tanyaziegler

I found this article today - http://nyti.ms/9IbAaI
<http://nyti.ms/9IbAaI> - titled "What is it about 20-somethings". It
discusses the 20s as a time when young adults are postponing big
decisions - work, marriage, family - to explore their identies and
figure out what they want in life. My first thought upon reading it was
that the reason young adults need this time for self-reflection is
because they haven't had the time/opportunity for it during their school
years and even through college, but I'm thinking I may be wrong to
assume it's exclusive to schooled kids. So, the reason I bring the
article here for discussion is because I'm curious if this seems to be
true as a general rule for some unschoolers as well.

One quote from a 23-year-old caught my attention... "It's
somewhat terrifying," writes a 25-year-old named Jennifer, "to
think about all the things I'm supposed to be doing in order to
`get somewhere' successful: `Follow your passions, live your
dreams, take risks, network with the right people, find mentors, be
financially responsible, volunteer, work, think about or go to grad
school, fall in love and maintain personal well-being, mental health and
nutrition.' When is there time to just be and enjoy?"

I don't think unschoolers get this pressure from their parents, but I
doubt they are immune to it from society, so I am curious if there are
any differences and/or simarities between schooled and unschooled young
adults.

Tanya



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

k

You might also ask that here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ask_Unschooling_Offspring/

~Katherine



On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 11:55 AM, tanyaziegler <tanyaz1@...> wrote:

>
> I found this article today - http://nyti.ms/9IbAaI
> <http://nyti.ms/9IbAaI> - titled "What is it about 20-somethings". It
> discusses the 20s as a time when young adults are postponing big
> decisions - work, marriage, family - to explore their identies and
> figure out what they want in life. My first thought upon reading it was
> that the reason young adults need this time for self-reflection is
> because they haven't had the time/opportunity for it during their school
> years and even through college, but I'm thinking I may be wrong to
> assume it's exclusive to schooled kids. So, the reason I bring the
> article here for discussion is because I'm curious if this seems to be
> true as a general rule for some unschoolers as well.
>
> One quote from a 23-year-old caught my attention... "It's
> somewhat terrifying," writes a 25-year-old named Jennifer, "to
> think about all the things I'm supposed to be doing in order to
> `get somewhere' successful: `Follow your passions, live your
> dreams, take risks, network with the right people, find mentors, be
> financially responsible, volunteer, work, think about or go to grad
> school, fall in love and maintain personal well-being, mental health and
> nutrition.' When is there time to just be and enjoy?"
>
> I don't think unschoolers get this pressure from their parents, but I
> doubt they are immune to it from society, so I am curious if there are
> any differences and/or simarities between schooled and unschooled young
> adults.
>
> Tanya
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>


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

Sandra Dodd

-=-> I don't think unschoolers get this pressure from their parents,
but I
> doubt they are immune to it from society, so I am curious if there
are
> any differences and/or simarities between schooled and unschooled
young
> adults.-=-

This is just too big a question. :-)

There is no one on earth who could answer it, even if it seemed smaller.
You can get perceptions and reports, but not "the answer."

Sandra

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

Sandra Dodd

-=-One quote from a 23-year-old caught my attention... "It's
somewhat terrifying," writes a 25-year-old named Jennifer, "to
think about all the things I'm supposed to be doing in order to
`get somewhere' successful: `Follow your passions, live your
dreams, take risks, network with the right people, find mentors, be
financially responsible, volunteer, work, think about or go to grad
school, fall in love and maintain personal well-being, mental health and
nutrition.' When is there time to just be and enjoy?"-=-

With unschooling, the ideas is that all of life is time to be and to
enjoy. That has made a difference in our family's life in lots of
ways, documented in a couple of books and here:
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling
:-)

Sandra

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

plaidpanties666

"tanyaziegler" <tanyaz1@...> wrote:
>to explore their identies and
> figure out what they want in life. My first thought upon reading it was
> that the reason young adults need this time for self-reflection is
> because they haven't had the time/opportunity for it during their school
> years and even through college

Some of that is probably true, but there's more than one thing going on. Late teens and early twenties tends to be a time when people have big ideas, strong attitudes, and a lot of drive, and that's something that's true historically, too - lots of great inventions and discoveries by people in their teens and eary twenties, lots of intense philosophical and religious revelations, too.

But its also true that unschoolers have more time and support to pursue what they want. If they need to spend a lot of time thinking, or going to political events, even if they need to stay home past (gasp) the magic age of 18 to have time to devote to their own needs.

>>"It's
> somewhat terrifying," writes a 25-year-old named Jennifer, "to
> think about all the things I'm supposed to be doing in order to
> `get somewhere' successful

Ray doesn't have to live up to much in the way of "success" in the traditional sense, and he's seen me and George both change careers and figure out our lives all over again. He tends to socialize with people with quirky, out-of-the-box lifestyles. He's certainly not facing the pressure I or George did at the same age, to figure out what we wanted to do either in terms of college or, in George's case, work.

---Meredith (Mo 9, Ray 16)