Hey teacher, leave that kid alone (Pink Floyd – Brick in the Wall)

I’ve been keeping up with the e-mutterings following the Epic debate on Informal Learning, which sadly I missed. Every day learning in my experience is spontaneous, you might even say unavoidable. When I was an infant the world revealed itself to me (you will know that developmental psychologists call this Weltanschauung) because of a mix of incidental and mediated experiences. My parents and teachers arranged my world such that I could find my way in it – they provided toys, books, colourful wallpaper, music, nursery rhymes etc. We went for walks; they took me on buses and trains, we visited family and friends. I learned about negotiation from managing my siblings. I learned about commerce and budgeting from my biscuit money and by trading my bus fare for a bag of chips on the long walk from school. I acquired morality by practising the naughty as well as the good, and comparing the consequences of both. I read books, but the labels and hoardings and symbols in the city were equally important texts in teaching me what has value and what goes where. Now I am an adult learning remains spontaneous and unavoidable. Yesterday I learned something about the personality and vulnerability of a particular family member. Hearing of the saddest of bereavements reminded me of the sanctity of life and the importance of work-life balance. I learned that web-based promotions of hotel rooms are usually over-subscribed and the early bird catches the worm. I learned that tuna and broccoli are flavours that do not combine well. I learned that Mel won’t eat onions or garlic. And so it goes on. It’s nonsense to try to manage and constrain this stream of spontaneous learning. To do so interferes with natural perception. It applies blinkers. Once you begin to select particular sensory input for promotion, you stifle the others. Once you contrive matters, force a person to reflect, you diminish that spontaneity. I often quote a famous TES cartoon of the 1980s. A girl and a boy are seated side by side in a first floor classroom. She nudges him and warns, “Don’t look out of the window; teacher will make you write about it.”