Hear me out…
What if the children have actually learned more this year?
Not about fractions or physics – but about life.
What if, this year, the children have had an education in what life actually is.
What if, the baking and the ‘hanging round watching’ and the ‘coming up with ideas to fight the boredom’, has created a person with far more of that evasive quality, ‘common sense’?
What if, this year the children have learned, quite by chance, about world issues, humanity and politics?
What if, the time they have spent in such ordinary living, has given them an appreciation of the basics…
‘Teach them the power of the ordinary’, they say, ‘and the extraordinary will take care of itself.’
Little minds listening, absorbing and feeling, may have learned quite inadvertently how to manage mental health, how to be okay with not being okay. You can’t teach that in a classroom.
I hear talk of this generation being left behind but remember my friend, this is not a race, no-one finishes first.
That is not the aim at all.
The aim is to be able to cope, to be able to yield, endure and most importantly, make the best of any twist in the story.
This is a journey, an adventure…
This is it!
This is life.
It’s ordinary then extraordinary then awful then amazing then sad then joyous.
This is it. And the children are getting a masterclass this year.
If you ask me.
Donna Ashworth
#childrenof2020
