A Subject-Divided Hike

Mrs. Albert decided to take her children for a hike in the woods. She remembered going on a hike or two when she was young, but she’d never actually been the one in charge of organizing and leading a hike before. She prepared herself for the hike by getting several books about hiking. She read most of some of them and some of most of them, and she started to see what would be involved in a hike. They would need to pack a lunch, know where they were going to hike, and wear the right shoes and clothes. These things were essential. She also read that she could make the hike even better if she brought along some binoculars and some nature identification books.

She wanted to make sure she didn’t leave anything out, so she organized each one of the essentials and extras into a list and made a plan to make sure that her kids would have the best hike possible. On the day of the hike, she got up early to make the lunches for the kids. She woke up all the kids and brought them together, and then began to explain what sort of clothes they ought to wear for their hiking trip. Benny who was 6 said he was hungry, and Andrew was excited to say that the cat had slept in his bed all night long. Mrs. Albert told them to be quiet. It was time to talk about hiking clothes.

When she was done talking about hiking clothes, she released the kids to eat their breakfast, and then expected them to go get dressed for the hike. Benny couldn’t remember what she had said about hiking clothes, so he put on what he always wore around the house, his favorite T-shirt, his shorts and flip flops. When Mrs. Albert saw Benny’s attire, she thought of all the proper clothing he should be wearing, and she began to worry that he wouldn’t be able to finish the hike, so she made Benny put on two jackets.

They all piled into the van to drive to the hiking spot. On the way, Mrs. Albert saw on her list that it was time to talk about the nature identification books. She passed the bird book to Lila, the wildflower book to Benny, and the forest animal book to Andrew. As she drove she began to explain how to use the books, directing them to look at certain pages as she talked. Andrew was looking out the window as the city streets turned into winding roads through the woods.

“Mom! Look how big these trees are!” he exclaimed. Mrs. Albert shushed him and told him not to interrupt their lesson about the nature identification books. Lila had begun to notice the blooming wild rhododendron bushes under the trees. She knew she couldn’t talk about it out loud, so she whispered to Andrew. “Look at those pretty flowers.” Their mom began to be irritated that they weren’t listening to her or looking at the right pages in the nature books.

They were nearly there when Mrs. Albert saw on her list that it was time to talk about how they were going to eat lunch. She knew they would need to know how to unpack their lunches when it was lunch time later on, so she wanted them to be able to know how to do it. She began by explaining how she had made their lunches. She went into the details of what containers she used to pack certain parts, and what was the best order in which to eat them. She told them to be sure and use their napkins and pick up their trash. The kids looked out the windows of the van in wonder, whispering delight to each other as they hoped this part of the talking would be over soon.

She was still talking about how to eat lunch when they arrived. Lila, Benny and Andrew jumped out of the car and ran over to the sign at the trail head. There were some pictures of animals on the sign, and Lila began to read it out loud. Mrs. Albert came over and pulled them away from the sign. “It’s time to talk about lunch right now. Stop reading that!” Lila tried to listen, while Benny and Andrew started hearing something else…..WATER! They could hear a bubbling creek somewhere near by. They began to head off down the trail in the direction of the water. With a bit of exasperation, Mrs. Albert decided lunch lessons would be over. Maybe they would be more interested in binoculars.

She pulled out the binoculars, and started explaining how they work. She tried to get them to be interested by asking them questions about binoculars that would make them think. She followed them over to the creek talking about binoculars the whole time. They just didn’t seem interested in them. Benny was throwing leaves in the creek, and observing how the current carried them downstream. Andrew was fascinated by some water skippers, and started trying to catch the ones that came close to the edge. Mrs. Albert had to get quite forceful in order to pull them away from the creek, make them walk beside her, and listen to her lesson on the binoculars.

Lila saw some little pinkish flowers growing beside the trail. She asked her mom for the flower identification book, but her mom said, “No, we’re talking about the binoculars. You can look at the binoculars if you would like.” Lila took the binoculars and looked at the flowers through them, but the flowers weren’t nearly as pretty that way. She wondered what the flowers were called.

As the family walked down the trail, the kids learned to keep all their thoughts to themselves. Mom had decided it was time to talk about where they were hiking. She had some maps, but it was hard to see them as she poured over them because she was taller than they, and she was walking ahead of them. They longed to run along the trail and explore everything, but they knew Mom wouldn’t let them, because it was map and location time.

Benny’s feet began to get really cold and started to hurt in his flip flops. He really wished he could take at least one of the coats off. Mom frowned every time she looked at him. She was disappointed in him that he hadn’t paid attention during hiking clothes time.

Finally it was time for lunch. Andrew was so hungry, he took out a bag of chips and started munching on a few. Mom was flustered. “We already had our lunch lesson. Why aren’t you doing this the way I told you to?” Inside she began to fear again. If they can’t even remember their lunch lessons, how are they going to finish this hike? She suppressed her fear that one of her children might get lost. There was no time to go over the lunch lessons again, because it was time to talk about the right kind of hiking clothes and shoes again. Maybe Benny would pay attention this time.

As the children ate their lunches, they tried to remember the way she had said to do it, but mostly they just ate whatever tasted good when she wasn’t looking. Meanwhile, Mom started talking about hiking clothes and shoes. She got more advanced this time, going on about special shoes for rock climbing, or snow hiking.  She’d read a lot about this subject, and she liked talking about it. The kids wandered around the area where they’d stopped for lunch, and whispered with each other about the cool looking moss, and the weird looking fungus growing out of a log. Whenever Mom looked their way, they tried to look like they were paying attention to her.

Lila heard some interesting bird sounds and looking in that direction, she saw a couple of black and white little birds flitting around in the bushes. She wondered what kind they were, but knew she couldn’t ask Mom for the bird books – it was advanced hiking clothes time. She began to wish that they could take this hike without Mom.

On the hike back, Mom decided it was now time to enjoy nature. She said that hiking lessons were over for the day, and she put in some headphones to listen to her music as she walked down the trail. The kids were glad to finally be released from the hiking lessons. The boys ran up and down the trail finding pine cones to throw at each other. Lila lagged behind hoping to see some wildlife in the quietness she found there. As she passed by the same little flowers she’d seen before, she wished she could look at the flower identification books, but she didn’t want her mom to know she was still interested.

On the drive home, Mrs. Albert got a phone call from her friend. The kids overheard her as she complained about how they just didn’t seem interested in hiking. They didn’t seem to care about what she was trying to teach them, and it was so frustrating to try and get them to pay attention. Together with her friend, they agreed that it must be some sort of a stage or a personality conflict. She talked about taking them to a hiking co-op class because it seemed they just needed more discipline from a teacher they would listen to. The kids actually thought that might turn out to be better, because then they could go hiking with some friends their age instead of with Mom.

How is your subject-divided education going?

Don’t miss out on all the love and learning real life provides! Leave behind the man-made idea of subject-division for a lifestyle of learning!