three teens, addicted to nothing whatsoever
[email protected]
In a message dated 2/18/2005 12:46:16 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,
jimpetersonl@... writes:
I'm addicted to using my 1948 Cat 12 road grader. I love driving it.
I love tinkering with it. I even love the sound of the pony engine
over the main engine.
=============
Love doesn't equal addiction.
-=-For that matter--how many of the 1,600-odd people here consider
themselves to be unschoolers even though they haven't bought road
graders for their children?-=-
The things we do have, our children are free to use, examine, drive (once
they're old enough to drive, that's fine and even before they were old enough
we'd take the easiest van out late at night in empty parking lots and let them
drive if they wanted to), read, play with, see.
-=-I think the argument that not having something is incompatible with
unschooling is flawed.-=-
Not having trust in children's abilities to learn is incompatible with
unschooling.
There are some things that can really put a damper on unschooling success:
Negativity. Depression. Cynicism.
-=-If I get rid of my road grader (my neighbors are interested), will I
be making the choice for my children to not be able to have the road
grader?
-=-
We have six automobiles. One we inherited from an elderly neighbor; it
doesn't run. One can only be driven by Keith. We could sell one and still have
automobiles. We could sell all and ride the bus, I suppose, but that's hard
to do in New Mexico. Each of our driving teens has a regular car to use, but
he doesn't own it. They use mine sometimes; Kirby did tonight, so he could
include his sister in a little outing (with her it was five kids, and the
other car only carried four). We're really flexible about who drives what.
I have thousands of books. I have given away and sold and traded and
acquired books throughout the years. My store of books isn't all the books in the
world. My kids have books of their own, and we share back and forth. I
think any unschooler who gets rid of a book or even hundreds isn't compromising
unschooling. I would think an unschooler who got rid of ALL her books, or
refused to allow a child to read books, or characterized book reading in
negative and belittling ways might be displaying some questionable logic.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
jimpetersonl@... writes:
I'm addicted to using my 1948 Cat 12 road grader. I love driving it.
I love tinkering with it. I even love the sound of the pony engine
over the main engine.
=============
Love doesn't equal addiction.
-=-For that matter--how many of the 1,600-odd people here consider
themselves to be unschoolers even though they haven't bought road
graders for their children?-=-
The things we do have, our children are free to use, examine, drive (once
they're old enough to drive, that's fine and even before they were old enough
we'd take the easiest van out late at night in empty parking lots and let them
drive if they wanted to), read, play with, see.
-=-I think the argument that not having something is incompatible with
unschooling is flawed.-=-
Not having trust in children's abilities to learn is incompatible with
unschooling.
There are some things that can really put a damper on unschooling success:
Negativity. Depression. Cynicism.
-=-If I get rid of my road grader (my neighbors are interested), will I
be making the choice for my children to not be able to have the road
grader?
-=-
We have six automobiles. One we inherited from an elderly neighbor; it
doesn't run. One can only be driven by Keith. We could sell one and still have
automobiles. We could sell all and ride the bus, I suppose, but that's hard
to do in New Mexico. Each of our driving teens has a regular car to use, but
he doesn't own it. They use mine sometimes; Kirby did tonight, so he could
include his sister in a little outing (with her it was five kids, and the
other car only carried four). We're really flexible about who drives what.
I have thousands of books. I have given away and sold and traded and
acquired books throughout the years. My store of books isn't all the books in the
world. My kids have books of their own, and we share back and forth. I
think any unschooler who gets rid of a book or even hundreds isn't compromising
unschooling. I would think an unschooler who got rid of ALL her books, or
refused to allow a child to read books, or characterized book reading in
negative and belittling ways might be displaying some questionable logic.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]