Learning can be fun without being sugar-coated

Making learning fun is often associated with playing educational games or having children compete with one another for prizes. Such fun can thrill without nourishing.

But learning is also fun when children are given time and space to think, when they can express their ideas and have them respected, and when their contributions – even their mistakes – are used to advance their own learning and the learning of others.

The intrinsic motivation of the second type of fun contributes to a love of learning that may endure.