Learning in the Absence of Education
Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine
Index
Homeschool
Australia
A Day in the Life of a Child 'Damaged' by the Modern World
(continued)
Well, we've done away with all that complexity, all that confusion and sophistication. Here, at home, our basic survival needs are met very simply as we grow in a 'doing nothing' environment, one that trusts in basic humanity and evolution. Nature is our guiding spirit, our prime example, our proof of success, as it were. Nature is fantastically abundant, reaching incredible levels of diversity. We just have to sit and watch and learn from the unrestrained patterns of growth in nature to see that our children, if left alone, will find their own paths, in a busy, untidy, resource rich environment, one that is tended and cared for by conscientious parents with love. Our children's lives will be just as abundant, and they will bloom spectacularly, in their own way.
Stimulation is over rated, a bit like artificial fertilisers in agriculture, which is only generally applied after gross damage has been done, in an effort to repair depleted stores of energy and nutrients from years of abuse. Artificial fertilisers leave a lasting legacy of damage of their own. No, my children don't need any more stimulation than is already available in their rich environment.
I guess we have worked hard in providing this particular environment, packing it with all the things we value, both on the material and metaphysical level. It is a kind of background stimulation, a laying down of values, family values.... time will tell whether our children adopt them for their own.
What about the question of structure and freedom? This is another aspect that occurs in the 'doing nothing' debate.
All lives are structured by the need to survive - primarily by the need to breathe clean air, drink clean water, eat clean food, exercise, sleep and be protected from the elements and predators. Our society has beefed these up into complex rituals, often damaging to the human body. Our lives are incredibly structured to take care of our basic needs, and many of these can be simplified further, to enhance our health and happiness. We're working on that. But beyond that we play...
And when we play we learn so much.... all of us, adults as well as children. I play with words, Robin plays with electronics, the children just play with everything... I play with relationships, Robin plays with the world of retail sales, April plays with school education, Roger and Thomas just play....
It really is all play. We are even learning to play the chores, rather than work at them, or 'do' them.
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Excerpt from Learning in the Absence of Home Education: Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine, 1999
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