In unschooling, all the world’s a classroom. No. Wait. That’s not true. Classrooms are usually fucking boring.
All the world’s an exciting opportunity to learn and grow and play.
Ant Lions.
Since I was a child I have been fascinated by the perfectly conical and cleanly shaped pits that appear in sand outside in parks and elsewhere, and the strange creatures that reside within known as “ant lions.”
In Japan, they have an even more foreboding name. Known as ari no jigoku, or “ant hell,” these pits are not where any small defenseless ant wishes to find itself.
I can remember being in second or third grade and digging these guys up to show a couple of my grandma’s friends one day at her house. Those people, an elderly couple, are likely long gone now, and my grandma has passed as well, but I will never forgot how excited they were, and the joy it brought to their faces when I taught them about these bugs they had lived around all their lives but never seen. That day made a really big impression on me.
All the world’s so fascinating, if we look around.
Some ant lion pits in the sandbox at the park near our house.
So what are they?
Well, according to Wikipedia:
The antlions are a group of about 2,000 species of insect in the family Myrmeleontidae, known for the fiercely predatory habits of their larvae, which in many species dig pits to trap passing ants or other prey. The adult insects are less well known, as they mostly fly at dusk or after dark, and may be mistakenly identified as dragonflies or damselflies; they are sometimes known as antlion lacewings, and in North America, the larvae are sometimes referred to as doodlebugs because of the strange marks they leave in the sand.
Check out our video of Isaiah and I digging one up for closer examination!
Unschooling is learning, because unschooling is play.
I was never taught about antlions as a student in school. One thing I do know, though, is that I spent hours of my own time on my own volition digging in the dirt for them and poring over encyclopedias and insect manuals to learn about them. That’s how unschooling works. According to a child’s natural interests and inclinations. In this case I think I may have been more interested than my son, but you get the idea!
Thanks for stopping by!
(If you missed the last Unschooling Blog, “JIYUU! FREEDOM! (My experiments with giving my son total freedom) Episode 1,” you can find that HERE.
Peace, Freedom, and Life-long Learning,
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)