People don't need to be so negative and afraid. The world is made darker and scarier by people creating darkness and scariness where it doesn't need to be.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you actually just post your daughter's driver's license on the internet, complete with driver's license number, full name, address, signature, and date of birth? Ever heard of identity theft??

8:06 PM Sandra Dodd said...

Do you think someone wants to steal that signature? Do you think someone will want to pretend to be a 15 year old with a provisional license? If you put a phone number into google you can pretty much get addresses and maps to houses. There's a map to my house on my site, and I've never gotten so much as toilet paper in the tree or flaming dog poo. My name, phone number and address have been in phone books my whole life.

We had to take her birth certificate and social security card to get that license. If someone who works at DMV wants to pretend to be her they have all the stuff. She doesn't have a charge card, so it won't be worth much.

Did you actually just read a happy blog post and think the absolutely most cynical and negative things and post them?? Ever hear of pessimism?

Holly signed up to be an organ donor. She's a really nice person. Don't pretend to be her, but being more LIKE her might make your life better.

10:25 PM Anonymous said...

Perhaps I should have reworded it a different way, as I did not intend to offend nor insinuate that I might be an identity thief. Congratulations on your daughter getting her license. I'm just saying that perhaps some caution should be exercised in sharing one's personal information (or one's child's personal information) on the internet. Even if nothing bad has happened from all of the other personal information you have posted. Just a thought.

7:24 AM Sandra Dodd said...

Yes, you probably should've worded it in a way that didn't imply I'd never thought about it. But those who wear internet disguises write lots of things they don't need to be ashamed of, with an "anonymous" sack on their heads.

Those using their names are often more careful and thoughtful and responsible.

If I didn't post personal information (such as using my real name and town and photo instead of being "anonymous") there would be fewer happy children, because nobody's going to gain confidence in unschooling (or much of anything else) because "anonymous" claims to have some children who are not in school and doing well, but she's not going to tell you their names or ages or where they live.

The boogeyman of "don't use your real name" usually has to do with fear of strangers. Lots of my best friends were internet correspondents who went to conferences where we met (or came to my house, or I went to theirs). My kids have real life friends they would never have met had it not been that many unschoolers are willing to share their real lives with one another on the internet.

Here's a page of unschoolers discussing online safety: sandradodd.com/onlinesafety

It took me aback a little, too, but honestly, I don't think "identity theft" is as big of a deal as people make it out to be. We always throw away our credit card junk mail offers without shredding them (might rip them in a few pieces, but that's it). And, nothing has happened to us. Personally, I think they overblow it so they can get you to spend more money on "protection" for your accounts. I wouldn't post my driver's license online, however, I don't think much if anything can happen to Holly. Who's going to go to the trouble to drive to New Mexico to do something anyway?

9:55 AM unschoolingforfun said...

My husband and I were talking along a similar line last night. A woman I don't know bought some used books from me at a moms' gathering recently. She didn't have any money with her so I said she could just mail it to me and I gave her my address. It wasn't very much money, $7.00, but she sent the check and a note of thanks for trusting her.

Anyway, all of the negative energy it takes to always be suspicious and distrustful just isn't worth it! I would rather go through life being positive and nice. If I get burned a couple of times, so be it. Just think how much nicer the world could be if everyone trusted a little more.

Contgratulations to Holly.

11:43 AM Anonymous said...

I think itis justcommon sense to not put your daughter's driver licence on the internet!

Anonymous said...

WHY aRE YOU IRRITATED, IF YOU ARE HAPPY WITH YOUR LIFE THOSE NEGATIVE COMMW\ENTS SHOULD JUST FLY BY YOUR FACE AND NOT UPSET YOU!