One of the books I’ve been dying to finish is John Holt’s Learning All The Time. I picked up the name after doing a bit of research on the matter of learning. Not the ABC 123 kind of learning but a different kind. The honest kind. The no pressure kind.
Now Georgie’s becoming more and more aware of his surroundings and beginning to need more stimulation, I worry that what I am providing is not enough. I hear about parents teaching their kids to recite the alphabet by the age of two! This scares me. Not just because it’s feckin freaky but also because I secretly feel inadequate and stupid for allowing my child to play with the dog instead of shoving a book up his nose. I’m not belittling anyone here but that just doesn’t seem natural to me. The same way the schooling system doesn’t. Why are we making learning an obligation instead of a basic instinct?