Fascinating book my sister suggested, Boys Adrift discussed the difference between a theoretical or academic knowledge (wissen in German) and an experiential or personal knowledge (kennen in German.) In many languages (besides english) there are two different verbs for knowledge:

In biblical Hebrew, the word know refers primarily to experiential learning… In English, we read about “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” but the Hebrew might be better translated as, “the tree of experience of good and evil.” Adam and Eve are forbidden to eat from that tree. They are forbidden the experience of evil.

I’m reading the chapter on how boys fare in school, he speaks of how children need hands on knowledge and references the nature deficit book to reiterate that ALL children need experiential knowledge and they’re not getting that in the current classroom setting, which is starting at younger and younger ages. The author has another book called Girls on the Edge I’ll try to get next.

Books like this are fascinating to me as a mother with girls and boys but also intriguing to me because I did a lot of my undergrad & graduate focus on sociology of gender.