Growing Knowledge One Liberation at a Time

Anthony James

Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli writes: "We figured out (two millennia ago) that the Earth is spherical, and (half a millennium ago) that it moves. At first glance these are absurd ideas, since the Earth appears to us to be flat and still. In order to digest such ideas, the difficulty lies not so much with the new concept as it does with coming liberated from old ones that seem so obviously to be true; bringing them into doubt seems inconceivable. We are always convinced that our natural intuitions are self-evidently right, and it is this that prevents us from learning more."

We tend to think of education as a process of adding new knowledge to established knowledge. Indeed, our entire educational system is predicated on this idea of stacking ideas atop one another, starting with the foundation, then constructing it in a systematic, predictable pattern: unit by unit, chapter by chapter, year by year. It's one of the most common objections to play-based or self-directed learning: what if following their own curiosity causes them to miss out on this or that bit of "foundational learning"? That's why we need adults directing them, the theory goes. It's why we can't trust our children with their own education.

But what Rovelli points out is that this theory of how learning is built is, at best, incomplete. Much of the time, learning is not about building up, but rather tearing down. Every new idea requires unlearning something we thought we already understood.

When we see another child looking back at us from a mirror, we must first liberate ourselves from our natural intuition that there is another child standing there looking back at us in order to begin to accept the absurd idea that we are looking at a reflection of ourselves. It was once quite obvious to me that small people lived inside the television set. Many of us still struggle with the absurdities of Einstein's insights about time and space, but if we are to understand any of it, we must first give up our "foundational" and self-evident notions about how time and space work in the way we've given up on the illusion that the Earth is flat and still or that there is a playmate in the mirror. This is why textbooks are out of date by the time they are printed: those on the cutting edge have already liberated themselves from the old "knowledge."

The "genius" of young children is that they have not yet learned the false lessons of "foundational learning." They know that in order to learn anything new, they must liberate themselves from their old ideas and perspectives. In fact, that's all they've ever known, from the moment they emerge from the womb and find themselves face-to-face with an entire world of color, light, and noise. As Rovelli writes, "(W)e have access only to perspectives. Reality is perhaps nothing other than perspectives. There is no absolute. We are limited, impermant, and precisely for this reason, to live, to be, as we do, is so light and sweet."

When we yoke this genius with our adult-directed schooling, we are, absurdly, attempting to lock our children into the approved perspectives, narrowing their world, trapping them. What we are doing with self-directed learning is opening full access to the reality of endless perspectives. We are allowing children, through their curiosity, to overcome not just their own natural intuitions, but also those that we adults seek to impose upon them. They're not building their knowledge from some fictitious foundation up, but rather growing it one liberation at a time. And that is why it is so light and sweet.

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Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network or anywhere you download your podcasts.

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