Imperfect

school your enthusiasm

Jeff starts i wonder... off by saying:

My youngest nephew is obsessed with garbage and recycling trucks. I’ve been watching him a few days a week, one of them being Thursday – the weekly recycling day. On Thursday morning, our selected activity (usually playing with toy garbage trucks and front-end loaders) must be done near the front of the house, lest we miss an opportunity to supervise the bin collection. When we hear the rumble of the truck approaching, he runs to the front window, stands on the tips of his toes, and provides me with a detailed narrative of everything that is happening. He is unbelievably astute in matters of trash and recycling. Despite his nearly encyclopedic knowledge of this seemingly mundane process, he always posits as many questions as observations. He is intent on knowing everything there is to know about recycling trucks and I have found that I am unable to bluff my way through providing responses to his questions. Vague answers are met with skepticism, and “No. I don’t think so.” The level of inquiry and wonder is amazing.

Jeff's conversation with his nephew synergizes well with Fran's conversations with her niece, recorded in Conversations with a toddler accidentally have me a growth mindset:

My niece would ask about stuff in that expansive toddler way. Toddler curiosity runs pretty quickly up against our limits. No, I don't know the names of different kinds of grasses. No, I can't whistle.

Among adults I would joke about my immunity to learning. I'd tell them about learning guitar for two years and being absolutely no better at the end than the beginning. Many other examples.

But she's a child. A limitless mind to be encouraged.

So in the interests of nurturing a growth mindset in her I would answer something like "I haven't learnt about that yet" or "I haven't learnt how to do that yet."

The intention being to convey this was all possible. No adult knows everything but there's no reason she can't grow up and learn these things or anything she likes. We are all always learning. You can learn, you can grow. There is no fixedness, there are no absolutes in this. It is a wild and wonderful part of being human - our capacity for learning and discovery.

Both accounts above show how children of all ages have much to teach their adult family members. Yet, it goes both ways as described in my call to action to support underrated people:

No matter whether the people you deem underrated are niche or mainstream, they have lessons to teach us all. Think of the reciprocity between beginners and experts, teachers and students, and mentors and mentees.

Whereas Jeff illustrates how his nephew's childlike stream of consciousness outpaces even his own knowledge, Fran's naive optimism toward similar curiosity shows how readily the gap between people and their potential can be closed. The transformation from lines like "No. I don't think so." to "I haven't learnt about that yet." can reveal the stepping stones you need to cross any river. Fran continues:

The thing was. I started saying it to myself too. I don't know calculus, yet. I don't know how to do a Rubiks cube, yet.

Spoilers: I can now do a Rubiks cube. And I've learnt a lot about calculus. I did go back through the GCSE Maths syllabus, from being someone allergic to maths. That's not bad.

Jeff continues:

If we are not cognizant, somewhere along the way we lose this kind of intense interest. Wonder that generates more questions than answers. We become bored with the “everyday” and sometimes even the extraordinary.

As a former educator, I suspect some of this curiosity is “schooled” out of us. No time for investigation or more questions, we have to move on to the next topic.

Whether you have attended or still attend school, questions arise:

Let's shift to some of the possible mechanisms behind that erosion of curiosity. Think about how news outlets bombhole their audiences with revolving news stories that last a day or two, if that. Does the rapid context switching of many teaching modes bombhole students on multiple fronts? Verity hints at that possibility, comparing her daughter's and her own reluctance for school in Motherly worries:

Our little one has always been sensitive; gentle, deeply observant, and easily overwhelmed. About three weeks ago, she started saying she didn’t want to go to school. At first I thought it may be a moment, as it was a overal busy week. But not long after she started to tell about her experiences at school and that ‘the children are loud and wild’, which she didn’t like. And my heart just sank..

I can remember that feeling so vividly. The chaos, the noise, the bright lights, the constant movement. As a child, I used to cry and scream at times that I didn’t want to go to school. I wanted rest. But everyone kept telling ‘it would get better’, that ‘I’d get used to it’. But I never really did. I can remember that even in elementary school I used to just leave school during lunch break instead of staying; even though my mom paid for me and my brother to stay there. It was just too overstimulating for me, so I often went home or to a trusted persons home, like my best friend.

Such massive environmental and behavioral changes for most of a child's day can be difficult to adapt to. Novel spaces with novel faces and dynamics that don't accurately model the real world can feel disorienting. As for behavior, a few lines from Theodore's Letter from prison come to mind:

At 2pm the bell rings and the guard opens the gates. This is when we get to go home. Home is much better. Much more relaxed, but we still have to do work. It takes a few hours. After that, we are free. Or at least that's what they say.

How can one be free, if the only thing they can control in their life is a few hours per day? Even more, when they have no money to spend.

Yet, Verity acknowledges that you can't always get what you wish for:

I wish I had the energy to homeschool her, to let her learn in her own rhythm, to follow her curiosity and build confidence in her own way. But I’ve learned that I can’t.

Even though she can't homeschool her, her nuance toward learning environments and personal preferences is refreshing:

And people around me always say how good it is that she goes to school, that they were worried when I would talk about my wish to homeschool her. That she would miss out on socialization among other things. But I’ve learned that those opinions are just not always true, it’s not that black and white. Sure some kids do well at school, but I think a lot would do better in smaller settings, especially if it’s with a safe person (like the mother). If you feel safe you just have more room to grow because when you’re in stress mode, you can’t grasp life. But still, for us, it’s the most realistic option, even though I want more for her. I could not go out on regular play dates or co-ops with other homeschoolers and certain activities. So school does provide that for her..

You take what successes you can get, like how she keeps her little one at home once a week.

Jeff continues:

We are standards and data driven. With budget shortages and a less than healthy focus on standardized test results, schools have largely been forced to abandon enthusiastic support for the arts, music, and play – all things that support student creativity. I am not blaming schools. They are a reflection of societal demands and must bend to the will of their constituents, the state department of education, and the allocated budget.

How connected are those educational, data-driven standards to feelings of success within the children and students they intend to serve? Matt recalls his disconnect between the two in an absence of success or embracing laziness:

Success is a funny old thing, realistically, we're successful everyday by simply surviving.

But, for the majority of us, we have other goals, ambitions and ideas of what success means. When I was growing up, I thought I had all this potential, school was a case of having 'meeting expectations' all over my reports yet there was never anything I truly applied myself to, it's why I'm always so envious of those that find something to dedicate themselves to.

I appreciate that finding the thing you love or your 'purpose' isn't a cure for not feeling successful, but I imagine for those that have, it's a hell of a lot easier.

Could education be better served aiding students in finding passion and "purpose" over imposing them? In that vein, I think the problem extends beyond just "enthusiastic support for the arts, music, and play". As rewarding as those subjects and their exercises can be, how much attention do they actually capture relative to student interests?

Yes, one of the functions of education is to temper negative deviance. Rules and guidelines for universal truths and civility not only exist, but require practice to adhere to. However, such rules can vary wildly, and care must be taken to prevent positive deviance from being thrown out too. Must childlike captivation magically capsize from connective growth into an unwanted distraction? I'm reminded of one of Defender's tweet threads on curation:

curation is the gateway drug from consumption into creation

if i were teaching a high school class we would simply do nothing other than curate your favorite things. doesn't matter if it's classic great work or tiktok

just make a collection, tell me why you feel this is the most beautiful things you've found and share it with the class

I really think once you get a taste of creating anything it's hard to stop

As learners' stories within choice over coercion tell, don't underestimate the impact of such self-guided, interest-based learning no matter what age you are.

However, even when educators realize the importance of embracing that, they only have so much leeway to Jeff's point. Teaching can feel like a logistical nightmare where your attention, resources, and even time to use the restroom are all severely limited. Atop those constraints, just how much are teachers, students, and parents alike bending to the will of the state? Teachers wanting to experiment with multiple learning modalities or even emulating Defender's experiment face taller challenges. Opportunities to plan lessons like those might arise once every month or two at best.

Zooming out, are our educational incentives overall the best they could be? Take this quote that I recall, but can't confirm, Visa saying at some point:

Education is in its infancy.

In that spirit, should students create desire paths through their courtyard of education before architects pave their way through it? We trust growing generations to build, maintain, and improve humanity and its infrastructure. How much value can we bestow upon their passions, curiosities, and intrinsic growth?

Jeff ends:

While educational pedagogy may play a role in a diminished fascination with what we observe, I believe technology has had a significant impact on our diminished lack of intrigue about the world around us. When we are not certain about something, we use our devices to look it up. What does AI, Wikipedia, or Google have to say about this matter? We no longer allow thoughts and questions to amble around in our brains. There is no significant space between questions and ensuing digital answers to allow our mind to generate its own ideas, develop independent solutions, or dig deep in the recesses of the cerebral cortex to recall prior learning.

I’m thinking we could all benefit by having a bit more space between the “I wonder” moment, and the “Google says” response. It would be good for our brains, creativity, and engagement with the world. My nephew would encourage you to begin with considering how recycling trucks work.

Yes, distancing wonder from "digital answers" and the like can engender critical thinking which navigates the world well. That said, how well can external discovery be treated like internal discovery? Less seeking certain answers for questions, more finding novel possibilities, sources, and additional tools for thought.

Sources like Wikipedia, Google, and particularly AI might not be as certain or correct as we think they are. The same goes for our own ideas, independent solutions, and prior learning. Let ideas, both intrinsic and extrinsic, compete with one another with the same rapidity and conviction that Jeff's nephew has over garbage trucks. Whether questions, hypotheses, or discoveries: the more, the merrier.

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