Un-Screening Through Offline Learning

By Tatiana Guerreiro Ramos

As we wait for concrete steps and tools from our school districts to move ahead with online learning, I am plowing straight ahead with Offline Learning at my house. The look of dread and fear in my kids’ beady little eyes almost gave me pause.

Almost.

Then I realized that dread was a symptom of what has become an adolescent swamp of helplessness, lack of self-awareness, and a dearth of self-directed learning.

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology and most everything it has to offer. I also believe it has led to a generation of kids who don’t know how to learn without being told what to learn. And that “learning” has become synonymous with “bored to tears” because our schools are set up in very static and non-dynamic ways.

So I’m on a mission to help my kids un-learn their allergic reactions to learning by going semi-medieval on their arses. We are going to spend a big chunk of our day doing Offline Learning.

No, we’re not going to build forts.

Every day, I’m going to share what we are doing at my house to further un-screened or semi-screened learning. I don’t have a comprehensive list yet, but am starting with the subjects that would be front and center if I was the General Manager of the School Universe:

• Reading

• Geography

• History

• Driver’s Ed

• Sex Ed

• Gardening

• Cooking

• Real-World Math

• Manners

This is a working list, so feel free to comment below with suggestions.

Now excuse me while I change the WiFi password so my shady spawn can’t sneak screentime.