piano metaphor

playing the piano

Been playing this one over in my mind (yes it’s going to be fun). The previous owners of the house gave us their old piano – as you know if you’ve been paying attention. If not – then that’s no golden time for you this week :evil: Sorry, back to metaphor, or actually analogy as it’s turning out. It was very out of tune and had a couple of keys which stuck down. Now we knew this was bad, pieces of music came out wrong even though we were doing our best to play them right. We knew we were developing unfortunate habits (strategies) to cope with the stuck down keys. So after battling on for a while we call the tuner. Now, it’s in tune, keys all working as they should. We knew it was bad before but the stark comparison with how it is now makes that so much clearer. Music sounds great, no silly key lifting strategies going on that you don’t need in the real world… sorry on a properly functioning piano

and that’s how it’s been with school and home ed for us. We knew school was, as Daniel says, utter crap, when we were there. But we struggled on with it, constantly fighting to make it better in various ways but mainly making up for the poor socialisation and inadequate education out of school hours. But then we got to the point where it destroyed us (okay piano can’t really compare there) and – OMG how can we even consider leaving our children in the charge of such liars/imbeciles/bullies??? So home ed begins… and it’s so great. Contrary to popular myths (put around by those with their own agendas and need for denial) the children make leaps and bounds, not just academically but socially and emotionally too. They mix with a far wider set of people – they didn’t in school, myths falling short again. They are HAPPY, truly happy, not just for a short while in the school holidays. I see their characters develop and form as they grow, in a relaxed way without the peer pressure stuff. Home ed kids don’t seem to pressure each other – but wow they have fun when they get together! Real fun, no gangs and cliques like the schoolyard, no ‘you can’t play with us because you’re younger/older’. Yet many of these children have been through their own personal school hells, some, my own included, have what would be considered SEN at a school – it doesn’t show up the same now out of that system of complete conformity. They are just individuals, respected and befriended in their differences. There has been the odd problem in the group, usually caused by someone recently out of school and still in that ‘mock to protect self’ playground mode. In fact, that was only once in two years… So in short, this wonderful form of education shines a light on our former experience making it appear more shockingly deficient in every way.

And on a random, but comparitively connected note… you know what would be SO cool? (taking on teenage childrens speak here). I would like to be handed a sci-fi type device that could detect real learning taking place, much like a metal detector. Hold it up in a classroom of 30 kids bent over workbooks – I don’t think it would beep. That is a piano keys stategy to enable one person to ‘teach’ 30 people, but it’s become the norm and accpected way of ‘education’… Hold it up a by a child painting in the garden, working out new techniques to get the effect she wants or over a boy deeply engrossed in three books at once finding connections in a subject he didn’t know existed before – I think there might be a noise! Of course I should add I do not actually want to see said device invented and used to test and record results in the school system – it would be so open to abuse, like so much else there. I can just see someone proving that learning was taking place during ‘terroring a teacher’ so everything’s okay… let’s have a cup of tea in the staffroom… there might be chocolate biscuits too…

Off to do that in the garden – you should too

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