Sandra Dodd

The first critical comment on an interview with me, new online
today. JEEEZ, THIS WEEK IS TIRING!!!

NONE OF THEM WENT TO COLLEGE. �Nuff said. Are they really educated?
Did they learn calculus? Did they read the great books? Notice how all
the discussion focuses on how �mature� the kids are, a fuzzy concept
that says nothing about their intellectual and academic achievement.
Intellectual development does not happen unless you are exposed to
things you would not necessarily choose to be exposed to. The point is
not for kids to spend 100% of their time in a feel-good pursuit of
what they�re already interested in. Those are hobbies, not education.
This is, I think, part of American culture lately, where people only
want information that confirms their existing biases, and stick their
heads in the sand for everything else. That is the very definition of
ignorance. People, if you don�t trust the public schools (which I
totally understand), send your kids to a good private school that
knows what it�s doing.

Read more: http://www.momlogic.com/2010/04/why_i_unschooled_my_three_kids.php#ixzz0lxVUyVhI

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Stephanie LaBarge

Sandra,
I'm sorry it has been a tiring week for you. To encourage you, it is SO helpful for someone just starting out on my unschooling journey to read those criticisms and then your well written, succinct, kind and respectful responses! You rock!!

Stephanie





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Jenny Cyphers

***The first critical comment on an interview with me, new online
today. JEEEZ, THIS WEEK IS TIRING!!!***

It's interesting how all the ignorant people keep writing about unschooling, something they know nothing about, letting us all know that we are most definitely wrong about it, yet not really bothering at all to read up on it or even try to understand it first.

The really bad article that commented on the really bad journalism, (I know, which one right?) has someone commenting just straight up BS and calling others hypocrital for not following their illogical uninformed reasoning. I'm tired of discussing unschooling with people who have no idea what they are talking about and aren't interested in learning more.

This particular response to your interview, Sandra, is the very definition of irony!




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Jason & Stephanie

NONE OF THEM WENT TO COLLEGE. �Nuff said. Are they really educated?
Did they learn calculus? Did they read the great books? Notice how all
the discussion focuses on how �mature� the kids are, a fuzzy concept
that says nothing about their intellectual and academic achievement.
Intellectual development does not happen unless you are exposed to
things you would not necessarily choose to be exposed to.

**********Wow, she is ignorant! I went to public school from preschool through 12th grade and I went to college. I can't even remember any of the "great" books I was forced to read, I never took calculus either. If she believes that you have to be told what to learn about then the system worked well in indoctrinating her. Intellectual development happens by thinking and learning IMO, not by being force fed useless garbage.

Stephanie

http://www.learningthroughliving-stephanie.blogspot.com

"It's not that I feel that school is a good idea gone wrong," he says, "but a wrong idea from the word go. It's a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life."
~John Holt



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Vidyut Kale

The criticism is irrelevant. I know my objective of nurturing my child in an
environment of respect and freedom has been supported by my discovery of
your site, you and this group. Talk is free. It is how it influences lives
that matters.

One celebration I see in this is that I can see people's assumptions of a
lifetime being shaken so that they need to react so strongly. This can't
happen unless there is something that makes very strong sense. It is
graceful, harmonious and narrates a life lived by values many claim but balk
at living. Something like that shakes our foundations when that isn't what
we were doing and we'd like to see ourselves as perfect. Whether they
devalue the insights that can change their lives to retreat into the safety
of their known or whether they grab on with both hands and enter a whole new
way of being is really their business though they are doing it in an
embarrassingly public way :D

I look at this kind of criticism like I look at a child who accidentally wet
himself. With empathy, understanding and compassion. It happens, its not
easy, its embarrassing and scary in public. Its not easy living in a prison
of unexamined, externally inflicted, powerlessly adopted beliefs. Its not
easy defending something we have started seeing holes in from something that
will show our whole attitudes of interacting with someone very precious to
us as harmful. There is a lot of force used because losing this challenge of
belief means looking at what they were so proud of as blind harm inflicted
by T on our loved one. There is a long way to go before getting the humility
to accept that we are not perfect and we need not be as long as we are
willing to move with purpose from this moment on. Some never ever get there.
They irritate, make our life difficult from projecting their fears, but
those fears don't belong to me, and I can let them be, knowing that I can
afford to be kind.

Vidyut

On Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 2:25 AM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:

> The first critical comment on an interview with me, new online
> today. JEEEZ, THIS WEEK IS TIRING!!!
>
> NONE OF THEM WENT TO COLLEGE. �Nuff said. Are they really educated?
> Did they learn calculus? Did they read the great books? Notice how all
> the discussion focuses on how �mature� the kids are, a fuzzy concept
> that says nothing about their intellectual and academic achievement.
> Intellectual development does not happen unless you are exposed to
> things you would not necessarily choose to be exposed to. The point is
> not for kids to spend 100% of their time in a feel-good pursuit of
> what they�re already interested in. Those are hobbies, not education.
> This is, I think, part of American culture lately, where people only
> want information that confirms their existing biases, and stick their
> heads in the sand for everything else. That is the very definition of
> ignorance. People, if you don�t trust the public schools (which I
> totally understand), send your kids to a good private school that
> knows what it�s doing.
>
> Read more:
> http://www.momlogic.com/2010/04/why_i_unschooled_my_three_kids.php#ixzz0lxVUyVhI
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>


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Sandra Dodd

Vidyut this is really sweet and generous of you:

-=-I look at this kind of criticism like I look at a child who
accidentally wet
himself. With empathy, understanding and compassion. It happens, its not
easy, its embarrassing and scary in public. Its not easy living in a
prison
of unexamined, externally inflicted, powerlessly adopted beliefs.-=-

Unfortunately, though, they were talking about MY kids, and so my
mothering instinct went not toward them, but my children.
To me it seemed less like an innocent child had peed his pants and
more like a great hairy brute had whipped it out and pissed on my
children. Perhaps that was an over-reaction, but I do have motherly
instincts and great kids.

I understand the frustrations and fears of people who want to
unschool, and have helped quite a few of them. I didn't count.

I am much less sympathetic to the flailings and vitriol of those who
heard of unschooling that same day (perhaps that same moment) and are
assuring me that I'm a psychopathic criminal-mom who will be to blame
for having unemployed offspring who are a drain on those hardworking
high school graduates.

Sandra

jennifer.neary

> Read more: http://www.momlogic.com/2010/04/why_i_unschooled_my_three_kids.php#ixzz0lxVUyVhI
>

This was a great article, Sandra! I can't imagine how worn out you must be after this week of intense media attention. I'm worn out and all I've done is read! The ignorant comments are just that, but they do hurt, and when they are so personal, and about your precious kids, well, that can hurt a whole lot.

I'd like to add my voice to those who have been taking the opportunity to repeat, or perhaps say for the first time, the positive effect you, your family, and your writing have had in my life. You changed my life, Sandra. You showed me that I have the power to create a joyful life with my children and my husband. No school/homework/dinner/bed treadmill for us. What a gift.

I don't even wish to think what our lives might have been like if not for your consistent assistance to those of us who want to get it.

I'm happy to hear there may be a SUSS Two! It was so nice to see the pictures you posted. Pearl and I had an experience in Santa Fe that we'll never forget. It was such a sweet time for both of us.

Jennie

Sandra Dodd

-=-I'm happy to hear there may be a SUSS Two! -=-

It will need a new name if it's in Albuquerque instead of Santa Fe,
and SUSA seems awkward. "Suss" is an actual word. I'll have to
think about it.

-=-I'd like to add my voice to those who have been taking the
opportunity to repeat, or perhaps say for the first time, the positive
effect you, your family, and your writing have had in my life. You
changed my life, Sandra. You showed me that I have the power to create
a joyful life with my children and my husband. No school/homework/
dinner/bed treadmill for us. What a gift. -=-

Thank you very, very much.
Sandra

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seccotine_ch

--- Jennie wrote:
>

> I'd like to add my voice to those who have been taking the opportunity to repeat, or perhaps say for the first time, the positive effect you, your family, and your writing have had in my life. You changed my life, Sandra. You showed me that I have the power to create a joyful life with my children and my husband. No school/homework/dinner/bed treadmill for us. What a gift.
>
> I don't even wish to think what our lives might have been like if not for your consistent assistance to those of us who want to get it.
>

**********

Ditto.

I would add : I'm currently reading your Big Book of Unschooling - I'm so glad you did this work, because it's easier to read than onscreen (I must say that I read it mainly in the bathroom). This reading has given me a gift that is incredibly precious for a mom of 4 under 10. It has given me ENERGY. Such a positive energy - it is a real blessing. I'm as tired as ever, but it has half the importance it had the week before I ordered your book.

I'm so grateful to you (and to some others too) - and I bet my kids somehow are, too.

Many, many thanks. Keep on rocking :)

Helen, from Geneva (Switzerland)

Deb Lewis

Not the mom logic site but a quote from a bit written by a high school student here: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_columnist.htm?StoryID=104084

"There are 55.7 million school-age children in America. Of those almost 60 million, 1.5 million children study from home, and of those nearly 2 million, 150,000 lounge on the couch all day, playing video games and showing passion about very little due to the things they've missed from a proper education. "

I know she goes to public school but, seriously?

Deb Lewis



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delialowell

--- In [email protected], "Deb Lewis" <d.lewis@...> wrote:

********* I know she goes to public school but, seriously?*********


Yeesh, I couldn't help but laugh when I read how she forced herself through mathematics and didn't give a hoot about history until she found a class she liked.

Hmmmmm, she found a class she liked and it interested her. What a novel concept, hey?

If all of these critics and bandwagon critics would take just a fraction of the time they're putting into dissing unschooling and spend it instead doing something they're interested in and enjoy, they could enrich their lives tremendously!

Kris