Copasetic Flow

 Towser, the eight year-old here started a new class yesterday. Unlike other things he’s tried where the thing was a thing a sib had expressed an interest in, or a thing that is supposed to be generally interesting to ‘kids’ doing ‘school’ sort of things—you know, math, grammar, reading—this thing is all Towser. Towser is taking an animal tracking class delivered in several audio lessons. Each lesson takes between fifteen and thirty minutes of listening. Then, Towser and I and whoever else is around talk about his lesson, and here’s where things are kinda different. Towser talks—in depth—about what he heard. He looks at me with his ‘important eyes’ and tells me what he thinks the lesson was about. Every kid is different, and every learning experience is different, but Towser talks about these lessons so soulfully It makes me happy and warm inside to see that he’s doing a thing he’s truly, truly interested in. While Towser explains his lessons to us, my partner asks big open ‘meanin...

 Amy Martin, on twitter asked if there were good articles available about kids, free play, and young people servivng as stewards of the outdoors Any good book, article, journal recommendations please on outdoor learning in the early years, children’s autonomy and ownership of the outdoors and examples where children are recognised as environmental stewards..... ?🌲 pic.twitter.com/Tpuy9pHfSr — Amy Martin #BlackLivesMatter (@amyrozelmartin) December 31, 2020 Which kind of rocked for me, because it was an excuse to go look for things on Google Scholar. The kids heard me exclaim, "Thank God! A rabbit hole!!!" A few minutes later, I'd come up with an interesting article suggesting how kids might be made into better stewards, educated to be stewards, if you will. While I take umbrage with the article's insistence  that kids  must be taught a thing before they can do it—and yes, oh yes, I will write more about that  later—I was heartened by the sheer bulk of references,...