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.
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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.
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
wild animals (or any animals for that matter) are NOT play-things
Aww what a beautiful story! Yeah its a shrew!
Interesting topic by the way about structured vs. incidental learning xx
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
This learning experience prolonged the suffering of the shrew, which was unnecessay.