30/09/2024
If ever there was a more potent reason for childhood to be unlocked from spending hours and hours labouring indoors then it’s this…
“But we have so much content to get through!” and “but what about the curriculum!” cries the Adult World, still trapped in the past of control, compliance and ‘real learning only happens with the teacher indoors’.
But childhood is replying, “Your whataboutism is doing nothing for the withering of my eyesight. It’s no good knowing that the Great Fire of London was in 1666 while I sit indoors painting a picture of it to look like yours if each day my eyes are being damaged - let me out the door, there IS time!”🚪
It’ll come as no surprise that I believe the root cause of all this capitalism, since the outdoors represents freedom which is never any good for the commodification of phonics or, outside of school, the consumerism brought in by the Advert Tsunami on devices and social media. The outdoors is escape from it all…
So, how might we open up the door more and more? Not just for 3-5 year olds but for older children too? 15 minutes playtime at 10.30am and the ever shortening lunch break aren’t particularly offering much, so what direction might we take for the sake of childhood?
Ooh what’s that over there tucked away in the corner and forgotten? Yep, more play. It’s not just children’s souls that need it, it’s their eyes too..
👧🏻👦🏾not🤖🤖
