Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Adding to the "learning days" discussion

The ever-eloquent-thinking-blogger Willa has another perfect post about why I struggle to define "learning" and all that the word encompasses. And so, on this morning when I'm not feeling at all eloquent, I will say:

"Yes! Ditto! What she said! That's it!"

This is one of my favorite parts of the post:

But if you thought that was really what the sewing and music were about, you would be missing the point. There is so much more here -- a memory, a way of living life, a connection with the community, aspirations and dreams. More still. To put it into formal educational terms would thin it out. There have been times in the past, to be truthful, when I have spoiled the richness of one of the childrens' endeavours by too quickly casting it in "educational" terms.

It is one of the minor sadnesses to me in homeschooling that I have to pay attention to these things, and it is ironic that the more I am trying to unschool, the more pressure I feel to assign educational value to rich, organic experiences and projects.


Yes, ditto, what she said ... that's it. It is a sadness to me as well that I have to justify so much, whether to the state (the one in which I live, literally, geographically) or the state of our culture and its narrowly defined visions of value, learning and being, or even to myself and my own state of mind.

Be sure to read Willa's related posts, too.

Off to add links to the "Loads of Good Learning Days" post.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's how I feel about every post you write. I always want to comment "Right on!"

Karen Edmisten said...

Oh, Jennifer, thank you! You made my day.

And, btw, I'm still waiting for that ode to your toothbrush. :-)