Sandra Dodd

-=-You have restored (somewhat) my faith in Humanity.

( or at least in you...)-=-

Interesting idea, "Faith in Humanity."
Disappointment in all of humanity is as bad as "faith" in all of
humanity.

I never thought of it before. Thanks for the new thought you didn't
mean to plant!

==================================================================

Oh sheesh...

Today for the second time I've read e-mail from a male-person who
found my site looking for something or other and wrote to complain
(one was only half complaining, one was QUITE a-rant).

I had already written something up about the first e-mail and it's here:
http://aboutunschooling.blogspot.com
That's a blog I hadn't told anyone about because I hadn't had time to
think of what I wanted to say about it, but basically it's intended
as a place to put things that are off topic or too deep or too odd
for this list or UnschoolingDiscussion. It's not about how
unschooling works, but about those odd issues that come up in and
around the discussions of unschooling. It's for the hard stuff that
many people think is worthless and not worth discussing. It's for
the stuff most people don't get or don't have time or energy to
wonder about anyway.

But anyway, after I wrote and posted that, I got this other e-mail.
The topic of the other e-mail is my Dumbledore page. That one was
announced at unschoolinginfo.com/forum, way back. Harry Potter
speculation. Don't go read it. But someone came across it and was
furious that I had said something right near the top that spoiled the
book for him. I think that because the book had been out for six
months or more that was his problem, but still I felt bad. I like to
be surprised by the endings of movies others have seen already.

So I added a long silly intro to the page
http://sandradodd.com/dumbledore
and if you want to look at the intro, just don't read any more of it.
If you do read more of it, don't complain to me.

But for doing that, which I did months back (this guy doesn't check
his e-mail much!), I restored someone's faith in humanity.

"Faith in humanity" is one of those idiomatic expressions people use
without dissection. I know perfectly well what "You've restored my
faith in humanity" means, and how it's used and what it's intended to
mean, but not until today did I see it for what it REALLY means.

All of "faith" hinged on me. My action (putting up silly photos and
spur-of-the-moment words) changed someone's faith in humanity (so
someone said). I guess before I changed that webpage, faith in
humanity had been lost. Gone. No faith in humanity.

That's crazy!

First, no one should have "faith" in humanity. In what, ALL OF
THEM? ALL humans are worthy of faith? Faith in what way--trust?
Support? Acceptance? Humanity robs banks and kills people.
Humanity abuses children and steals stereos out of cars.

And we're not a team. And if we WERE a team, neither democracy nor
consensus would cause us all to agree and act as a single unit
without renegades or detractors.

So where SHOULD faith be?

I think now (as of about fifteen minutes ago) that faith is what some
people come to unschooling discussions to find. They want to find
some people in whom they can "put their faith." They have some faith
and the urge to "put it," and they look at unschoolers.

IF they have faith, then they will... what?
Trust what EVERY unschooler says?

And when one unschooler says something unreliable or off, then the
person's faith is broken? Dead? Betrayed? Lost?

So I'll move this to that "About Unschooling" blog too.

And while I'm announcing one blog, I'll remind people of (or
announce) another:
unschooling.blogspot.com
It's for announcements of publication of news, articles or research
regarding unschooling or homeschooling. I wasn't the originator of
that one, but have power-to-post now (along with Laura Derrick, Joyce
Fetteroll and Pam Sorooshian).



Sandra