Unschoolers believe in the natural process of learning that both children and adults possess. We know that humans are born to learn and our insatiable quest for knowledge and understanding is just as much a part of our DNA as our fingers and toes.
Sadly, the rote memorization and impersonal presentations of elementary school often serve to quell, instead of encourage, this innate desire to learn, which is why we choose to encourage our kids to pursue their unique passions, following them down the rabbit holes, enjoying the ride alongside them.
But then we get the questions, "How will your kids learn anything if they don't do math books?" or "How can they learn things if you don't teach them?" and although our answers are many, the best answer we have is certainly the celebration of Learn Nothing Day.
(Think about it. What did you learn from school? You might be surprised to discover that you didn't learn what they tried to teach you. Maybe you learned how to take a good test, or how to get by without studying. Maybe you learned how to look like you were paying attention, or maybe you went home after school and read endlessly about the subject your teacher presented to you in school.)
So, how long did you make it today before you learned something? All four of us had failed already by 9:30 am, and yet our failure IS the celebration, as we share it with everyone all over the world, for no one has ever successfully completed a Learn Nothing Day.
We hop online and post our failures, spreading the fascinating information we've uncovered today (and thus causing potentially premature failure in others ;)
What did you discover today? What did you learn? Take some time to treasure that information and the curiosity and drive for knowledge that led you there. Follow a tangent. Seek an answer. Celebrate a distraction. Fail with us.
You might like this one....
ReplyDeleteI was doing my vacation scrapbook with an 'R' theme (like Rocks, Ride, Road, Route, etc). I got to the pages dedicated to the animal pictures the girls insisted I include. One page for lizards (OK, Reptiles, done). And one for deer and elk....hmmmm.. What's an 'R' word for that? So I consulted the Dictionary and Thesaurus and came across a definition for deer that said "Any of the ruminants associated to the Class...." and I'm thinking "ruminants"?? What's that? So I looked up that word and it means "any even-toed, cloven-hoofed animal like deer, elk, cattle, antelope....". Well, there you go, my word is "Ruminant"! But I got to thinking, this sounds an awful lot like "rumination", which I associate to deep thinking, so I looked into it further and "ruminant" means to "chew the cud" -- so when you are ruminating, you are "chewing the cud" mentally speaking.
I was so pleased at the end of this rabbit trail. Had to share.
Now that's cool, I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing! :)
DeleteIf anyone else ever wants to share anything they come across or find out, please do! I'm always a sucker for interesting facts and trivia.
I love this:
ReplyDelete" Follow a tangent. Seek an answer. Celebrate a distraction. Fail with us."
Very sweet post. :-)