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In Praise of Simplicity...in Life and in Learning –
February 3, 2012 I am in the minority that way. Simplicity is under-rated – even scorned – in our complicated culture. We multi-task; we value the ability to engage in social small talk; complexity is revered, even when it’s camouflage for emptiness; everyone and everything is analyzed and explained ad nauseum, then it’s labeled. What we call “food” is often nothing but a complicated mixture of chemicals and other non-food materials. Simply sitting and enjoying the passing day is scorned as wasting time (or worse, the activity of someone who has nothing “better” to do; simple, unorganized play is seen to be nonproductive. Parenting is complicated; learning is difficult…education is a complex industry. So it’s no surprise that parents who want to separate their
families from that industry feel like they’ve jumped out of a plane into an
alien land without a parachute. Just being, rather than doing, is harder than it
looks! Trusting children to make life and learning choices is
not easy in a world where they are acceptably second-class citizens. So we have the popularity of advice, opinions, methods, rules, and labels.
I’ve written about that many times, from many perspectives.
(You can find those posts using the “blog archives”
and “articles” links in the sidebar.) But this morning I
read a blog post that captured the issue well. So, in the name of simplicity,
here it is. |