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I just found this dated July 1998 on what I'm salvaging from two computers
before this. I remember writing it, but I don't think it was published. I
think it was on a discussion list or maybe at unschooling.com back in the day.
Someone, maybe Joyce Fetteroll, came up with the name of the story I half
remembered right away, and I went and read it again.

I thought it had some good parts, but if it wasn't published, it shouldn't go
into the collection of published essays I'm compiling. Anyone remember it?


Thanks, Sandra

=====================================
INNIES AND OUTIES


<<To push kids in all kinds of directions in order for them to be fluent at
cocktail parties is a waste of time, imho. >>

Depends whether the goal is for them to be fascinating and interesting to the
brightest people there, or just not to embarrass themselves in front of the
other safe, quiet, dull folks. Some people really, truly WANT to only
discuss the weather, current local (yet safe) politics, current events (just the
innocuous stuff) and the decor in the house. That way they can make some soft
noise for a couple of hours and not really SAY anything. That's
cocktail party stuff for you. There seem to be whole friendships,
organizations, marriages, based on this very surface, calm, don't-rock-the-boat
behavior.

Public school discourages kids from coming up with off-the-wall responses.
No bank shots, please. Just go directly from the question to the first
sufficient answer; nothing tricky or dramatic. Nothing that makes you think, or
makes the teacher think. If your answer isn't what's in the teacher's manual
your answer is wrong. If you did extra thinking you wasted your time.

If you want your kids to be REALLY interesting at cocktail parties, leave
their passions alone. I would pay money to be at parties with REALLY
interesting people because I don't give a rat's patoot what the scores of yesterday's
sports games were, or whether a new government contract is coming to town, or
how the weather was in southern California if I wasn't even there. But if
those people want to talk about their own new job or a sport they were involved
in or their response to seeing a tornado or a hurricane for the first time,
THAT I would like to hear. If they saw the The Lion King stage show and have
read everything there is to find about the designer, THAT I want to hear. If
they got to touch the brigandine plate armor that was found near Four Corners
YES!! TELL ME!!! That stuff didn't come from school, or Newsweek, or the
local paper.

Life. People can live lives, even little kids live lives, without
preparation, learning on the job, as they go. They can learn while doing real things
with real happiness and real success.

What's the Kurt Vonnegut story about the handicaps? Where people are
"created equal" by government handicaps? Smart people hear a frightening/alarming
sound every minute or two from the headphones they're allowed to wear.
Strong people have to wear weights. Good looking people have to wear masks.
School tries to do that. Even in the gifted programs, kids are often stuck in
a chair and asked to complete checklists of tasks, not to go off on their own
at maximum speed and change directions when they feel the urge to.
Homeschoolers can do that, unless they're careful not to. We're taught to sublimate
urges, to prove we're mature by ignoring our urges and doing what we're told.


Creativity doesn't come from reading the chapter and answering the questions.





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