There were several parts that I really enjoyed about this article, but this quote especially resonated: "many of those hurried children start to gain more and more understanding-holes in their fabric of learning." I work in an industry where we employ people who have a first-principles understanding - so we need them to understand how things happen as well as what happens. I'm always surprised to meet people who clearly have never connected absolutely foundational pieces of information. Some of it is no doubt down to teaching, but I hadn't thought so much about the hurriedness of their learning. Thank you!
And also thank you for recommending me. I couldn't message you but wanted to pass on my appreciation. :)
I think watching my own children struggle in school made this blatantly obvious... especially one of my daughters who has dyslexia - the pace of learning is just too fast, and as she is geting to grips with the topic (because so much of it is done through reading and listening (dyslexia also impacts her ability to understand words through listening) that by the time she is getting a basic understanding but not a full understanding they are moving on to the next thing which often (especially in maths) required full understanding of earlier principles and facts.
She had to work so much harder than her twin sister to pass exams and get the grades she wanted. It felt brutally unfair.
Yes! Resist the grind. Our bodies are not machines. Being busy does not make us important. Rest! Meander. Detour. Dream. Have you read or listened to Tricia Hersey?
Hi Suzanne, I love it when we write on the same topic, providing multiple authors' views on similar ideas. Here's a draft of a short section for the intro chapter to my book, Explorations in Ecology for Children and Their Adults.
Creating a Spacious Sense of Time using Relaxed, Responsive Scheduling
The Greeks had two words for time. Chronos means clock time, as in it’s 9:00 AM, time to punch in. Kairos means “the right time,” as in it feels like a good time to go for a walk. Factories work on clock time. Every action is scheduled, sometimes often down to the second. In forests, timing is critical, but not clock time. Activity in forests happens according to the cycles of the sun, moon, seasons, and weather, along with the needs of the inhabitants of the ecosystem. Many schools are as bound by schedules as factories. I’ve worked in schools where classes are scheduled in 47-minute increments with 4-minute “breaks'' between classes. A bell schedule and attendance sheets take the place of punch clocks and timesheets, but the impact is much the same.
During our explorations in ecology meetups, I synthesize these two views of time by taking responsibility for our chronos commitment to return to our starting place when parents expect us. I also keep track of how long it takes us to get somewhere when we go on adventures so we can time our return to be at a leisurely pace. That’s our chronos container. Within that bubble, we’re on Kairos time. We don’t hurry. We have the freedom to play and to respond to changes in the weather and the changing emotions and feelings of the group; allowing noticing and responding to our needs and environment.
there is a third Greek word for time - aion - that time like on the other side of the wardrobe in narnia where it behaves differently... where time melts away.
Play and learning flow is aion, where the child or adult is surprised that so much time has past because they have been so immersed in what they are doing.
I always state that as adults working with children, that we should be responsible for chronos (so that we ensure they are fed and rested and all the other musts required to survive and thrive) (it's in the Time chapter of my book The Original Learning Approach)
Kairos is so important for those "teachable moments" that adults keep talking about... because if it is not "the right time" then what we are doing is interfering not teaching.
Kairos requires we are aware and responsive to the multiplicity and complexity of the world.
yes, it's fun we find ourselves writing on the same topic often... This is one of my old posts from my website that I am slowly moving over to substack and adding new thoughts and rephrasing some of the things I wrote back at the time.
There were several parts that I really enjoyed about this article, but this quote especially resonated: "many of those hurried children start to gain more and more understanding-holes in their fabric of learning." I work in an industry where we employ people who have a first-principles understanding - so we need them to understand how things happen as well as what happens. I'm always surprised to meet people who clearly have never connected absolutely foundational pieces of information. Some of it is no doubt down to teaching, but I hadn't thought so much about the hurriedness of their learning. Thank you!
And also thank you for recommending me. I couldn't message you but wanted to pass on my appreciation. :)
I think watching my own children struggle in school made this blatantly obvious... especially one of my daughters who has dyslexia - the pace of learning is just too fast, and as she is geting to grips with the topic (because so much of it is done through reading and listening (dyslexia also impacts her ability to understand words through listening) that by the time she is getting a basic understanding but not a full understanding they are moving on to the next thing which often (especially in maths) required full understanding of earlier principles and facts.
She had to work so much harder than her twin sister to pass exams and get the grades she wanted. It felt brutally unfair.
That sounds so tough. Thank you for sharing.
Beautiful! I’ve been thinking lots about time and slow too.
it is so much part of the decolonising process
Yes! Resist the grind. Our bodies are not machines. Being busy does not make us important. Rest! Meander. Detour. Dream. Have you read or listened to Tricia Hersey?
yes...
https://thenapministry.wordpress.com/
I like the fact that article 31 of the UN Children's Rights contains both play and rest
it's the article of resistance!!
Hi Suzanne, I love it when we write on the same topic, providing multiple authors' views on similar ideas. Here's a draft of a short section for the intro chapter to my book, Explorations in Ecology for Children and Their Adults.
Creating a Spacious Sense of Time using Relaxed, Responsive Scheduling
The Greeks had two words for time. Chronos means clock time, as in it’s 9:00 AM, time to punch in. Kairos means “the right time,” as in it feels like a good time to go for a walk. Factories work on clock time. Every action is scheduled, sometimes often down to the second. In forests, timing is critical, but not clock time. Activity in forests happens according to the cycles of the sun, moon, seasons, and weather, along with the needs of the inhabitants of the ecosystem. Many schools are as bound by schedules as factories. I’ve worked in schools where classes are scheduled in 47-minute increments with 4-minute “breaks'' between classes. A bell schedule and attendance sheets take the place of punch clocks and timesheets, but the impact is much the same.
During our explorations in ecology meetups, I synthesize these two views of time by taking responsibility for our chronos commitment to return to our starting place when parents expect us. I also keep track of how long it takes us to get somewhere when we go on adventures so we can time our return to be at a leisurely pace. That’s our chronos container. Within that bubble, we’re on Kairos time. We don’t hurry. We have the freedom to play and to respond to changes in the weather and the changing emotions and feelings of the group; allowing noticing and responding to our needs and environment.
there is a third Greek word for time - aion - that time like on the other side of the wardrobe in narnia where it behaves differently... where time melts away.
Play and learning flow is aion, where the child or adult is surprised that so much time has past because they have been so immersed in what they are doing.
I always state that as adults working with children, that we should be responsible for chronos (so that we ensure they are fed and rested and all the other musts required to survive and thrive) (it's in the Time chapter of my book The Original Learning Approach)
Kairos is so important for those "teachable moments" that adults keep talking about... because if it is not "the right time" then what we are doing is interfering not teaching.
Kairos requires we are aware and responsive to the multiplicity and complexity of the world.
yes, it's fun we find ourselves writing on the same topic often... This is one of my old posts from my website that I am slowly moving over to substack and adding new thoughts and rephrasing some of the things I wrote back at the time.