Sandra Dodd

I think the list is going fine, and thanks to those of you who are
participating cheerfully!

There have been two oddities this week, and I wanted to mention them,
in case others have the same thoughts or complaints. This was my
response on the side to someone who complained that people
misunderstood or misinterpretted something she said:

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I was responding to ideas and statements in several posts.

Please review the list intentions. Joyce wrote most of it;

http://sandradodd.com/lists/alwayslearning

No one has to write on the list, but what is written there will
probably be discussed.
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If there's anyone here who hasn't seen that page, please do read it.
If you've read it before it wouldn't hurt to glance down and make sure
it's the same stuff you saw the last time. Sometimes it gets additions.

The other thing was a complaint on another list about links being
provided. I think it was a complaint that questions weren't answered
at great length directly to the person asking, directed only to that
one individual, without reference to prior discussions on the same
topic.

There was an accompanying and confusing suggestion that my site was
too long and too much like a syllabus, and yet not large enough to
contain several guessed-at URLs.

Joyce has written enough to fill a dozen books, and she has done so
patiently and sweetly, from her own time and energy, on a computer
with internet that she and her husband paid for. So after a while she
made a website so people could read those things without having to ask
in public in advance. But I don't mind one bit when Joyce sends a
link to go with something she's just written. I think it's great!

When I started collecting discussions, I think the first one was about
TV, because Ren Allen had totally changed her mind, and the process of
her seeing the value in TV was worth keeping so others could read it
later. That is here: http://sandradodd.com/t/debate

Giving people access to the best of what's been discussed in the past
several years seems good to me. Anyone who would complain about that
must not have thought much about what their real options are, in
learning about unschooling, or what the relative value of available
resources might be.

This list has some of the most thoughtful unschoolers and the best
writers among thoughtful unschoolers there are out there. I think
they've stayed because the topics have been of a caliber to make them
want to stay.

When very-beginner questions are asked, the links will come out,
because there are MANY things we assume people know before they
participate on a list designed for people who have read some John Holt
and who are already involved in unschooling. So if someone joins the
list who is new, that's okay, but they will probably be reminded that
their ideas and suggestions are coming from a place of inexperience.
The reason for providing links is so that people can see what's
already been discussed so they're not asking the same basic questions,
or so that Pam S. , Schuyler, Deb Lewis and such folks aren't spending
their time repeating what they have already so eloquently written
before.

Sandra




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