An Unconditional Offer (Part 2) : Permanent Exclusion
Last September our 3yr old son came home from his pre-school with his ‘home learning journal’. 30 pages, each offering some sort of task with space for us to record what he has done at home to achieve it. Fun, enriching activities... play barefoot in the sand, make a den, climb a tree, all that kind of stuff. By Christmas I was naively wondering if we would have time to complete all these home learning tasks. Turned out not to be a problem. Two months into lockdown and I was spending 30mins with him on the High Road trying to get a shot of him "catching a raindrop" on his tongue. Anyway, one of the tasks stood out from the rest. Home learning task no.8 Other activities, nominally at least, required the child to actively do something to complete the task. Make a mud pie, grow a vegetable, whatever. But I found the task of 'experiencing unconditional love' confusing, being entirely reliant on factors outside of the child's control. What would happen to the child who