Compartments for Learning

Real life learning is not put into compartments.

I guess they need compartments in teaching institutions (i.e., schools) because there would be chaos without it?  Perhaps?

But at home, with natural learning - no compartments please!!

"We haven't done any history for days - oh no!" a mother may panic.

"What about when your 8 year old wanted to know about Concorde planes and you had to look at the footage of people in the late 70's and he asked you about the cars in the background ... that's history."

"Well, ok, but we haven't done any maths that I'm aware of."

"How about the time your 6 year old was holding a fistful of truck and digger toys and someone asked him "What have you got there?"  and he said  "trucks - three in this hand, and three in this hand - that's six." 

"Well ... I suppose ... but .. ah ... have we covered social studies - do they call it that anymore?"

"Whatever "they" call it, I bet you've covered it.  Weren't you just sitting with the children at the table at lunchtime talking about mandarins and how it can be hard to keep the trees alive in this climate because of the frost, but people create micro-climates and grow all sorts of things that normally only grow in warmer countries, and you talked about those countries, and the lifestyle of those peoples and then they went back to other things that die in the frost and you talked about building frost-cloth frames ..."

"So, was that all Social Studies?"

"No."

"Oh no!  Then what CAN I teach them for Social Studies - do you know any good resources I could buy - worksheets for them to complete?"

"I meant - no - it wasn't ALL Social Studies.  It was about 20 subjects rolled into one conversation.   That's entirely normal for home educating families."

"Hmm   I guess it is ...."

That was an entirely fictional account, based on some real-life situations, prompted by something I just read.

A mother wrote "I don't let my son open his laptop in learning time." 

And once again, I realised that some people think learning only takes place in a prescribed, compartmentalised way.

Perhaps she meant "forced learning time".    Maybe she's aware that of course he learns other things at other times.   But I would caution her to change her language then - not call "I am teaching you right now" time "learning time".

Mainstream has BRAINWASHED many, many people in SO MANY WAYS about how a person learns/who can teach/how they should teach etc.

Take off the blinkers people - mainstream has got it WRONG!!!!

Better end this rant there.

Thanks for reading.