There is a school of thought which says that if you can create the right conditions, children are able to take care of their own learning and development.
You may be aware of Dr Sugata Mitra’s project, “Hole in the Wall”.

In 1999, whilst working teaching people how to write computer programmes in New Delhi, he dug a hole in a wall bordering the urban slum next to his office, installed an Internet-connected PC, at child height, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). The children from the slum learned how to use it (with no adult intervention) and how to go online - teaching themselves some English in the process - and then they taught each other.

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