Wednesday, February 16, 2011

on life-learning

A bit ago, Pic and a friend were having a conversation. Her friend was asking where she goes to school. Pic responded that she learns everywhere, that she's homeschooled and that, basically, her school is everywhere (O Homeschooling, why do I still call you that?).

Her friend asked her, "But who is your teacher?"

"Everyone," Pic responded.

"But who teaches you? Your mom? Your dad? A babysitter?"

"Um, everyone is my teacher."

I just quietly drove on, letting them conduct their conversation, learning from one another, thinking of a quote I see almost daily: "Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one" (attributed to Malcolm Forbes).

2 comments:

kate said...

I can't even express how much I LOVE this view of hers.

v said...

I love it, too. I hope she still feels this way when she really starts to think about what those words mean even more. Her "the whole world is my school" phrase is something I say, but her "everyone is my teacher" is her own. So, I suppose she's already thinking about these things.

I think it also helps that she hasn't gone off to "normal" school (I'm still trying to figure out what to call it) and that it's been a year-and-a-half. She's kind of outside that whole system. (And, when I say it helps, I mean, it helps lead to this kind of thinking.)