Sandra Dodd

How about a counter-list?

~k wrote:
To avoid cheating
To ask for help (which is often cheating in some people's view)

=================================

In school I have seen kids learn things my own unschooled kids don't
need to do, and some of it they wouldn't know how to do if they needed
to:

to cheat on tests
to lie about whether a book was read; to bluff a book report
to figure out exactly how little work they can do and still pass
to change classes slowly enough that they can slip in the door just as
the bell rings
to fake illness
to eat in class without being caught
to chew gum without being caught
to pass notes without being caught
to pretend to pay attention
to forge a parent's signature
to forge a teacher's signature
to lie to parents about what teachers said
to lie to teachers about what parents said
to convincingly make an F look like a B or an A, or a D into a B (not
used as much since report cards come off printers and aren't written
by hand)
to make tattoos between the thumb and forefinger with a straight pin
or a safety pin and some India ink, during class, in the back row

I bet you can all think of other ones!




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dina

those are all things i learned to do too sandra. i also learned how to make a teacher think
i did my homework (perverted teacher liked it when girls would wear low cut shirts). i also
learned (through watching someone else) how to take apart a pen to sniff drugs in the
back of the classroom and not get caught.

wow, i learned some dangerous stuff in school!

dina

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> How about a counter-list?
>
> ~k wrote:
> To avoid cheating
> To ask for help (which is often cheating in some people's view)
>
> =================================
>
> In school I have seen kids learn things my own unschooled kids don't
> need to do, and some of it they wouldn't know how to do if they needed
> to:
>
> to cheat on tests
> to lie about whether a book was read; to bluff a book report
> to figure out exactly how little work they can do and still pass
> to change classes slowly enough that they can slip in the door just as
> the bell rings
> to fake illness
> to eat in class without being caught
> to chew gum without being caught
> to pass notes without being caught
> to pretend to pay attention
> to forge a parent's signature
> to forge a teacher's signature
> to lie to parents about what teachers said
> to lie to teachers about what parents said
> to convincingly make an F look like a B or an A, or a D into a B (not
> used as much since report cards come off printers and aren't written
> by hand)
> to make tattoos between the thumb and forefinger with a straight pin
> or a safety pin and some India ink, during class, in the back row
>
> I bet you can all think of other ones!
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

k

>>>> How about a counter-list? <<<<

One counter list could be a list of double standards:

Start with:
Avoid cheating ......
Ask for help (but don't fish for answers: know the class material)

Know how to look things up
Know the material (memorize it)


~Katherine

[email protected]

I learned... I was not "of the right standard" to be hanging out (or seen
with) certain other people.

One small mistake can follow you for your whole school "career".

Teachers and students want to label others and put them in boxes

That I was "stupid" (took a long, long time to unlearn *that*)

Peace,
De
**************Get a jump start on your taxes. Find a tax professional in your
neighborhood today.
(http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=Tax+Return+Preparation+%26+Filing&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000004)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

k

must take PE (insert whatever class you're uninterested in) to broaden
your education
specialize or do what you're good at so you get good marks & go on to
a great career

~Katherine




On 2/25/09, k <katherand@...> wrote:
> >>>> How about a counter-list? <<<<
>
>
> One counter list could be a list of double standards:
>
> Start with:
> Avoid cheating ......
> Ask for help (but don't fish for answers: know the class material)
>
> Know how to look things up
> Know the material (memorize it)
>
>
> ~Katherine
>

John and Amanda Slater

Learning does not count if it is not on the test.

Amanda
Eli 7, Samuel 6

--- On Wed, 2/25/09, Sanguinegirl83@... <Sanguinegirl83@...> wrote:
From: Sanguinegirl83@... <Sanguinegirl83@...>
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] What people DO learn in school
To: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 11:09 PM












I learned... I was not "of the right standard" to be hanging out (or seen

with) certain other people.



One small mistake can follow you for your whole school "career".



Teachers and students want to label others and put them in boxes



That I was "stupid" (took a long, long time to unlearn *that*)



Peace,

De

************ **Get a jump start on your taxes. Find a tax professional in your

neighborhood today.

(http://yellowpages. aol.com/search? query=Tax+ Return+Preparati on+%26+Filing& ncid=emlcntusyel p00000004)



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]































[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

-=-Learning does not count if it is not on the test.=-

Oh my gosh.

A dozen times or more I asked a question in high school because I was
interested in the subject and the teacher just looked right at me and
said "That's not going to be on the test."
So in those cases it was more like "Questions don't need answers if
they're not going to be on the test."

Yikes.

Sandra

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Lyla Wolfenstein

i am wondering if someone is making a collection out of all of these that will be accessible to all? these are *amazing* when seen all together...



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Robyn L. Coburn

I'm going to be really frank here and say that I wish we could get off the
school conversation. Isn't it amazing how quickly on thread, Pam's request
for help making a list of what some people think needs to be taught - which
is really mostly a list of stuff our kids have learnt without being taught -
how quickly that devolved into a what's wrong with schools thread?

School bashing is really easy. I know that a lot of the time people in pain
over their children's pain need to process it to solidify inside themselves
their decision to pull their kids out. There is always going to be a certain
amount of rehashing of our own school damage on the path to healing too. But
sometimes the emotions that these conversations raise are anger and
frustration and outrage and it's just like watching the news for some people
(who choose not to watch the news.)

I wish that we could be done with the school critique and return to what
makes unschooling wonderful instead.

Robyn L. Coburn
www.Iggyjingles.etsy.com
www.iggyjingles.blogspot.com
www.allthingsdoll.blogspot.com

Sandra Dodd

-=-I'm going to be really frank here and say that I wish we could get
off the
school conversation. Isn't it amazing how quickly on thread, Pam's
request
for help making a list of what some people think needs to be taught -
which
is really mostly a list of stuff our kids have learnt without being
taught -
how quickly that devolved into a what's wrong with schools thread?-=-

I was guessing Pam was gathering ideas for a talk next week.
My thought in making a parallel thread was to show those who might
have been thinking of what school intends to teach that there's
another level beyond that, of things that are ONLY "naturally learned"
in school. My kids have never had any reason to cheat.

-= But
sometimes the emotions that these conversations raise are anger and
frustration and outrage and it's just like watching the news for some
people
(who choose not to watch the news.)-=-

I don't watch the news either. It's not about me.
If someone is feeling strong emotions about memories of his own
schooling, it might be better to touch on that a little, occasionally,
and start to dump some of it each time so that thinking of school
doesn't lead to outrage. There are other emotions more along the
understanding and regret and forgiveness side of the wheel that can
remember the hurts of school in a more tolerable light.

-=-I wish that we could be done with the school critique and return to
what
makes unschooling wonderful instead.-=-

Start a new topic about wonderfulness. No doubt this one was dying
anyway.

To change subjects from e-mail, start a fresh new e-mail, address it
to the group, and put in a new subject line. Otherwise it will show
up under the old thread in the archives.

Sandra

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Nancy Wooton

On Feb 26, 2009, at 4:43 AM, Sandra Dodd wrote:

> -=-Learning does not count if it is not on the test.=-
>
> Oh my gosh.
>
> A dozen times or more I asked a question in high school because I was
> interested in the subject and the teacher just looked right at me and
> said "That's not going to be on the test."
> So in those cases it was more like "Questions don't need answers if
> they're not going to be on the test."
>
> Yikes.
>

My 18 y.o., always-unschooled son, is in his second semester of
community college. Last fall was his first experience with school.
He was amazed at the lack of interest the other students expressed at
what he found fascinating, in this case, introduction to astronomy.
He sat in the front row, took notes, asked lots of questions, got high
grades on everything, and got picked on by another guy who called him
"teacher's pet"! That guy dropped out after the first test <g>

This semester, he's taking Japanese. He noticed that, when the
students have to write on the board, most of them write easy
characters so they'll get them right. He writes the ones he's having
trouble with, usually the most complicated or ambiguous, so the
teacher can correct them. He finds the other students' strategy
nonsensical. Yesterday, we went to Barnes and Noble so he could get a
Japanese-English dictionary, which wasn't required for the class, and
he also bought a grammar guide, because one of his classmates is
having trouble with grammar.

On the test, not on the test... doesn't matter to him -- he's learning
because he wants to know. (The interest in Japanese springs from
Pokemon, video games, manga and anime :-)

Nancy

k

>>>> School bashing is really easy. I know that a lot of the time people in pain
over their children's pain need to process it to solidify inside themselves
their decision to pull their kids out. There is always going to be a certain
amount of rehashing of our own school damage on the path to healing too. But
sometimes the emotions that these conversations raise are anger and
frustration and outrage and it's just like watching the news for some people
(who choose not to watch the news.) <<<<

I don't think school bashing is all that's going on. There's more to
it for me. It's helping me to deschool and understand exactly where I
want to go with unschooling in my own home. *How* I want to share
information with Karl makes a huge difference.

For instance: if it's not on the test it's not important knowledge.
That's good for an unschooler to mull over. Do they really understand
the impact of *all* kinds of knowledge, not just how to read or use
numbers or *pick any subject area that schools traditionally have
picked*?

It's meta knowledge to hear the pat unschooler response that all
knowledge is important. It's specific knowledge thought to find other
hooks and connections to place with that thought.

~Katherine

Pam Sorooshian

On 2/26/2009 8:02 AM, Lyla Wolfenstein wrote:
> i am wondering if someone is making a collection out of all of these that will be accessible to all? these are*amazing* when seen all together...
>

I will be doing that, yes.

-pam

Pam Sorooshian

On 2/26/2009 8:25 AM, Robyn L. Coburn wrote:
> I wish that we could be done with the school critique and return to what
> makes unschooling wonderful instead.
>

I'm still interested, though, in what people have thought needed to be
"taught" - not necessarily just in school, but homeschoolers, too.

It is really a list of what doesn't have to be "taught," of course. I
think it is very very useful to take some time to consider all that
stuff that most people think has to be taught is either learned
naturally by our unschooled kids or not learned because they never need it.

-pam

Pam Sorooshian

On 2/26/2009 8:25 AM, Robyn L. Coburn wrote:
> School bashing is really easy. I know that a lot of the time people in pain
> over their children's pain need to process it to solidify inside themselves
> their decision to pull their kids out. There is always going to be a certain
> amount of rehashing of our own school damage on the path to healing too. But
> sometimes the emotions that these conversations raise are anger and
> frustration and outrage and it's just like watching the news for some people
> (who choose not to watch the news.)
>

It is why John Gatto seemed so insightful to me at the beginning of our
homeschool journey and now seems more cynical and negative. "Dumbing Us
Down" really helped me understand what I didn't want to do to my kids
and why I should get them out of school. He talks a lot about what's
wrong with schools, not what is right with unschooling.

-pam

Sandra Dodd

-=-It is why John Gatto seemed so insightful to me at the beginning of
our
homeschool journey and now seems more cynical and negative. "Dumbing Us
Down" really helped me understand what I didn't want to do to my kids
and why I should get them out of school.-=-

That book is interesting. He history of american education book is
sensationalist and myopic. He's writing about New England but not
about the whole U.S., which would be fine with me if he seemed to know
it, or had specified that. Other books I haven't looked at.

I've heard him speak several times. He's not an unschooler. He's
willing to make money off of unschoolers, and some unschoolers need to
know there are teachers who can be well thought of by parents and
administrators and kids and still walk away. But lots of unschooling
parents were popular teachers who walked away. I have a passle of
thank-you letters from students and parents and an award I got when
I'd only been teaching six years. But I'm female and I'm in New
Mexico and I was interested in learning, not politics, and in
unschooling, not in making money. When I went in to quit my teaching
job, they said no. The principal had been my science teacher when I
was 14 and it was his first year of teaching. He offered me a
sabbatical. Unheard of, at my age and level of experience. I
declined. He gave me a leave of absence, so that if I changed my mind
in that year I still had my job.

I've heard Gatto read speeches more than not, but I've heard him just
talk, too, but it wasn't powerful or dynamic. It was just a guy who
wasn't a homeschooling parent talking to a bunch of homeschoolers.
Still, I think "Dumbing Us Down" can be useful.

Sandra




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Sandra Dodd

-=-He history of american education book is
sensationalist and myopic-=-

I don't know whether I meant to write "His" or "The," but I failed to
do either one. Sorry. Take your pick.

Sandra

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Verna

> On 2/26/2009 8:02 AM, Lyla Wolfenstein wrote:
> > i am wondering if someone is making a collection out of all of
these that will be accessible to all? these are*amazing* when seen
all together...
> >
>
> I will be doing that, yes.
>
> -pam


I think most of what kids are "taught" in K and 1 st grade seem silly
that way. Like jobs of people in the community.
Another thing I thought of the other day was reading a map. My 7 year
old was playing WOW the other day with me and it struck me how well he
reads the maps.

Sandra Dodd

-=-I think most of what kids are "taught" in K and 1 st grade seem silly
that way. Like jobs of people in the community. -=-

I didn't know much about those things myself when I was a kid,
though. I appreciated those parts of school, and I like to see on
Sesame Street or other kids' shows when they go into shops or get
factory tours.

My dad was a welder, my mom stayed home, and I had no real idea what
other people did.

-=-Another thing I thought of the other day was reading a map. My 7 year
old was playing WOW the other day with me and it struck me how well he
reads the maps. =-

Video games will do that! Kirby was great with maps after he could
use the Super Mario 3 player's guide.

There are things about map reading that aren't like video games,
though, My kids have asked, and we often have a map or two up (and
switch them out) so they've seen lots of different kinds of maps, but
it's because I consciously do that. We have a couple of map-rich
kids' books, too, though, that I really liked to read with them when
they were little. Picture books. One is called The Journey Home, and
one is called My Place. There might be better books now, but those
were wonderful.

Sandra

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[email protected]

In a message dated 2/26/2009 5:02:42 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Sandra@... writes:

<<<-=-Another thing I thought of the other day was reading a map. My 7 year
old was playing WOW the other day with me and it struck me how well he
reads the maps. =-

Video games will do that! Kirby was great with maps after he could
use the Super Mario 3 player's guide.>>>




Having a parent who travels a lot for work does that, too. So does traveling
a lot. Wyl (9) was interested in maps from a very young age and we were both
happy for him to have a map in the back seat, looking at the lines while I
drove, noticing the same numbers on the highways signs and on the maps.

Since he learned to read, I print 2 copies of my directions when I need to
use a mapping program and have him read in the back. That also helps him
understand how to give people good directions, and how miles compare to passage of
time. At first, he'd read through the directions from start to end, without
looking up, so he was done with trips in less than a minute. After I
explained to him that if he waited until after I got done with the first line of
instructions, then giving me the next (or two ahead), it was easier for me to
remember and easier for me to follow. He's very good about remembering when I
(not a number-memory person) need the highway number I'm looking for on the
signs. He's got a very good number memory, so I'm very happy to have him
"co-pilot" for me!

With the travel we've done this year, Storm (4) is beginning to get
interested in where things are (where's Tennessee?), so we bought a *big* atlas of
North America last time we were at the store. My dad and I loved pouring over
"resource books" when I was a kid: dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases...
Some of my most vivid (and satisfying) childhood memories are of my dad and I
exploring that kind of stuff together.

Peace,
De
_http://and-the-kitchen-sink.blogspot.com/_
(http://and-the-kitchen-sink.blogspot.com/)
_http://whatshappeningwiththesmiths.blogspot.com/_
(http://whatshappeningwiththesmiths.blogspot.com/)
**************Get a jump start on your taxes. Find a tax professional in your
neighborhood today.
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