“Roadschooling” is a thing.  It’s google-able, the subject of blogs, Facebook groups websites and books.  Roadschooling is a movement to take education to the road.  We are wired to learn from our experiences.  In a traditional classroom, we seize the rare and wonderful “teachable moments.”  But on the road, teachable moments happen hour after hour, minute after minute.  The arbitrary standards of our states are replaced by the lessons of the life in front of us.  The learning can happen on weekend excursions or round-the-world travel.

Roadschooling for some is loose and spontaneous; or for others, planned and structured.  If we want to orchestrate a certain objective, as parents and educators, we take the mission of our lesson in mind, create the environment to discover and watch the learning unfold without expectation. We might bring textbooks and worksheets with us or subscribe to an online curriculum with tutors.  It runs the gamut.

Canyonlands, Roadschooling

Roadschooling is:

Sneaky teaching

Experiential learning

Unschooling

Outdoor education

Student-led learning

Critical thinking

Fun

I love this quotation that I just happened upon:

“We are here to do.

And through doing learn;

and through learning to know;

and through knowing to experience wonder;

and through wonder to attain wisdom;

and through wisdom to find simplicity;

and through simplicity to give attention;

and through attention to see what needs to be done.”

  • Pirke Avot, a Collection of Rabbinic Sayings