What’s really worth knowing?
I’m not in the mood to do anything so here I was scrolling down on Facebook till I found a post in a local homeschool group - ‘I need some resources for Romanian history, please’. That got my attention because it so happens I do, too. Or at least my son does.
I recently came to the conclusion that he needs to know more about our history as the children his age study that in school so if he doesn’t know the name of some famous ruler he will appear - well, stupid! I wish I could say I find it’s important knowledge or patriotism, but really all I care is appearances. I want him to pretend to know, because that’s all most kids get out of years of schooling - they pretend to know. I studied Romanian history in middle-school, high-school and college and, yet, all I know are some names. Famous historic figures I’ve heard of, but I honestly couldn’t tell you when exactly did they rule. I never cared about that and at no time in my life was I asked to talk about any of these guys. As an adult, I have the right to say I don’t give a damn, but children are expected to know these things.
As the decent parent I pretend to be, I checked out some of the resources other homeschoolers offered. One in particular contained articles on random historical events or places. Ten fascinating facts about Ancient Egypt, The samurai women of Japan, The battle of Stalingrad, The story of the Medici family, The Tunguska mystery - all very interesting stories, of which very little is taught in school. Are they less worth knowing? Do I get any credit if I know about the Tunguska explosion but cannot say what year some famous ruler died?
I did not care about many things taught in school, my son doesn’t care about them, either, but I am still worried about that. I guess it’s natural since I was educated in the system. I got out with a pretense of knowledge and now I find myself telling my son he must do the same. I actually had him research on Wikipedia some of the important figures I remember from my school days. I couldn’t offer to tell him myself, because I don’t remember much anything else.
Last time we managed to do a bit of maths together we landed on geometry and studied triangles and calculating areas. The kid found it fun and only barely mentioned he’ll probably never need to know that. Which is true. I was quite good at geometry, yet, in all my adult life I’ve never had to calculate the area of any triangle.
Still, most adults are very firm - maths is important, geometry is important. Why?
In his adult life, my son is more likely to find himself in a situation where people would talk about Tesla, rather than the area of a triangle.
Some would argue that it’s the school’s job to teach you the basics, the rest is trivia you can learn later in life. The sad truth is few people get to ‘learn later in life’, because they’re done schooling.
What am I even doing here? Am I giving in to the mentality of mass-educated people or am I letting him choose his own path?
For the time being, I think we should find a compromise - tell the child to go on this site I found and choose what he’d like to read about. And then, of course, come tell me all about it - because I’d like to hear about the samurai women or the hidden pyramid of Indonesia. At the same time, my secret wish is that being exposed to all sorts of information he will stumble upon something he finds fascinating and develops a passion for. Things you really care about are the only knowledge that stays with you for a lifetime! Triangles, not so much...
Thanks for reading
I;m sure some people like triangles. A bit mean of you to assume otherwise, really.