Educational guide - Formal - Ahrbol by Lagali

Educational guide: Formal

Everyone wants to evolve and help to educate people, not only toddlers, children, teenagers, but also the elderly. Over the years it has become evident that in a modern society education is primordial to make progress.

And that education is for everyone and not for a certain period in life, but lifelong. Unfortunately, only too often people involved in "education" tend to forget: learning is also playing. Without the element of play, a great deal of "fun" is taken away from learning. While having "fun" in next to discipline very conducive to learning. Fun while learning keeps the mind and the body open to acquiring knowledge. And makes one hungry for more.

All of this can be achieved by using "Ahrbol" as a tool for formal learning. Anyone who takes upon the role of game master in Ahrbol and fixes a place, a time and a certain goal to attain, becomes an educator, a teacher with Ahrbol as a tool.

Because Ahrbol is foremost a ball, it brings an almost unique element into teaching. Ahrbol delivers "hands-on" experience. You bring the mind and the body together. If you do not do so, you cannot hold the ball. And this is very much in contrast to most other learning devices, such as a book or any electronic device. These tools have very little requirements of the body. That means pupils can slump, can forget about their body and go for just a mental activity. But that limits by its very nature the level of understanding and especially deep cognition.

Learning with Ahrbol, will have a deeper impact, as what happens is stored both by the body and the mind. Making sure it lasts longer, through the bodily experience. This entirely different approach to learning not only takes into account a goal-oriented approach of reaching a certain degree of knowledge, but also pays attention to the process of getting there, the very process of learning. As it this process that will guarantee any individual with the means for a lifetime of learning, a lifetime of adapting to different circumstances and different requirements by an ever more complex society.

Holding the ball, holding Ahrbol and waiting while listening, in fact teaches the most important attitude in learning, no matter the subject you want to study or the age you are at: "Stillness". That creates an open mind, together with a certain amount of inhibitory control, as not to jump to conclusions, or to repeat the known through force of habit. Ahrbol teaches you to be open, still, yet very ready when needed, to learn.

For whom? Learning is playing

You can start anywhere, at any given time. As long as there are a minimum of two people present. And somebody is willing to take upon the role of game master, as a teacher with a certain goal using Ahrbol as an educational tool. This person decides upon the game to play, the time necessary and most important the specific goal of the game. Whether this goal be cognitive or non-cognitive. So it is not necessary to be a professional teacher to use Ahrbol as an educational tool. Any person willing to nurture the potential in another person is perfectly fit to be a teacher of Ahrbol. Sticking to an age-old adagio : any skill can be enhanced by practice.

As in any real teacher-pupil relationship: the learning is beneficial for both. Ahrbol offers to the game master a challenge to see how good he or she is at envisioning the potential of the pupil. And faces the teacher with the healthiest competition of all, to be pitted against oneself. So you educate yourself, and the other person, while having fun, moving about and making the most of your time, together.