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Before Education
Children Learned Survival, Community, & Morality
Let’s step back. Away from the hustle and bustle, the gadgets, the information age, and the world where we need to know a million ‘things’ to succeed.
Back, to a time in history, or into a secluded tribal community where there is no idea that children need to be educated by a government, state or bureaucracy. Or to places today,
A time or place where indigenous people still live outside of the idea of formal education systems.
We lose our own innate wisdom when we ignore how these people educate their children. It is true our children may have different things to learn than the children of indigenous tribes. But it is also true that if we just look at this human instinctual side of education, we may learn a few valuable lessons we can apply to our own educational philosophies.
Children learned survival.
This included skills such as hunting and gathering food, planting and harvesting crops, building shelter and crafting clothing. They also learned how to make tools, and other items used in making daily life possible.
These skills were learned by direct activity, mimicking and practice. They were not learned by studying the skill in a book, being shown pictures, or…
