Sandra Dodd

the history and cause of restrictions concerning servants and lower
classes...

Another aspect of social history I want to touch on just a little bit.

From times and places where it was illegal to help a slave learn to
read to schedules in English stately homes that required servants to
be up very late AND up very early (no eight hours of sleep for them,
ever), there are common themes.

WHY should some people be limited to a place and to a subset of
information?
So they won't get ideas.

So if you don't want your kids to get ideas, keep them away from TV
and books and movies and people you haven't hand picked.

Personally, I have always wanted my kids to get ideas.

I don't care if they know more than I know, or if the things they
learn cause them to reject things I believe.

I want them to be rich with knowledge and images and thoughts and
contact people and opportunities. I want their world to be BIGGER,
not smaller.

Some people homeschool to protect their kids from ideas and people.
Some people think school tells kids too much.

I don't think those people can be (nor would want to be) successful
unschoolers.

I think school tells people way, WAY, too little and far, FAR too
lamely. I want my kids to know what the teachers missed knowing, and
not limit themselves to a 180 day curriculum (okay, really more like
160, honestly) based on what would fit easily into 45 minute sessions
and break into units and test easily. Things that teachers can use
to "prove" kids are learning (so nothing too esoteric or open-ended).

And I absolutely do NOT want a school categorizing my kids as servant-
class, blue-collar-class, teach-a-trade, forget literature and music...

Because the prejudice that some people just don't need to know much
exists still.

Sandra




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Schuyler

Not at all about the history and cause of restrictions, but
definitely about wanting Simon and Linnaea to have ideas.

Linnaea and I are reading Ramona the Pest right now and we are spending at
least as much time discussing the problems we have with the book as we are
reading it. It is kind of interesting. Today, as we walkied through the
harvested and hayed barley field I was talking about how Ramona's
relationship with adults is all about her trying to be big and expansive and
loved and seen in positive light, and their response to her is all about
making her small and manageable and never really looking or listening for
long enough to see how much she wants to be loved. To which Linnaea replied
that she is huge and powerful in her life. And I talked about how important
that was to David and I. Realizing, once again, how easy it is to limit, to
control, but how much more fantastic it is to listen to her shout out about
her power.

So, not about history, but about embiggening a life.

Schuyler
www.waynforth.blogspot.com

> Personally, I have always wanted my kids to get ideas.
>

jenstarc4

It is kind of interesting. Today, as we walkied through the
> harvested and hayed barley field I was talking about how Ramona's
> relationship with adults is all about her trying to be big and
expansive and
> loved and seen in positive light, and their response to her is all
about
> making her small and manageable and never really looking or listening
for
> long enough to see how much she wants to be loved.

We had the same kind of discussions when reading most Beverly Cleary
books. The main thing that kept us interested in the books was the
fact that we lived right next to the playground pictured here, for a
lot of years: http://www.beverlycleary.com/adventures/map.html

It put it into a picturesque context for Chamille, and historical as
well since the neighborhood was very different in many ways as how it's
described in the books.

jenstarc4

>
> I think school tells people way, WAY, too little and far, FAR too
> lamely. I want my kids to know what the teachers missed knowing,
and
> not limit themselves to a 180 day curriculum (okay, really more
like
> 160, honestly) based on what would fit easily into 45 minute
sessions
> and break into units and test easily. Things that teachers can
use
> to "prove" kids are learning (so nothing too esoteric or open-
ended).

Absolutely! Then, what kids really miss, is that opportunity to
connect things in their own way that makes it meaningful and
relevant. Connections happen, but it's limited and restricted.
Unschooling lets those connections reach into farther and farther
places leading kids into extraordinary paths. That's what I see my
own kids doing that schooled kids don't.

>
> And I absolutely do NOT want a school categorizing my kids as
servant-
> class, blue-collar-class, teach-a-trade, forget literature and
music...
>
> Because the prejudice that some people just don't need to know
much
> exists still.
>
> Sandra
>

I remember doing aptitude tests and skill tests that were supposed to
tell you what you were good at and what careers to consider. I
believe that we did those tests in the beginning of middle school to
help guide you toward which sorts of extracurricular activities to
explore. I remember thinking what a small set of career choices
there were and that I'd like to have tried several of those career
choices rather than picking one or two.

Chamille is just a little older than I was when I had to take those
tests. I'm so glad that she gets to let her life unfold in front of
her without someone telling her what she needs to know and that she
should know which direction to go to get there, and worse, following
the direction that someone else has set for her to follow to get her
there.

School makes a very narrow path for kids to follow and tells those
kids that if they follow it, they will achieve their goals. I just
don't see that to be true at all in what actually happens.

All I wanted to do was art. That's it, well, maybe a few other
things, but mostly art. I could've spent my entire teen years doing
that in exclusion to almost everything else. However, the actual
amount of time that I spent doing art was so minimal it's laughable.
By the time I was done doing all the other required stuff, my time
was gone and art was rushed and hurried for some homework project or
another. Even now, I find it hard to break those confines, like
eating dessert last in a way.

In college, my degree program was eliminated a year before I was
supposed to graduate. I got my degree, but under special
circumstances because some of my required courses ceased to exist. I
was able to take anthropology as my science instead of biology and
human anatomy because I reworked my whole required classes. I could
understand why those were core requirements for my degree, but after
taking all the anthropology classes, I could see the benefit of that
too and could apply it to my field of study. Not a single person
with my degree that graduated at my university took those classes,
they all took the other ones. I was the last person to graduate with
my degree from that university.

The school had a set path to study, and after someone followed that
path, they were considered knowledgable enough to get a degree. I
find the whole concept a bit arbitrary. If DaVinci had tried to get
a degree in art, would he have come up with all of his inventions and
mathmatical concepts? I've thought about that a lot.

In life, what sets someone apart, is their unique abilities or
knowledge. If everyone gets cut the same, or molded the same, how
does that help create a better world?