Please, no more pumpkin puree!

My friend’s one-year-old son, Joshua, does not like pumpkin puree. This was a problem. When my friend would try to feed him he first moved his head a little and my friend would move Josh’s spoon into his mouth. After doing this for a few weeks Josh started pressing his lips together tightly whenever my friend approached him with a spoonful of the mushy orange stuff. This became a game. My friend would then wedge his lips open with the spoon to get the food into Josh’s mouth. When Josh ate, we felt like we “won.”

I saw her a month later and she informed me that Josh came up with another combative technique against eating the flavorless, (yes I’ve tasted it) but nutritious food. Now when approached with the pumpkin puree, Josh covers his top lip with his bottom lip to protect his overly sophisticated taste buds from the baby food. This technique eliminates the possibility of breaking and entering his mouth through wedging the spoon. My friend later added, “I have no idea where he learned that.” Josh’s slight modifications built from past negative experiences lead him to solve his problem of having to eat undesirable food. This is an example of Dewey’s principle of continuity, which means that every new experience builds on past experiences, and mental models are reinforced, added to or challenged. In Experience & Education, Dewey says,

Different situations succeed one another. But because of the principle of continuity something is carried over from the earlier to the later ones. As an individual passes from one situation to another, his world, his environment, expands or contracts . . . What he has learned in the way of knowledge and skill in one situation becomes an instrument of understanding and dealing effectively with the situations which follow. (Dewey, 1938, p. 44)

In Josh’s case, pressing his lips together was unsuccessful since his mom got the spoon through by wedging his lips open, so his mental model was challenged and adjusted. He adjusted his food-blocking technique by experimenting in different ways and finally was successful. This practical experience is a clear example of “learning by doing.”

This observation reinforces my idea of meaningful learning. Infants are naturally curious, and I have faith that Josh will use his learning experience with other foods in other places and situations.