teaching, or learning

Do you ever feel like we're pushing them too fast? I mean, kids? I get it. On one hand, America is like, über dumb and all of the other non-third world countries are kicking our butts and making all our toys and technology and stuff. So maybe we need to push them more and not less. It's just... I argue with myself, even as I'm writing this.

I think we start kids in school too early and demand they learn things before they're really ready. I'm not hating on preschool, it's more the whole "grade" system. Is it possible that we could pay attention, and figure out what our kids are interested in and want to learn, and emphasize that, and everything will fall in place? I don't know. Is it right, is it Biblical, is it crucial that a 6 year old can read? I'm thinking if a parent/teacher was watching, and waiting, and reading with a kid, they'd see when that kid was hungry to take over.

And on my third of fourth hand, I say, well, lazy fat Americans are too irresponsible to teach their children and everyone will be idiots and all the other countries will take our money. Wait...

Somedays, I'm teaching Toby, and it is so natural. Everything is a discovery and he can take it in his hands and turn it around and see it from every angle and he KNOWS it. That's learning. Other days I am demanding that he understand something he doesn't want to understand. Here's the thing. I think he will, in time. I think he will naturally learn, when he's ready. I can prod a little, but only to see if he has any momentum in that direction.

You know what I'm saying? Sometimes it feels like we're missing right now, who they are, what they are finding, because we're pressing for some goal on a government spreadsheet. There is no normal! No "average" child! They don't look the same, think the same, learn the same... hey, is this a soapbox?

Then again, he's 4. So I'm just at the beginning of this journey. It's just, somedays I resent being told what to do, by "norms" or the government or whomever. I have brilliant, innocent, free little souls under my tutelage, and part of me (a big part of me) wants to just let them run, developmentally and educationally, and see what happens. Right after I finish forcing Brynn to be potty-trained because she's three, darnit!

I think, if we learn from them, we could learn a whole new way of discovering information and growing, of assimilating our surroundings and really understanding.

Also, we could learn how to party.