To Be and To Have

One of the differences between children and adults is the attitude about inquiry. Not understanding something or not knowing about something is inherent to childhood. Curiosity and wonder are the catalysts to deeper learning. To Be and To Have documents a small classroom in France over the course of a school year.

To Be and To Have is composed of long, candid takes that embody what is good and what is different and what difficult about children and their processes of learning and growing. The film resists edits because it is so interested in the development at hand. Learning demands time, repetition, and making mistakes. Early education teaches the fundamentals – letters and writing, numbers and counting, discipline and manners and how to properly wash one’s hands. There is a beautiful balance between indoors and outdoors in To Be and To Have, reinforcing the idea that all experience is educational, and all education is related and important. In Mr. Lopez’s classroom, shared learning experiences are constant. It is all very organic. Children interrupt, tease, and fight, but mostly they teach and help each other. Mr. Lopez is exemplary. He is invested in each of his students’ social and emotional and physical and psychological wellbeing. He has empathy for these little people, and tries to get them to have empathy for each other. Perhaps most significantly of all, Mr. Lopez asks more questions than he gives answers to. If pieces of children’s media followed his pedagogy of respect and patience and eye-level, they would better cultivate a comfortable and useful platform for encouraging every kind of inquiry.

Inquiry refers to more than educational material. It is a level of involvement with a child’s mind that can open doors to more learning. There is so much to learn. The pieces about crayons, cathedrals, and seahorses we experienced utilize depth, focus, and specificity, while The Power of Ten is about expansion. Both sides of the spectrum (what fits in this, and where does this fit in) are crucial.

Discovery in tandem is a beautiful and productive way to encourage the best kind of learning. Every piece we looked at needed the full involvement and interest of the adult creating the piece. And every piece we looked at taught me something as I read or watched or walked around it. Perhaps newness is the thing that most impacts a child’s intellectual experience in compared to an adult’s. But the best children’s inquiry media resists adult tendencies of condescension, quickness, efficiency, and complete answers in favor of lingering, meandering, and asking questions.