Kids Love Trick-or-treating. Why Can’t Learning Be Like Halloween?

My kids had a blast last night trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood.

Every Halloween, my neighbourhood organises a trick-or-treating walkabout. Parents decorate their porch with spider webs and pumpkins. Kids put on costumes and walk around the neighbourhood, going into houses asking for treats.

Here’s why kids like trick-or-treating. School should be more like Halloween, less like Labour Day.

Kids get to dress up.

My three year old had a pumpkin costume last night. The five year old dressed up as a witch. Cory, who’s seven, found it hilarious walking around the neighbourhood with a knife sticking out of his head. Trick-or-treating feels like play because kids get to put on whimsical (or macabre) outfits.

Trick-or-treating is social.

Kids don’t go trick-or-treating alone. They hunt in packs. It’s way more fun going around the neighbourhood with your friends, talking about who has the best outfit, who got the best treats.

There is a reward.

As the name suggests, trick-or-treating involves treats. Kids are highly motivated because they know they get a reward every door they knock on. Granted, extrinsic motivation is not nearly as powerful as intrinsic motivation, but it’s way better than no motivation.

The reward is a surprise.

Kids don’t know what treats they are going to get in each house. Some parents prepared gift bags. Not knowing what they’ll get is part of the fun.

Learning should involve role-playing, be social and offer rewards and surprises.

Learning is an experience, just like trick-or-treating. Too often, we make learning feel like drills. A good rule of thumb to assess learning experiences is to ask whether learning involves the use of a child’s imagination. Role-playing, social learning experiences that reward creativity and offer surprises are far more likely to require imagination.