⟡ Hay Underfoot, Ethics Overhead: Belmont Farm as Curriculum ⟡
Filed: 29 March 2025
Location: Belmont Educational Farm, London Outskirts
📎 Download PDF — 2025-03-29_SWANK_FieldStudy_BelmontFarm_Agriculture_Ethics_RuralImagination.pdf
I. They Expected Chaos. We Delivered Curiosity.
This field study records SWANK’s visit to Belmont Farm, not as an excursion but as a pedagogical rebuttal — a living syllabus in:
Animal anatomy
Agricultural ethics
Environmental stewardship
And the sociopolitical construction of “the countryside”
What the public imagines as a chaotic mess of home-educated children was, in fact:
A comparative anatomy lab
A sociology lecture in boots
A lesson in reciprocal care between human and animal
There were no tantrums.
Only taxonomy.
II. What We Observed
Goats with identifiable tarsals
Children who asked about feed ratios
Farmers who explained barn ventilation
A pastoral myth gently dismantled in the glow of late-morning mud
We weren’t there for petting.
We were there for pattern recognition.
The countryside is not innocent.
It is structured — and so were we.
III. Why SWANK Filed It
Because rural education is often presumed incoherent.
Because home-educated children are mischaracterised as feral, undisciplined, or undercooked.
Because the children knew what ovulation meant in sheep, and no one fainted.
Let the record show:
The questions were sophisticated
The observations were acute
The teachers were unpaid
And SWANK — filed the syllabus disguised as a farm trip
This isn’t an outing.
It’s a rebuke — in mud-caked shoes and annotated clipboards.
IV. SWANK’s Position
We do not accept the suggestion that structure requires classrooms.
We do not consider worksheets superior to hoofprints.
We do not redact the moments when children demonstrated more clarity than councils.
Let the record show:
A goat was fed.
A placenta was explained.
A myth of educational neglect was dismantled.
And SWANK — filed the evidence.
This isn’t alternative education.
It’s unapologetic excellence — conducted in a pen.