That’s great. One nitpick: there’s no such thing as step-parenting. For all intents and purposes this is parenting and you’re nailing it.

That's really kind of you to say. Thank you! :)

I’m constantly encouraging the second, third, and fourth year apprentices at work to be the first stop and series of escalation points for the more junior apprentices and students who come in for week-long work experience sessions as part of their high school requirement.

Part of learning is learning to teach, to share the skills and knowledge we have. It isn’t strictly necessary, but we know more is revealed when we attempt to impart a skill or knowledge because we are forced to use our Beginners Mind.

Lots of kids will just do this as part of play. I think it’s important to continue doing as we age, but maybe that’s just my secret desire to be a teacher. As tradesperson at a company with two new apprentices each year that desire is fulfilled.

I'm working on theory that we all desire to be teachers, though definitely not teachers in a school classroom. I think the desire to share what we've learned is part of the process of learning, maybe a validation step. There can be lots of factors affecting one's situation, but for the most part life can be rearranged to accommodate things like teaching. Maybe the reason we don't run out and share what we've learned is because we adults don't feel like we know anything worth sharing.

Lately I'm reading the ancient philosophy texts and thinking about what it was like to learn back then. Plato had Socrates (who didn't believe in writing!) and he had to compete with other younger students for his favor. This meant not only participating in the conversations available but also making himself available to them. Can you imagine how different the learning experience would be if teachers just made themselves available from 9am-3pm every day, and students could choose to fill all or none of their time in their company? Like if spontaneous moments of brilliance came about when something like a high school german instructor bumped into a legendary cognitive science professor and together, they discovered a new idea at the intersection. And teachers and students (who made the effort to be there) could have been there to witness the whole thing. To see the joy of learning something new, on the two faces who only together made it possible. And to themselves learn something new from it. It's amazing stuff when we let it be.

The situation in which we find ourselves today, both ends of the dialogue are confused about what to do. The students aren't sure what to seek out, and they seem to rely more on luck and fate to assemble an understanding of the world for them. This makes me think no one is telling them what they're capable of, or about all of the lifetimes of enjoyment they can find in the world without spending a cent, only their time. There are millenia of human histories to explore and help them find their place, but the teachers on the other end are seeing the lack of interest in their methods and are taking it personally.

We need a much more flexible perspective on education, and I think a big part of that is becoming great teachers in our own lines of work like you're doing. We simply cannot put "learning" in a box and on a store shelf and expect the next generation to just pick it up. This is a life-long journey for all of us, and it can be a life-long joy if we help others see and feel the value of living!

Minecraft is up there with space ships and full suspension mountain bikes, in the arena of "Greatest Things that Have ever Happened"

Nobody knows minecraft intuitively. There are many children's games that you can figure out easily, but minecraft requires "a lot" lonely experimentation or reading or someone shows it to you.

That is at least part of the fun. I bought it when it (Minecraft) when it first came out. It was FPS Lego as far as I was concerned. At the time, and still, more or less, it was a game with none of the Psy Ops modern game makers employ to get people hooked. It was just intrinsically rewarding to make stuff. My son learned to use a mouse on Minecraft (he is 11 now). Now my kids and I have a long running world where we have been working on th same castle and world for years. It is cool seeing kids grow up with this game. Watching their building skills and ideas grow with thier minds is pretty cool.

So, it isn't intuitive, but my 6 year old can do pretty much everything in the game now. Mostly her older brother showed her. So, I dunno, maybe it is lonely, but in the same way building Lego is lonely.

I did not mean "lonely" as negative. But people sometimes go "oh I dont get it instantly I must be too old for it, cant do it and kids get it naturally". And that is not the case, kids are figuring it out slowly and their play is more incapable then they think at first. However, they "feel" like they know what they are doing whole time, so learning is pleasant.

But also, I dont really think Minecraft is like lego. You can play it like lego, but you dont have to.

True. Original Minecraft had no story or game. The game was survive. You could "win" within 30 minutes of your first time learning things. The plot and end dragon and all were added a lot later.

My kids have never finished the game and pretty much only play creative mode.

I didn't think you meant it negatively. Just an interesting way to describe it.

The beauty of Minecraft is that you do your thing and gameplay emerges - it does not pushes you in any direction. And you can switch game playing style whenever you want however you want. You can be explorer, you can learn, you can build, you can roleplay, you can care about aesthetics or not, you can care about ecology or not, you can go to caves and catch monsters. Most importantly, you can mix approaches. And when you get bored by it, you change gameplay style and game dont care, there is no penalty.

All that while whole game is remarkably low stress and zen-like. In survival, you will dig for hours for material. And you can also get stress if you want to and you can put yourself in danger if you want to.

>My son learned to use a mouse on Minecraft

Funny how that works out -- I learned to touch-type because of Runescape.

> or someone shows it to you.

I heard there's websites with videos demoing game play.

(There was this youngster with an ipad that seemed to spend quite a few hours watching them. Perhaps more than playing the game.)

Lol, most kids who play Minecraft actually watch Minecraft videos a lot more then they actually play. So, you would not be out of normal.

However, fining good beginner videos is not that easy (how to move, set it on creative at first, look you can fly etc) and watching videos is time consuming for adults. The ratio of noise vs information is very very low.

Kids actually love repetition, and being able to act on it.

The better documented example of this is when Blue's Clues needed to run the same episode multiple times a week. Everyone thought their ratings would tank, but instead they spiked.

As someone who lives with two teachers, I find this hilarious and awesome. :D

I still haven't played Minecraft, but this makes me want to learn how from a kid.