Deschooling how and why

HSC presentation by Sandra Dodd
on Sunday, August 5, 2012

The main note I wanted to leave for people was an apology for not clarifying that I was talking about deschooling for and inside the parents, rather than in the kids. This might have left confusion in brand-new-to-homeschooling parents.

For a family whose children weren't in school, the deschooling will be all the parents' work.
For a family planning to use a curriculum, deschooling isn't required. Their schoolishness will carry them through as they do "school at home." For a family whose children were in school, and now the family wants to unschool, deschooling for the child is "doing nothing" for at least one month per years of school. Meanwhile, the parent, who was in school from 12 to 20 years (more if one taught after college) needs to be deschooling so that when the child is recovered, the parent's schoolishness doesn't drag him back into the fears and prejudices and beliefs that keep unschooling from working.

The blog Just Add Light and Stir is named after a phrase from something I wrote about deschooling. If you aren't already subscribed to that, please at least read the post linked in this paragraph, and consider it.

My collection of deschooling articles is here: Deschooling, and I've included several people's take on it. Below my notes are some links that the notes made me think of, in case you'd like to read more.

Below is the dump of my notes, with links added. I don't "write a speech" and read it. I make an outline with a few quotes and speak. There isn't a recording of this talk, so the notes won't be worth as much as if you could read along. Sorry.

Friday 2pm - Deschooling: How and Why 2-3:30
(longer than usual; take questions)
Always Learning
Always Learning Live unschooling symposium, late December, Albuquerque

Pam Laricchia's book Free to Learn, and business cards

Truth and belief
Basing life choices on those beliefs

What do you **KNOW** ?
How much of what you have "known" in your life dissolved later?

Time (trees/landmarks/geography/buildings/roads)
Science
       Platypus
      which way to brush teeth
      which part of a hamburger is good for you, and which is AWFUL
             (ditto, pizza)
      Tanganyika and Zanzibar
             Tanganyika was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964.
Grammar changes, because English is alive and flourishing
Punctuation
      Commas
Politics
      Japanese are bad, suicidal killers
      Germans are horrible people
             Amsterdam, tourguide at Westerkerk

For anyone who liked these talks and would like to hear more, ~~come to Albuquerque in December 2012: Always Learning Live Unschooling Symposium, December 27-30, 2012~~
Rose Sorooshian, Joyce Fetteroll, Pam Sorooshian, Jill and Luke Parmer and me! ALL three of my kids will be there: Kirby, Marty and Holly, and will be on a panel, and hanging out. Feel free to come and meet them and ask them nosy questions. :-)
SCHOOL HAS CHANGED.
my grandparents, 1905, 1910, 1915
Me, 1959 to 1971

Deschooling to find fresh footing

Learning about learning

Deschooling as healing
(to grow up undamaged)

This makes me think of...

Just Add Light and Stir

Choices in Parenting, Unschooling and the rest of Life
Beliefs, and unschooling
Learning things that Don't Stay True
When Parents Have Issues
Dads, unschooling, issues
"Mindful Parenting" - Ren Allen with Sandra Dodd

Part of this talk was moved, with expansion and comments, to Learning things that Don't Stay True (SandraDodd.com/error).