Just in Case

Learning is forever. Spoiler alert: we’ll never learn everything there is to know. In the Middle Ages, there wasn’t as much knowledge. If you could read (and that was unlikely), all the knowledge you needed was in a handful of books. Religious books topped the list.

Reading only became a skill once books were mass-produced. Even then, it wasn’t widely used. People were more concerned with staying alive. The Middle Ages and the times leading up to them were a dangerous place to be. If a disease didn’t get you, hunger would.

Or, the king/queen/dictator would send you to fight in what seemed like never-ending wars with other countries. We’ve moved on, right? (Sarcasm doesn’t work in a written blog, does it?)

My Gran (yep, her again) used to pine for the ‘good old days.’ In her good old days, she didn’t have a refrigerator. Well, she had a box-like object with a door. Every few days, a delivery guy would visit with a fresh supply of block ice.

Today, more than ever, learning is something we should treasure. Learning is not the realm of schools alone. We spend more time out of school than in it.

During the early years of my career, curriculum ‘specialists’ talked about ‘just in case’ learning. The curriculum was packed with stuff students should know ‘just in case’ they needed it. Most of it was unnecessary. (Thankfully, writers of modern curricula are dispensing with such filler.)

Teaser: I found ‘just in time’ learning way more practical.