Dawn Falbe

Having been born in England and lived there till 22 I can sympathize with
what you are going through. Because of the British culture which I find to
be so oppresive (and is one of the reasons I do not live there) I think it's
going to take a long time for many of them to get the stick out of their
bums and stop being so uptight. I do hope you are coming back to America as
some point so that you can continue to be with other unschoolers.

Have you looked on any British websites for unschoolers? I just spoke with
my best friend the other day (who lives in England and has all of her life)
and she was telling me that she can't believe that her baby (he's 3) is
suppose to go to school in 2 years. She thinks he's way to young. When I
suggested that she could always look into homeschooling, because I'd heard
that people over there did it, she said she was going to look into it, but
started mentioning teaching him etc. I tried explaining what we do and I
could hear the confusion in her voice about letting my kids learn at their
own pace (speaking of which my 2 boys are in the kitchen right now
concocting some kind of snack for hubby and I - as long as the bleach is
locked up there's it's all edible or drinkable - God knows what it will be
though)....

I liked what you said about unschooling and how it works. Maybe the next
time you go to the committee meeting type of thing you could take that
e-mail with you and read out the parts out loud to them all about
unschooling and see if you get some positive feedback... You never know...
there has to be someone in your area other than you that's interested in
this life style.

Dawn F.
Tucson, AZ

From: "Schuyler Waynforth <dwaynf@...>" <dwaynf@...>
Subject: like-minded

I'm writing more out of a need to vent than from anything else.
We've just moved to the north of England from Albuquerque and are
slowly moving through our sense of isolation and the interminable
darkness

Shyrley

Dawn Falbe wrote:

> Having been born in England and lived there till 22 I can sympathize with
> what you are going through. Because of the British culture which I find to
> be so oppresive (and is one of the reasons I do not live there) I think it's
> going to take a long time for many of them to get the stick out of their
> bums and stop being so uptight. I do hope you are coming back to America as
> some point so that you can continue to be with other unschoolers.
>

Isn't that bizarre. I'm desperate to leave Virginia for the same reason. Mostly
uptight anal curriculum school at home types. Can't wait to get back to Malvern
where unschoolers live, people drop round for coffee unexpectedly without making
an appointment 6 weeks in advance and it takes me 2hours to go to the shops cos
I walk and chat too loads of peolple on the way.
Maybe its the living 'oop north' bit. Yorkshire folk and reticent with
strangers.

Hope the email addy's I gave you work out and if you wanna swap let me know!

Shyrley

Schuyler Waynforth <[email protected]>

I've thought about this a bit, having just moved to the UK and all.
It seems that it isn't about (at least for me) the difference
between "American Culture" and "British Culture", its about having
community. We'd lived in Albuquerque fro 7 years total, with a few
major departures. I never missed it, really, before this time.
This time we left people we care about. This time we couldn't walk
down the street without saying hello to a bunch of people. This
time we owned the park down the street. Where we are now has a busy
street in front of us and no shops nearby. There isn't a park
within walking distance, and we don't no our neighbors cause they
aren't around when we, and there is no place to meet them. Where we
are moving has a park nearby and an almost village center. We went
into a potters on Saturday and Simon asked if he gave classes. The
man said no, but said if we ever where walking by and saw him
throwing a pot we could stop in and he'd give us a full
demonstration. He spent a lot of time telling us about the good
things in the community, and about how it is a community. So, I
have hope.

No we aren't planning on coming back to the US for more than
visits. And once we find our place here the pull of the US should
lessen.

And thanks so much Shyrley for the e-mail addresses and the lists. I
know now three families I didn't know who live not to far from us.
Well, we have yet to shake hands, but it is a definite improvement
on where I was.

Here's to community.

Schuyler

--- In [email protected], Shyrley
<shyrley.williams@v...> wrote:
>
>
> Dawn Falbe wrote:
>
> > Having been born in England and lived there till 22 I can
sympathize with
> > what you are going through. Because of the British culture
which I find to
> > be so oppresive (and is one of the reasons I do not live there)
I think it's
> > going to take a long time for many of them to get the stick out
of their
> > bums and stop being so uptight. I do hope you are coming back
to America as
> > some point so that you can continue to be with other unschoolers.
> >
>
> Isn't that bizarre. I'm desperate to leave Virginia for the same
reason. Mostly
> uptight anal curriculum school at home types. Can't wait to get
back to Malvern
> where unschoolers live, people drop round for coffee unexpectedly
without making
> an appointment 6 weeks in advance and it takes me 2hours to go to
the shops cos
> I walk and chat too loads of peolple on the way.
> Maybe its the living 'oop north' bit. Yorkshire folk and reticent
with
> strangers.
>
> Hope the email addy's I gave you work out and if you wanna swap
let me know!
>
> Shyrley

Kate Green

> Maybe its the living 'oop north' bit. Yorkshire folk and reticent with
> strangers.
> !
>
> Shyrley
>

By gum lass watch ya self talking bout yorkshire folks:)


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Shyrley

Kate Green wrote:

> > Maybe its the living 'oop north' bit. Yorkshire folk and reticent with
> > strangers.
> > !
> >
> > Shyrley
> >
>
> By gum lass watch ya self talking bout yorkshire folks:)
>

Eyup lass. Tha' from Yorkshire?

Shyrley