media study on unschoolers
Sandra Dodd
I know some of thesepeople, but most I don't. Joyce Fetteroll's
there. I know Pat Farenga. I've met Grace Llewellyn but don't know
her. David Freidman, who's in the same section I am, I know from the
SCA (as Duke Cariadoc, and he knows me as Countess AElflaed, but we
had some years of correspondence on paper and by e-mail too, before
he had any children). Others might be people I only know by online
code names or e-mails.
But this is from the thank-you section of someone's master's thesis.
People who like that sort of thing might want to take a look. She's
considering expanding into a book.
All the Informants: Eva Kendrick; Pat Farenga; Carsie Blanton; Rob &
Lizette Greco;
Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko & Randy Kay; Sage, Garrett, Bella, & Emily
Adderley; Matt Hern,
Selena, Sadie, Daisy Couture, Ashley Doman, & The Purple Thistle
punks; Susannah
Sheffer & Aaron Falbel; Sue, Marc, Eli & their Jamaica Plain coop;
Mary, Mike, Peter, &
Richard X; Sandra, Kirby, Marty, & Holly Dodd; Ken Danford, Vlad
Blanton,
Sphennings Stephens, & North Star; Jason Marsh; Clayton & Vernon
Dewey, Danilo X;
David Friedman & his family; Denise Perri; Derek Davis; Dan Roy & his
mom; Gabrielle
Anderson; Heather Cushman-Dowdee & her family; Jeremy Merritt & his
family; Jon
Shemitz; Joyce & Kathryn Fetteroll; Katie Shuflin-Febuary & Evyn;
Katrina Cornell;
Loretta Heuer; Nika & Ed Boyce; Roland Legiardi-Laura; Tiara Shafiq;
Doug Healy;
Billy Upski Wimsatt; & Grace Llewellyn.
Unschooling Media:
Participatory Practices among Progressive Homeschoolers
By
Vanessa Bertozzi
Master�s of Science Thesis in Comparative Media Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 12, 2006
This took a while to load on my computer:
http://www.vanessabertozzi.com/unschooling_media.pdf
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
there. I know Pat Farenga. I've met Grace Llewellyn but don't know
her. David Freidman, who's in the same section I am, I know from the
SCA (as Duke Cariadoc, and he knows me as Countess AElflaed, but we
had some years of correspondence on paper and by e-mail too, before
he had any children). Others might be people I only know by online
code names or e-mails.
But this is from the thank-you section of someone's master's thesis.
People who like that sort of thing might want to take a look. She's
considering expanding into a book.
All the Informants: Eva Kendrick; Pat Farenga; Carsie Blanton; Rob &
Lizette Greco;
Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko & Randy Kay; Sage, Garrett, Bella, & Emily
Adderley; Matt Hern,
Selena, Sadie, Daisy Couture, Ashley Doman, & The Purple Thistle
punks; Susannah
Sheffer & Aaron Falbel; Sue, Marc, Eli & their Jamaica Plain coop;
Mary, Mike, Peter, &
Richard X; Sandra, Kirby, Marty, & Holly Dodd; Ken Danford, Vlad
Blanton,
Sphennings Stephens, & North Star; Jason Marsh; Clayton & Vernon
Dewey, Danilo X;
David Friedman & his family; Denise Perri; Derek Davis; Dan Roy & his
mom; Gabrielle
Anderson; Heather Cushman-Dowdee & her family; Jeremy Merritt & his
family; Jon
Shemitz; Joyce & Kathryn Fetteroll; Katie Shuflin-Febuary & Evyn;
Katrina Cornell;
Loretta Heuer; Nika & Ed Boyce; Roland Legiardi-Laura; Tiara Shafiq;
Doug Healy;
Billy Upski Wimsatt; & Grace Llewellyn.
Unschooling Media:
Participatory Practices among Progressive Homeschoolers
By
Vanessa Bertozzi
Master�s of Science Thesis in Comparative Media Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 12, 2006
This took a while to load on my computer:
http://www.vanessabertozzi.com/unschooling_media.pdf
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
I'm slogging through the thing I mentioned the other day. There are
some really interesting parts, and some frustrating bits. First,
it's written in that language used only in college text books and
scholarly "studies." It's not regular English. It's a language I
used and read when I was in college, but was glad to leave behind for
real English.
But what's more interesting to me is that although the researcher did
"get unschooling" better than many people who come to it as a
reporter or a researcher, the things she didn't get are telling too.
Because she worked hard to try to understand, it's interesting to see
what is so hard to grasp.
I can't cut and paste from it because it's a PDF, but I want to
transcribe a bit of it. Page 74, in the first of five studies, about
a boy who started liking opera when he was six, and goes to yard
sales and asks for opera records. He's 11 and his brother's seven,
in this part of the account. First the research quotes the mom and
then comments.
" ' The operas [Peter] chose [to rent on DVD] were the ones he
thought would also appeal to our younger son, Richard,' Mary
remarked. Clearly, Peter hopes to cultivate another opera fan in the
household, another person to share his interest and enthusiasm.
Peter also attempts to initiate his younger brother into the practice
of becoming an opera fan. Mary's family engages in the social
practice of learning.
"The way unschoolers access media resources and people underscores
the importance they place on authenticity. When unschoolers re-
conceptualize the world around them, they see an abundance of real-
life resources. ..."
So although she's kinda getting it, and doing her best to help the
academics who will read her paper get it, it amounts to stilted
nonsense on another level.
I know from these sorts of things with my own family that it doesn't
need to even begin to be about "cultivating" or "initiating." It's
about saying "Listen! This is cool!" and if the person says "wow"
that's great and if they say "Not now," or "I don't like it," that's
great too. Within the analytical construct (see? Those phrases
beget more of themselves, damn it) above, if Richard doesn't like
opera, then Peter has failed to cultivate; he has suffered
initiation failure which would seem to show a faulty cultivation
methodology. It's just too much structure. It's a false structure
over a lack of structure. <g>
And "the practice of becoming an opera fan" jars in the light of
unschooling too. There was a REAL becoming there, not a plan of
action after which (if one's practice proved sound) one would be a
certifiable or completed opera fan. And the family is NOT "engaging
in the social practice of learning." That scaffolding can be
removed. Mary's family learns for fun.
Given all that, the fact that the next paragraph talks about
"authenticity" is kinda cute! "When unschoolers re-conceptualize
the world..." WHOA! Those of us who were interviewed failed in
our attempt to initiate this researcher into the practice of becoming
someone who understands unschooling. If anyone has "re-
conceptualized the world," it's academia, which defines things in
terms of what helps with school success, and comes up with words like
"extracurricular" and "co-ed" and "screentime" and "chapter book" and
uses them outside the bounds of school as though they still make sense.
I'm glad the project was done, and I'm really glad to be able to read
it, but I'm sorry that the semester ended and so it was written up to
match the calendar, regardless of whether the work of understanding
it well enough to analyze it was really finished. The end-of-session
bell rang. Summer vacation. No more learning.
Sandra
================================In case anyone's
interested...===================
Unschooling Media:
Participatory Practices among Progressive Homeschoolers
By
Vanessa Bertozzi
Master’s of Science Thesis in Comparative Media Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 12, 2006
This took a while to load on my computer:
http://www.vanessabertozzi.com/unschooling_media.pdf
some really interesting parts, and some frustrating bits. First,
it's written in that language used only in college text books and
scholarly "studies." It's not regular English. It's a language I
used and read when I was in college, but was glad to leave behind for
real English.
But what's more interesting to me is that although the researcher did
"get unschooling" better than many people who come to it as a
reporter or a researcher, the things she didn't get are telling too.
Because she worked hard to try to understand, it's interesting to see
what is so hard to grasp.
I can't cut and paste from it because it's a PDF, but I want to
transcribe a bit of it. Page 74, in the first of five studies, about
a boy who started liking opera when he was six, and goes to yard
sales and asks for opera records. He's 11 and his brother's seven,
in this part of the account. First the research quotes the mom and
then comments.
" ' The operas [Peter] chose [to rent on DVD] were the ones he
thought would also appeal to our younger son, Richard,' Mary
remarked. Clearly, Peter hopes to cultivate another opera fan in the
household, another person to share his interest and enthusiasm.
Peter also attempts to initiate his younger brother into the practice
of becoming an opera fan. Mary's family engages in the social
practice of learning.
"The way unschoolers access media resources and people underscores
the importance they place on authenticity. When unschoolers re-
conceptualize the world around them, they see an abundance of real-
life resources. ..."
So although she's kinda getting it, and doing her best to help the
academics who will read her paper get it, it amounts to stilted
nonsense on another level.
I know from these sorts of things with my own family that it doesn't
need to even begin to be about "cultivating" or "initiating." It's
about saying "Listen! This is cool!" and if the person says "wow"
that's great and if they say "Not now," or "I don't like it," that's
great too. Within the analytical construct (see? Those phrases
beget more of themselves, damn it) above, if Richard doesn't like
opera, then Peter has failed to cultivate; he has suffered
initiation failure which would seem to show a faulty cultivation
methodology. It's just too much structure. It's a false structure
over a lack of structure. <g>
And "the practice of becoming an opera fan" jars in the light of
unschooling too. There was a REAL becoming there, not a plan of
action after which (if one's practice proved sound) one would be a
certifiable or completed opera fan. And the family is NOT "engaging
in the social practice of learning." That scaffolding can be
removed. Mary's family learns for fun.
Given all that, the fact that the next paragraph talks about
"authenticity" is kinda cute! "When unschoolers re-conceptualize
the world..." WHOA! Those of us who were interviewed failed in
our attempt to initiate this researcher into the practice of becoming
someone who understands unschooling. If anyone has "re-
conceptualized the world," it's academia, which defines things in
terms of what helps with school success, and comes up with words like
"extracurricular" and "co-ed" and "screentime" and "chapter book" and
uses them outside the bounds of school as though they still make sense.
I'm glad the project was done, and I'm really glad to be able to read
it, but I'm sorry that the semester ended and so it was written up to
match the calendar, regardless of whether the work of understanding
it well enough to analyze it was really finished. The end-of-session
bell rang. Summer vacation. No more learning.
Sandra
================================In case anyone's
interested...===================
Unschooling Media:
Participatory Practices among Progressive Homeschoolers
By
Vanessa Bertozzi
Master’s of Science Thesis in Comparative Media Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 12, 2006
This took a while to load on my computer:
http://www.vanessabertozzi.com/unschooling_media.pdf
Sandra Dodd
-=-In an IM interview with Kirby, an unschooling teen in New Mexico, he
spoke about the real-time strategy that gets honed as he takes part
in the SCA and
MMPORGs. "In a fast paced game, the main reason people will play is
for the quick
thinking it requires and the rush of the game."164 Going in-character
while
simultaneously remaining aware of meta-level strategy work to make
improvisation a
practice that at once sharpens skills of the individual-in-play-with-
the-group.
-=-
Before any of you point out to me that it is possible to lift text
from a PDF, Keith has shown me. Good!
I'm glad he came home early and asked what I was doing. <g>
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
spoke about the real-time strategy that gets honed as he takes part
in the SCA and
MMPORGs. "In a fast paced game, the main reason people will play is
for the quick
thinking it requires and the rush of the game."164 Going in-character
while
simultaneously remaining aware of meta-level strategy work to make
improvisation a
practice that at once sharpens skills of the individual-in-play-with-
the-group.
-=-
Before any of you point out to me that it is possible to lift text
from a PDF, Keith has shown me. Good!
I'm glad he came home early and asked what I was doing. <g>
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]