I learned from my kids that they really, really want to know things that interest them, and they have very good instincts as to what they need to know. I didn't just leave everything up to them, because I put them in circumstances in which they needed to learn practical things, construction, household maintenance and repairs, automotive control, repair, and maintenance, and etc. They learned how to add, subtract, multiply, divide and convert fractions using tape measures and the Imperial measurement system on jobs. The lessons they learned were deeply internalized, practical knowledge, not book learning.
In the meantime we had no TV. They were outraged, but turned to reading books for entertainment (at least at home), and became avid readers. One of the weirdest things that came out of homeschooling my sons was that the work they considered chores were fun and entertaining to their peers. Kids that attended public school used to come and visit our compound innawoods so they could swing wrenches on their cars (I let them buy 4x4's with their wages from ~10 years old they could drive on cat roads I punched through our acreage), cut, split, and stack immense amounts of firewood, use the log loader to move things around, and etc.
Even kids in public school really want to learn useful stuff.
Thanks!
You could change that to:
Every kid wants to learn life!
Mathematics is useful, but how can you learn life when you're STUCK inside a building 40 hours per week? Life happens when you get out there and discover all those wonderfully non-standard situations.
It's funny how the goal of school nowadays is to keep kids calm. The quieter the class, the more gold stars for the school!
Stand still, be quiet, don't ask questions. Apparently that's the recipe for the "perfect" kid in our society. And not just at school - try taking them to the grocery store or restaurants!
Keep them quiet or watch the boomers do their signature eye-roll.
And oh boy, dare to hand them a tablet and watch the judgment rain down!
You just can't win... but at least we can laugh about it
Reminds me of the opening scene of 'The Matrix'.