Sandra Dodd

This is from an e-mail exchange and is brought here not to discuss
France; let's don't do that.
This is not about France. It's about Iowa or Massachusetts or New
York or France or California, or anyplace where reports or
inspections might conceivably be required.

First, I want to say that it's important to be in contact with people
from your own area. Don't depend on a list like this, that's
intended to discuss how learning works in pure forms, to give you
local legal information. It's not the purpose of this list.

And as to local laws, those who have unschooled IN YOUR AREA are the
ones to ask about how they've worded letters of intent (if necessary)
and summary reports. Ask them.

But below is something I wrote this morning that I think might be
helpful to someone. Partly I know this from thinking about it for
years. Partly I know it because of having been a teacher, and
knowing that in a creative situation, sometimes the most important
lesson doesnt look like a lesson at all. Partly I know this because
of reading and studying the methods called "The Open Classroom," and
having been around through several waves of "teach them the basics"
and "teach them to think." Unschooling is a "teach them to think"
method. People like to say "It's not a method," but in a
sophisicated way, it most definitely is.

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So the first part is "anonymous" for this purpose. Leave it that way.
The second part is me/Sandra.
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-=-The radical unschooling in France isn't positive at all. It's
illegal. And
even if some people would like to let their children free for the
learning,
I don't know any who don't limit a thing or another. I talk about this
unschooling, not only the scholar things.-=-

It's illegal here too, in many states *IF* one were to describe it to
the state as it's described on lists, the most ideally free life.
The reason a family can do it is because the mom needs to understand
the learning that is happening. Sometimes the mom records things that
were learned but doesn't show those charts to the children.
Sometimes the mom gets math games or videos or they play with money,
or she gets computer games about math if she's worried that the child
hasn't "done any math." But there ARE ways to enrich a child's
life and call it lessons on a report to the government without
letting the child know, and without pressuring him to finish, and
without testing him. Each family needs to figure out how to make it
work for that family in that jurisdiction, and sometimes the answer
is that it cannot be made to work in its ideal form.

Sandra