So, a new year has dawned and I have promised myself that I will utilise this space to reflect and record this year with my glorious family.
There has been a call for much celebration this week with my sweet lad's first day at 'school'. Now I say 'school', as it is, strictly speaking, not actually a school. Rather a 'learning community' of 7 or so families who, for various reasons, are choosing to educate in an out-of-mainstream sort of way. Whilst to some the concept may seem outrageous, to us the idea of 'natural learning' makes perfect sense. The word 'child-centred' has been bandied around so much it had lost much of it's significance as a revolutionary way to think about a child's learning journey. That is, that the child is ACTUALLY at the centre of their learning, they are not merely 'filled up' with what knowledge it has been determined they require. They ACTUALLY decide what they want to learn and how they will go about learning it. Which is why, on my son's first day I was not in the least perturbed by the fact that he decided that he didn't wish to take a pencil case with the usual array of coloured pencils etc, but rather a pasta maker was what he thought would be most useful to him. While I scrambled to assemble the pasta maker, eggs, flour, a toddler, and lunch for three in what I reminded myself this was perhaps one of life's defining moments and the realisation of what we have been working towards for the last year and a half.
The rest of the day provided many more "I-can't-believe-we-finally-did-it' moments. Whilst we are still a long way from the community school we had envisioned in the early days (and that we continue to work toward), and the substantial government funding that comes with accreditation, for this moment, this vibrant group of young people, and their assorted carers, not only meets my family's need for a safe space to nurture our sweet eldest boy's learning journey, but fills my heart with immense hope and excitement at what is possible when people join together to build such a community.
I can't tell you the joy I feel seeing the faces of the young participants, knowing the trauma that is experienced by so many little ones sent to an institutional setting to do their 'work' as kids, is not going to be imprinted on their life script. Their first experience of 'school' is not one of bells and sitting on itchy nylon carpet, not-talking-when-the-teacher-is-talking and raising a hand to 'ask' (I mean really???) for something as simple as a bathroom visit or to sate their hunger. Rather these early days are ones of discovery, collaboration and play.... oh so much play! Real play. The kind that bubbles up from deep inside and spawns creativity, full psychological and physical engagement and noise! Not the kind that has been carefully planned and rationalised using edu-speak, that fits neatly into 45 minute blocks of time or a rigid curriculum that satisfies the many political agendas that have become 'education' as we know it in this country. The kind of play that encourages a young boy to take a pasta maker on his first day of school.
I liked it. A lot.
