When I wrote, “I’d start by getting them outside with oodles of time, magnifying glasses1 and notebooks.” I didn’t mean that if you do that you’ll get inquiries into how to solve climate change.
What I meant was, I think you’ll get questions that are probably quite small and precise.
In other words, good ones. The kind of ones that will lead to things like:
wow-I-never-knew-that learning [which is the focus of the coming long read for paid subscribers], or
touching-it-and-feeling-it-and-knowing-it-better learning, or
realising-how-things-are-interconnected learning.
[You can read my list of the different kinds of learning here]
When those kinds of learning come from a sense of curiosity, connection, and care that learners experience and feel for the world around them, what is likely to happen, do you think?
In the original post this read ‘classes’. I’ve corrected it here, despite Guy C emailing to say he loved the idea of magnifying classes, that there might be something in it... 😂
You know what, I kinda agree. I wonder if the phrase accidentally encapsulates the whole idea of what school should be for - making small things big and interesting.
And so, I’ve left it unedited on the original post:). Thanks for the pointer, Guy! And here’s to poor proof reading!