[email protected]

Joan --
 
I read your question and then I read some of the responses.
 
I think you will find varying levels of tolerance for diversity in defining unschooling within the unschooling community and larger hsing community.
 
Some of us are less strict about how unschooling is defined, see it as a process, a growth, a meme to be evolved into perhaps. Some are pretty strict about how they define unschooling -- if you aren't all the way there yet, you aren't there.
 
There are probably a bunch of unschoolers who are just busy unschooling and not busy defining things. :)
 
I tend not to care how others define it if it doesn't impact me. And mostly it doesn't. I know I am a LOT more unschool-y than I was when I started hsing (gad, I was trying to follow the state standards!!). I know I have evolved in my thinking and how we operate as a family. I know hearing people talk who are extremely sure how things should work can occasionally be helpful -- if not something I want to have in my face all the time. I know there are folks who talk about an ideal sort of way to be in the world that they think of as unschooling. I'm not there -- but I still call myself an unschooler and think I am an unschooler.
 
For instance, some might not approve of my nudging the kids to remember various things they need to do for classes they are taking. Heck, they might not approve of the idea of classes. :) But I don't need their approval to know I am doing fine and the kids are doing fine in our personal, custom-made version of unschooling.
 
Now, the question was how tolerant are unschoolers of other unschoolers? Hmmm . . . sometimes not very. But sometimes we get it -- that not everyone does it the same way. So I guess we are diverse in our tolerance of diversity. :)
 
Nance
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 6/1/2004 11:51:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
I am still learning every day about what other folks who are unschooling are
doing, which I find fascinating.  My biggest question at the moment is how
much diversity - and tolerance for that diversity - is there among
unschooling families in terms of approach - at what point does someone
consider themselves "eclectic" rather than "unschooling"?

Cheers,

Joan

pam sorooshian

On Jun 2, 2004, at 5:23 AM, marbleface@... wrote:

>
> For instance, some might not approve of my nudging the kids to
> remember various things they need to do for classes they are taking.
> Heck, they might not approve of the idea of classes. :) But I don't
> need their approval to know I am doing fine and the kids are doing
> fine in our personal, custom-made version of unschooling.

I think asking "Is this unschooling" is interesting and often leads to
new insights.
However, I don't give a rat's patootie whether or not somebody else
thinks we're unschooling correctly or not <G>. Defining unschooling is
useful for discussion purposes - and sometimes for letting other
homeschoolers know that we won't be exchanging curriculum ideas with
them <G> - but the purpose of defining it is not to decide "who is" and
"who isn't."

I'm assuming Nance meant classes the kids want to take - not something
imposed on them. I'm thinking of the Japanese language class that my
daughter took when she was about 10, as an example. She was supposed to
memorize certain things during the week between classes.

I don't see nudging the kids to get their stuff done as a problem -
unless it IS a problem <G>.

Sorry - but that made sense to me when I thought it.

What I mean is - if it is a case of mom being better able to keep track
of what is coming up and what they were supposed to do and so on - then
it wouldn't be nice to hold out on the kids, not help them remember
what they need to do. And I'd include in that also making sure they had
time to do it and encouraging them to take the time to do it. Mom knows
if the kids will be sorry they didn't get to it.

On the other hand, if the kids don't WANT to do it - so its a problem
getting them to do it - then I'd say "making them" would be the
anti-thesis of unschooling.

-pam
National Home Education Network
<www.NHEN.org>
Serving the entire homeschooling community since 1999
through information, networking and public relations.

Joan Labbe & Salvatore Genovese

Thanks, Nance.  This speaks a lot to many of the things on my mind (as have the other responses, but differently) and it makes a lot of sense to me.  I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts... and thanks to all the other folks who described their approaches also.  I appreciate all of your willingness to put yourselves out here..
 
Joan
-----Original Message-----
From: marbleface@... [mailto:marbleface@...]
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 8:24 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] Tolerance of diversity

Joan --
 
I read your question and then I read some of the responses.
 
I think you will find varying levels of tolerance for diversity in defining unschooling within the unschooling community and larger hsing community.
 
Some of us are less strict about how unschooling is defined, see it as a process, a growth, a meme to be evolved into perhaps. Some are pretty strict about how they define unschooling -- if you aren't all the way there yet, you aren't there.
 
There are probably a bunch of unschoolers who are just busy unschooling and not busy defining things. :)
 
I tend not to care how others define it if it doesn't impact me. And mostly it doesn't. I know I am a LOT more unschool-y than I was when I started hsing (gad, I was trying to follow the state standards!!). I know I have evolved in my thinking and how we operate as a family. I know hearing people talk who are extremely sure how things should work can occasionally be helpful -- if not something I want to have in my face all the time. I know there are folks who talk about an ideal sort of way to be in the world that they think of as unschooling. I'm not there -- but I still call myself an unschooler and think I am an unschooler.
 
For instance, some might not approve of my nudging the kids to remember various things they need to do for classes they are taking. Heck, they might not approve of the idea of classes. :) But I don't need their approval to know I am doing fine and the kids are doing fine in our personal, custom-made version of unschooling.
 
Now, the question was how tolerant are unschoolers of other unschoolers? Hmmm . . . sometimes not very. But sometimes we get it -- that not everyone does it the same way. So I guess we are diverse in our tolerance of diversity. :)
 
Nance
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 6/1/2004 11:51:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
I am still learning every day about what other folks who are unschooling are
doing, which I find fascinating.  My biggest question at the moment is how
much diversity - and tolerance for that diversity - is there among
unschooling families in terms of approach - at what point does someone
consider themselves "eclectic" rather than "unschooling"?

Cheers,

Joan