After a doctors appointment this morning we stopped at a cafe so that I could do some work. Abby played word games on her phone while Robinia played with the various toys there. We did all of this at a big long table. On the other end was a mother and child learning about the clock, seasons, and other measurements of time. Clearly homeschoolers. After a while we talked about icon painting, coffee, snacks, the game of go, and being a kid. It was a pretty short blip of a few conversations because they were in the middle of learning something.

That those experiences have been isolated off into specific places of education seems quit sad to me.

I get it, it’s more efficient, and there is obviously something to be said for spending time with other people who are in active learning. That is most important in a society that has decided that learning simply does not happen, or at least rapidly decelerates outside of spaces design specifically for it.

We were there for maybe thirty minutes, and I like to think we exposed this child and her mother to Orthodoxy, to laser cutting, to the game of Go, and that was in just a brief overlap. They had been there since before we arrived, and they remained after. Who knows who was at that table before us, and who is at it now (we are currently driving away as I write this)

Suffice it to say, we are a small part of the community of insight entering the lives of that family.

Schools can certainly invite in speakers and collaborators but the sort of emergent relationships that can be built by simply being in the world a bit, seem tougher to build.

Of course this introduces additional risk, and beyond that, it’s not really possible with the 15/20+ person classrooms I was a part of in my youth.