Sandra Dodd

I know this list is pretty dormant, but maybe some of you feel like writing anyway!



There is a survey announced, the responses are wanted SOON, two weeks:

http://patfarenga.squarespace.com/pat-farengas-blog/2011/9/13/participate-in-dr-peter-grays-unschooling-research-survey.html
If that link breaks for being too long, go to
http://www.patfarenga.com/
September 13
The questions are listed below to help people decide if they would like to participate. Don't answer here. The format requested is to download a file in Word, to add the responses, and return it as a Word file. I've written to Dr. Gray to ask whether e-mail would work, but let's assume for now that it won't. I'll get back with you if I hear from him.

If you are willing to participate, Peter Gray has a huge audience with Psychology Today, and this would be VERY useful, I think. It's international and they won't connect names with the responses. If you're interested and you aren't able to download that word file for some reason, let me know and I can send it otherwise (or I might have heard from Peter Gray that I can disseminate it a different way).


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1. Have all of the members of your immediate family who are capable of understanding and responding to this question agreed, willingly, to your filling out this form and returning it to me? (If the answer is no, then please stop here and do not return the form.)



2 Please give your

full name (first and last, in that order):

email address:

state in which you reside (if not from the US, give nation):



3. What is your main employment? Does that employment generate income, and does it take place primarily at home or away from home? If you have a spouse or other domestic partner in your family who is also a parent or guardian to the children, please also answer these questions for that person.



4. How many children are in your family? For each child, please state name (you may omit name if you prefer), sex, and birth date; and, if the child was ever enrolled full time in a conventional or alternative school, please indicate the years (expressed either in terms of the child�s grade in school or the child�s age if it was an ungraded school) and duration of that enrollment. Please include adult children no longer living at home as well as children still at home.



5. Please describe briefly how your family defines unschooling. What if any responsibility do you, as parent(s), assume for the education of your children? [I am asking only for generalities here. I may ask for more details in a subsequent survey.]



6. Please describe the path by which your family came to the unschooling philosophy you now practice. In particular:

(a) Did any specific school experiences of one or more of your children play a role? If so, briefly describe those experiences.

(b) Did any particular author or authors play a role? If so, please name the author or authors and what most appealed to you about their writing.

(c) Did you try homeschooling before unschooling? If so, what led you from one to the other?



7. What, for your family, have been the biggest challenges or hurdles to surmount in unschooling?



8. What, for your family, have been the biggest benefits of unschooling?



Thank you very much for taking the time to fill out this questionnaire and email it to me. My hope is that your efforts will help to document, and make the world more aware of, the realities of unschooling.



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