Living by Principles

Rules vs. Principles

Ben Lovejoy's transformed and transforming thoughts on principles

What wanting rules looks like

Rules and Principles and Math

Logic and Parenting, by Joyce Fetteroll

How to Raise a Respected Child, by Sandra Dodd, concerning respecting children and giving them choices, and some unexpected results. Principles of Unschooling, by Pam Sorooshian
(Not the only possible list, but a pretty cool list.)

A mom newer to unschooling asked how she should communicate principles to her children. I responded, "You don't communicate the principles to a child. You make your own decisions based on those."

There was a bit of confusion, and Joyce Fetteroll clarified:

Don't try to teach principles. Use them as tools. Use them as tools to help you make the choices that turn you in the direction you want to go. Use them as tools to help your kids meet their needs.

That is, if one of the principles you value is kindness, you be kind. Insert yourself when the atmosphere in the home is not kind. (Even better is to be there to redirect to keep it from devolving to unkindness) Help them explore solutions that are in keeping with your principles.

I hadn't thought of this before but principles are like language. You don't teach your kids how to speak. Language is a tool that you use to communicate. So you speak to kids. And as a side effect, they pick up language. But to learn language, they need to be immersed in it. Language needs to be something they find useful for their own needs. Otherwise, why would they use it?

Joyce
(Always Learning list, September 2011, here)

Maya wrote something wonderful on the Family Radical Unschoolers Network forum:
Reply by Maya on September 23, 2008 at 1:23pm

Early in this thread Sandra said:

"What might help with the decision is to decide what your principles and priorities are."

When I read that, I had the (incredibly obvious, I guess, but still) thought that ANY time, around any issue, not just tv, that those guilty-strange-controlling-squeamish thoughts and feelings come up about something my kid wants to do, this would be good advice to follow. To find the principle I want to live from—not to impose it in some way, on them, but to live from it myself—grounds the charge of my murky fears right out, and guides me in my actions. If I'm really going to be a kind, joyful, generous person who values freedom and choice, then I'm really not going to control tv or sugar or sleep or whatever because that wouldn't be kind, or freedom-creating, or joyful, or generous. Full stop. Living from principles, rather than fears, is the easiest way to grok unschooling, as far as I can tell. (But maybe it isn't easy, because it took me a long time to figure that out for myself, haha. I was all, 'what is all this rules vs. principles stuff anyway?' Now, in my unschooling, it seems like the most important part.)

The issue isn't tv. The issue is whether you really value freedom and want that for your kids. If you do, then it doesn't matter the thing, tv, sugar, sleep, video games, yada yada—if you want them to be free, you're going to help them do what they freely choose.

Jenny Cyphers wrote:

One of the kids that live near us, said rather astonished, "you don't have any rules do you?" I looked at him and said, "yes we do, they are, play nicely and behave kindly." He didn't think those were rules, and they aren't really, but that's where it all seems to come down to. A rule of no hitting, could be summed up nicley with "be nice," because clearly hitting isn't nice. Being nice covers it all.

A kid could easily not break the rule of "no hitting" by pinching or kicking, and completely get away with it, and feel pretty darn good about getting away with being mean without getting in trouble. If the idea is to "be nice," pinching or kicking won't work.

Principles How to Unschool Peace for Unschoolers