ethan wasnt doing his jobs the other morning. “ethan, what r U doing?” i asked him. “practising being a genius,” he replied. fair point.
my boyz dont go 2 school. they have fun & intresting lives & as a result they R naturally productive & creative.
when we were in germany they found a baby mouse. in fact they saved it from the cat. despite our warnings & attempts 2 persuade them otherwise, they found it irresistably cute & wanted 2 keep it as a pet. they made a bed 4 it & tried 2 feed it & give it a drink. within 24 hours it was dead & there were tears & a burial.
peter dawkins, a thinker whom i greatly admire & respect, says the number one book worth reading is the book of nature. that studying nature reveals all the lessons we really need 2 understand abt life. this was a great example of nature delivering a lesson no schoolroom cld teach. a number of lessons really: abt responsibility, abt not trying 2 intervene in the natural order of things, abt attachment, mortality, & more things besides.
it also made me think abt something i had read regarding incidental vs structured learning. structured learning is imposed, it comes from sitting in a classroom. incidental learning occurs spontaneously, & happens organically. incidental learning is much more powerful & sticks with us in a way that structured learning doesnt. which is why i cant remember anything from biology lessons in school but i can remember almost word 4 word the 1st conversations i had with a boy (ian) i had a crush on when i was 14.
thankU little mouse, u were a great teacher.
Tags: peter dawkins
September 21, 2009 at 11:38 am |
That’s a lovely story about the mouse. I looked after a little brother and sister last year, it was a humbling joyful experience although they died. They taught me a lot about life and death.
September 21, 2009 at 3:43 pm |
It’s a shrew! They eat insects – lots of insects! They die if they don’t eat for more than a few hours – so it starved to death
September 21, 2009 at 5:55 pm |
wild animals (or any animals for that matter) are NOT play-things
September 21, 2009 at 7:38 pm |
Aww what a beautiful story! Yeah its a shrew!
Interesting topic by the way about structured vs. incidental learning xx
September 23, 2009 at 10:08 am |
Lots of lessons learned from the encounter with this little creature, including I’m sure, in response to Jane, that animals are not playthings.
I totally agree with Peter Dawkins – for me nature is the greatest teacher of all.
Thanks for the link to his great site
September 24, 2009 at 4:26 am |
This learning experience prolonged the suffering of the shrew, which was unnecessay.