Some ways in which food is a metaphor for learning

Lately I've been reading a lot of about food and farming. I started an omnibus post about some of my thoughts yesterday, but it was just all too much at once. So I decided to start over with a more limited aspect of the organic/local metaphor for now by comparing it to homeschooling. That was a big part of my original post.

Michael Pollan says:

"...food is a powerful metaphor for a great many of the values to which people feel globalization poses a threat." (p. 255 of The Omnivore's Dilemma*)

I see lots of connections between the writings of small farmers and those of the most thoughtful homeschoolers. The more I read, the more I realize that this isn't just a coincidence. Underneath is a paradigm shift. Especially during the past one hundred years, our society has been rapturous about the benefits of technology, but now we are seeing its limits, and what has been lost in the trade. And some people are looking for ways to get back some of what was lost.

So wise people are asking: To what extent should we employ technology? Can we find a proper balance by way of organizations, or through consumer purchases of goods produced and marketed by others, or does it go deeper than that?

Wendell Berry thinks it goes deeper:

"...the responsible consumer must also be in some way a producer." (p. 24)

One way we can think about homeschooling is that we produce our own learning. You don't have to read the likes of Wendell Berry, Joel Salatin, or Gene Lodgson for long to realize that production in the old sense was a cooperative process with nature. And so is homeschooling. And that's the underlying theme beneath all the comparisons that follow. But remember, these metaphors are meant in a spirit of inspiration, not legalism! Take them for what they're worth.

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Real learning isn't so far removed from the concept of real food. A fast food meal now and then won't kill you, nor will cramming for a test, but they are short-term solutions.

KINDLY USE

Teaching a child is a matter of "kindly use," as Wendell Berry puts it.

"Kindly use depends on intimate knowledge, the most sensitive responsiveness and responsibility. As knowledge (hence, use) is generalized, essential values are destroyed. As the householder evolves into a consumer, the farm evolves into a factory--with results that are potentially calamitous for both." (p. 31 of Berry)

Or as Pollan put it:

"The point isn't to get ever more interventionist and efficient about farming, but to become more attuned to its nature. By being sensitive to nature you can take a more subtle and harmonious approach." (p.188 of Pollan)

And:

"Ranching is a very simple business. The really hard part is keeping it simple." (Brad Adams, Florida rancher, also from p. 188 of Pollan.)

"The efficiencies of natural systems flow from complexity and interdependence." (about p. 214 of Pollan)

These are all also true of homeschooling. In our family, our best learning happens when we allow time for ideas and projects to "ferment," when we make connections between subjects, or allow one project to serve in several areas. But most especially, the best learning is a collaboration between the curiosity of the child and the wisdom and experience of the parent. It's best when not overcomplicated by trying to shoehorn a preset curriculum or available class into your present area of readiness. (Sometimes the curriculum or class is a good fit, and that's fine.) These principles hold true, at different levels, during the entire time a child lives at home, and hopefully beyond.

Note that small farming is not without its own sort of efficiency. But it's an efficiency of interdependence, not an efficiency of quantity.

Pollan notes that animals in CAFOs (feedlots) exhibit learned helplessness. Just like some children in poor schools!

CONSUMER SOLUTIONS

The following point could be controversial, but I at least want to put it out there: The homeschooling movement and the organic food movement have been co-opted in similar ways. As homeschooling becomes more popular, we tend to be happy enough with better consumer solutions instead of producing our own. I do shop at Whole Foods sometimes, and I do buy curriculum and participate in outside classes, but I try to ask myself first, "Do we really need this?" and if so,"Is it really a good fit?"

I promise, I do understand why people are so quick to opt for ready-made solutions. Not only is it convenient when we get busy, but we question the wisdom of going off on our own to the point where our children are left alone, even if we don't mind being left alone ourselves. I know; I've done it myself! We crave community, even when it feels more like networking at times. And modern life has so many pressures already. So I'm not advocating a legalistic approach to education or family life. We each have to be convinced in our own mind. (Romans 14) I just happen to be one of those people who finds lots of joy in doing many things myself. And I'm having fun with this metaphor, because I do think it's useful.

Sometimes what we don't do is even more important than what we do. Sometimes we don't buy anything at all. We make it ourselves. One easy thing to make yourself is your own entertainment. Just about anyone can do that, with a little practice. You just have to be willing to stare down your own boredom.

CERTIFICATION

Big organic farming (with certification) reminds me of homeschooling under the auspices of the NYCDoE. The paperwork I turn in to the city each quarter bears little relation to what I do everyday, which is much harder. Half the time a regulation is beside the point. Sometimes it's counter productive. At best, the purpose of regulation is to protect people from worst case scenarios. But aren't there better ways to do that? What regulation really does is to obscure via abstraction.

"The law enacted may be a good one, and the enforcers all honest and effective; even so, the consumer will understand that one result of his effort has been to increase the number of people of whom he must beware." (Berry, p. 23)

I like the fact that there's an article called, "Can an Organic Twinkie Be Certified?" (It's by Joan Dye Gussow, 1996.) That encapsulates the paradigm difference quite well!

Organizations work at cross purposes to their stated missions. Wendell Berry says this. John Taylor Gatto says this. John Holt says this. If this many people who regularly challenge my thinking all say the same thing, I should listen.

Berry:

"[Institutions'] solutions necessarily fail to solve the problems to which they are addressed because, by definition, they cannot consider the real causes. The only real, practical, hope-giving way to remedy the fragmentation that is the disease of the modern spirit is a small and humble way..." (p.23)

WISDOM AND CHARACTER

Farming, and homeschooling, are really going to require several generations to regain the wisdom that's been lost.

So homeschooling, as with local food, is a form of individual responsibility that ultimately has the potential to rebuild community. Where to start? As always, with character.

"...these public absurdities are, and can be, no more than the aggregate result of private absurdities; the corruption of community has its source in the corruption of character." (Berry, p. 19)

And character starts with a deeper faith that is tested in action. And mercy.

*All quotes, unless noted otherwise, are from The Omnivore's Dilemma (in the case of Pollan) orThe Unsettling of America (in the case of Berry).