Last Tuesday, Mars asked me why birds don’t fall out of the sky when they sleep. I had a lesson on fractions planned. We spent the next two hours learning about bird anatomy, physics, and evolution instead.
He remembered every bit of it. He still doesn’t care about fractions.
The Curriculum Trap
Most education systems are built on a simple premise: adults know what children need to learn, and in what order. There’s a logic to it — you need addition before multiplication, letters before sentences.
But somewhere along the way, we confused sequence with mandate. We stopped asking “what does this child want to understand?” and started asking “what does this child need to score?”
What AI Changes
Here’s what’s interesting: in a world with AI, the ability to recall facts matters less than ever. What matters is:
- Knowing what questions to ask — AI can find answers, but only humans decide what’s worth asking
- Making unexpected connections — Mars went from birds sleeping to “do astronauts sleep differently in space?” That leap is pure human cognition
- Sustained curiosity — The willingness to go deep on something, not because it’s assigned, but because it’s fascinating
The Mars Method
I don’t have a formal name for what we do. But if I had to describe it:
- Follow the question. When Mars asks something, we chase it together. I don’t redirect to the “lesson.”
- Let tangents win. The best learning happens in the detours.
- Use AI as a co-explorer. We ask Claude, we look things up, we build things. AI is our research partner, not our teacher.
- Capture, don’t test. I write down what he discovered, not what he got “right.”
The Hard Part
The hard part isn’t the method. It’s the fear. Every parent feels it:
“What if he falls behind? What if other kids know fractions and he doesn’t? What if I’m doing this wrong?”
I feel it too. Every week. But then I watch Mars explain bird sleep cycles to his grandmother with genuine excitement, and I think — this kid isn’t behind. He’s somewhere else entirely. Somewhere better.
What I’m Learning
Raising Mars is teaching me that education isn’t a race. It’s not even a path. It’s more like a garden — you plant seeds of curiosity and see what grows. Some things bloom fast. Some take seasons. The point isn’t to harvest on schedule.
The point is to keep the soil alive.
