Why home educate? (3) We feel like running

Not everything round here is done with such a sense of purpose, like sitting Richard III down on the sofa and interrogating him about his toilet paper and sequined Uggs. Choosing our own subjects to study and creating our own curriculum is just half the story. The other half of our education comes from ... well, feelings.

Sometimes we do, make, pursue ... and there's no intention and purpose to that ... we follow the sniff of the air, the beat of a heart, the sound of a hand clap, the shadows and the sunlines, and we make our day on impulse and do what we do, because we want to, and we feel like it.

I believe this is precious in childhood: this tidal surge of confident inquiry, thinking comes later; a sudden, irresistible urge to run at a clap across a field because limbs can take us there, those legs running across the grass surprised by energy and impulse, followed by laughter. In those moments of childhood, there's no self-doubt, no difficulty, no constraining hand to stay us and control us. There needs to be no thoughtful significance to the act, no result, no textbook, no purpose, no discussion. We enjoy.


I could not shroud this child, aged four, in uniform, and walk her daily to a place where every action becomes accompanied by another's purpose and control.