Young Wonder

I spent Christmas week in Spain this year, taking a break from everything too familiar and walking for hours, looking out at the endless sea and musing. Last term was tough. I loved it, and got a lot out of school, but at the end of the day I cannot deny how tired I was and how stressful some of it was. I was ready for a break. I only had one conversation in the whole week about anything to do with education and it was to my Grandad one morning about how I think the American education system is superior to ours (it's not very often you hear me say American and superior in the same sentence, but when it comes to education- one of my biggest interests I have to admit it's up there!) There's lots of little areas within teaching that people are interested in naturally, but there was one thing in particular that really got me engaged last term and that was some work we did (and I'd already researched) called P4C- Philosophy for Children, first introduced by Matthew Lipman in the States. Lipman decided that education wasn't really preparing people to be young human beings but just to be able to take exams and so he suggested using p4c from as young as 6 year olds to encourage children to think for themselves and ask the questions about life. I lead a p4c lesson at the end of the term after badgering my mentor about it and what I enjoyed was their frustration that maybe there wasn't an answer. That maybe everything they had asked was right and yet there was no right answer. Well anyway it's a fascinating study and I wont bore you too much with it- I'm just getting into it 20 years too late. Back to Spain- I spent the week with extended family and was surprised in myself at just how much I enjoyed spending time around Nathan, my cousin's little two year old. Now I don't get broody, I wouldn't say I've never dreamed of my own kids, but I think it's closer to say I've always feared them! Nathan was a whole breath of fresh air though. He's going through a 'wonder' stage atm where everything is amazing. He asked for fruit and when you put an apple in front of him he said 'oh wowwwww!!!!'. When he learnt a new word the delight that spread across his face was gorgeous and anything and everything was fantastic.

One of my favourite moments was one night when we got a taxi back because Nathan would never have survived it. For personal reasons I was desperate to just get out of the taxi and back to the room (I should have walked really) but it was automatic, as the car pulled up one of us grab Nathan, another sort out money, another get the push chair etc. etc. We were so busy and not concentrating on anything, and all of a sudden this little voice pipes up 'oh wowwww, dark!!!' And when we looked up the sky was dark. And I guess, on reflection it is wow :-)

I love watching my kids register something they've never considered before, it's one of the beauties of teaching R.E. They're often desperate to prove something that they know either society or the church say is right/wrong which is very controversial. But when you throw in a statement that they haven't even considered you can almost see it turning round in their minds, trying to reach for something but satisfied at this new nugget of information! We had a year 12 taster day for GCSE students a couple of weeks back and so used the Matrix to ask the question how do you know you are real and not just a figment of the imagination, programmed and controlled by some computer? How do you know the corridor exists outside this room when we close the door? They're questions that they wouldn't think to ask but when they do ask them it's like they're being opened up to a whole new way of thinking, a whole new thought process in life. And I looked up at the sky and thought, yes Nathan, it is amazing that it is dark. It is amazing that day after day, night after night, the sun rises and it sets. I felt privileged to be in the presence of a two year old who was opening my eyes all week to the simple, yet beautiful and astounding things that is just generally 'life'.