopnik’s article on Slate (dot) com gives us some startling facts.

When children in a controlled study were given a toy that did multiple things like squeaking, play music, etc., the children who had a teacher instructing them on how the toy worked did not explore it further than the directions given by the adult. However, the students who were given the toy with no specific instructions discovered the way it worked, as well as several different other mechanisms that weren’t immediately obvious.

Psychologists are drawing the conclusion that early academic learning structured around directive teaching not only inhibits creativity, but stunts a child’s natural curiosity to discover how the world works.