It is not yet 8:30 A.M. I have been up since before five. @PanKwake has not yet gone to sleep since she is on her up-all-night-sleep-all-day schedule. And already she has ‘taught’ me so much that my brain is about to explode.
It was one of ‘those’ conversations. I went into PinkTopia (after knocking, of course) to offer her food before she goes to bed. She was too tired to eat more than crisps, but when I went back, I asked some question or made a comment.
It was almost certainly about what has been happening lately. But the conversation took off from there.
The @PanKwake Would-You-Rather questions for today is…
You can fix one injustice. Sexism, racism, or homo/trans-phobia. Which do you choose?
Yes, my fifteen-year-old technically illiterate, autistic daughter asked me that question. And gave me a damned good answer of her own.
It then led to a discussion of how hate had been cut into bite-sized pieces and labelled with different names so that people felt this one applied to them but not that one. And how those in power had used that to divide and remain in power.
Among the other questions we grappled with were…
Voting age – When is someone old enough to vote? Should there be a maximum as well as minimum voting age? Since as it stands, older people are making choices that they will never live to see the effects of, such as Brexit.
Medical consent – At what age should a child/young person have the right to be vaccinated or not, against their parent’s wishes? What about other serious medical decisions such as cancer treatment? Who should make those choices? Parents? Doctors? The child?
Age of consent? – At what age is a child or young person able to give true consent? Does the age of the other sex partner matter?
School or home ed? – Who should make that decision? At what age should a child have the right to choose? What about those children whose parents have chosen home ed so they can teach hate? And yes, that minority does exist.
And those are just the questions I can remember. No, @PanKwake and I did not agree on all of them. But we listened to one another’s logic and arguments. And often we bent a bit. Or perhaps more accurately, discovered that we were saying the same thing, just in different words.
We talked about proposed changes to home ed laws in England and Wales, especially the one that would require one hour of maths and English per day. How would we ‘prove’ that?
I was pleased to discover that @PanKwake has made significant progress in my maths goal for her. My belief is that those multiplication tables are archaic. I remember when I was learning them in fourth grade. Calculators were just becoming common. Enough so that someone asked, ‘why do we need to learn this?’ Her response was that we would not have a calculator with us all the time. Well, screw you, Missus Miller, yes, I do. On my phone, my tablet, my computer, Alexa, and others. Yet, schools are still trying to force that shit on our kids?
But the thing is…
Those tools are only as good as the question you ask them.
@PanKwake needs to know…
Which is this – addition, subtraction, multiplication or division?
As I usually am with self-directed learning, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that @PanKwake knew that if she had nine cupcakes and three friends, that was division. Another home education goal successfully checked off my list.
Let me ask you…
Would those schoolers be as confident and articulate in expressing their opinions? Would they have they feel the same comfort in expressing views in opposition to their teachers, parents, or society? Would they possess the same critical thinking skills to form differing views? Or would they only mimic what they have been taught?
Oh, one other thing came from today’s discussion…
What @PanKwake’s believes is the best part of self-directed learning…and it’s an important one for us all. But that is tomorrow’s blog.
Self-Directed Learning & Neurodiversity 