Some of the funniest moments of my childhood involve watching (and later mocking) those commercial where the parent sees his kid using drugs or doing some other foolishness and then the kid screams, “I learned it from watching you!”
Years of so sociological study and parenting failed to prepare me for the day I woke up and realized that my kids had become smack talking video gamers practically overnight. Indeed, they learned it by watching me. My kids are socialized to be tiny versions of myself. Therefore, in order to make them more worldly and intelligent humans, I have to be hyper aware of what I do, and do stuff intentionally to drive them to learn more. The secret of parenting is: You can’t be lazy and you can’t act like stuff doesn’t matter–unless it actually doesn’t, in which case proceed as normal.
The guerilla part of this is finding ways to turn every day moments into teaching moments. Specifically, when your kids are apt pupils in the things they love (video games for my bunch), take that moment to teach them about the world. Teach inference. Teach rhetorical analysis. Teach mathematics, basic coding. I don’t expect every one of my kids to turn into Sherlock Holmes, but I do want them to see what is coming 12 steps away.
I’ve been getting them to overanalyze every game they play to the point where they can predict computer villain behaviors and react before the damage reaches them. This skill can be translated into chess, which can be translated into interpersonal relations and negotiation. Every game is truth and every truth can be found in the code of a game.
Maybe I’m reaching here, but it feels like a very sensible approach to developing learners.