conferences and what they are about
Jenny C
I've been perusing the rethinking education conference website and
I'm confused as to what it's actually about. It alludes to being
about unschooling but it includes all this other stuff.
"There is no need for arbitrary structure in education; the use of
coercion, rewards or other behavior modification techniques as
motivation are counterproductive. With freedom, respect and nurturing
support, children have a powerful drive to self-direct their own
learning; the result being children who direct their own education...
indeed, their own futures."
I pulled that quote from the home page of the website. It doesn't
really sound like unschooling to me. At least not what I've come to
understand unschooling to be.
I know the whole "what is unschooling?" question gets put into that
category of personal interpretation. I'm not really looking for an
answer to that either.
I think if I had encountered the above quote when I first started on
this path, it would have led me in a very different direction than
I've been on the last years. This idea of "self-directed"
and "directing their own education" seems very different from what
actually happens in our daily lives. It is a lot of schoolishness
added to the thinking process of really "getting" unschooling.
In real life, it is so much simpler than that. I guess that is what
it boils down to for me. Unschooling is simpler, not harder or more
difficult. There are challenges in parenting, that sort of comes
with the territory of parenting. Those challenges have been
minimized and made simpler with unschooling. Anything adversarial
creates tension, and tension to any situation makes it harder.
Creating adversary seems ever present in traditional parenting
ideas. Schools can create adversarial relationships between children
and parents, that seems really clear to me.
There are thousands of ways of coming to unschooling, yet it still
seems simpler than what a lot of people make it out to be.
What are other people's views on this?
I'm confused as to what it's actually about. It alludes to being
about unschooling but it includes all this other stuff.
"There is no need for arbitrary structure in education; the use of
coercion, rewards or other behavior modification techniques as
motivation are counterproductive. With freedom, respect and nurturing
support, children have a powerful drive to self-direct their own
learning; the result being children who direct their own education...
indeed, their own futures."
I pulled that quote from the home page of the website. It doesn't
really sound like unschooling to me. At least not what I've come to
understand unschooling to be.
I know the whole "what is unschooling?" question gets put into that
category of personal interpretation. I'm not really looking for an
answer to that either.
I think if I had encountered the above quote when I first started on
this path, it would have led me in a very different direction than
I've been on the last years. This idea of "self-directed"
and "directing their own education" seems very different from what
actually happens in our daily lives. It is a lot of schoolishness
added to the thinking process of really "getting" unschooling.
In real life, it is so much simpler than that. I guess that is what
it boils down to for me. Unschooling is simpler, not harder or more
difficult. There are challenges in parenting, that sort of comes
with the territory of parenting. Those challenges have been
minimized and made simpler with unschooling. Anything adversarial
creates tension, and tension to any situation makes it harder.
Creating adversary seems ever present in traditional parenting
ideas. Schools can create adversarial relationships between children
and parents, that seems really clear to me.
There are thousands of ways of coming to unschooling, yet it still
seems simpler than what a lot of people make it out to be.
What are other people's views on this?
Jenny C
Sorry that quote wasn't from the home page. It was in the "about" page.
Sandra Dodd
-=-. This idea of "self-directed"
and "directing their own education" seems very different from what
actually happens in our daily lives.-=-
That site is more about "education" than I'm used to thinking about,
too.
-=-Creating adversary seems ever present in traditional parenting
ideas. Schools can create adversarial relationships between children
and parents, that seems really clear to me.-=-
In some cases schools overtly intend to "wean" kids of their parents
one way or another. Not every school, not every year, but sometimes
there come times. New Math was a time when I know some teachers
were encouraged to tell their kids not to talk to their parents about
it.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
and "directing their own education" seems very different from what
actually happens in our daily lives.-=-
That site is more about "education" than I'm used to thinking about,
too.
-=-Creating adversary seems ever present in traditional parenting
ideas. Schools can create adversarial relationships between children
and parents, that seems really clear to me.-=-
In some cases schools overtly intend to "wean" kids of their parents
one way or another. Not every school, not every year, but sometimes
there come times. New Math was a time when I know some teachers
were encouraged to tell their kids not to talk to their parents about
it.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Clarissa Fetrow
One of the things that made me first consider pulling my dd out of preschool
was when there was a phase when the kids started hiding when the parents
arrived. It was a teacher-created "game." "Quick, Johnny, hide!" the
teacher would call out to each kid, sotto voce, "Here comes your dad!" My
daughter loved this game and started playing it herself, a lot, and I
quickly began to realize that it set up the teachers as the ones with the
bonds with the kids "against" the parents who were put in the outsider role.
It was hard to bring this up with the lead teacher, because I had the sense
that she had not done this with any deliberate negative intent, and I didn't
want to seem humorless. But I did tell her that my ideal dream is for my
daughter to run to me with a wide open embrace each time we reunited, and
since that was unlikely to happen every time, I at least hoped that she
wasn't going to keep up this pattern of screaming and running to hide. I
think the teacher (a nice person) got it, and that game wound down.
Clarissa
was when there was a phase when the kids started hiding when the parents
arrived. It was a teacher-created "game." "Quick, Johnny, hide!" the
teacher would call out to each kid, sotto voce, "Here comes your dad!" My
daughter loved this game and started playing it herself, a lot, and I
quickly began to realize that it set up the teachers as the ones with the
bonds with the kids "against" the parents who were put in the outsider role.
It was hard to bring this up with the lead teacher, because I had the sense
that she had not done this with any deliberate negative intent, and I didn't
want to seem humorless. But I did tell her that my ideal dream is for my
daughter to run to me with a wide open embrace each time we reunited, and
since that was unlikely to happen every time, I at least hoped that she
wasn't going to keep up this pattern of screaming and running to hide. I
think the teacher (a nice person) got it, and that game wound down.
Clarissa
On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 4:03 PM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> -=-Creating adversary seems ever present in traditional parenting
> ideas. Schools can create adversarial relationships between children
> and parents, that seems really clear to me.-=-
>
> In some cases schools overtly intend to "wean" kids of their parents
> one way or another.
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
diana jenner
I don't have experience with that specific conference. I know cool
unschoolers who have gone to speak and have had a *great* time...
though it really is different than an *unschooling* conference.
I went to a few of the homeschool conferences in South Dakota and vowed
never again! Adversarial doesn't begin to describe what they were modeling
in the scariest of all god contexts... ick! (where I ironically began saying
to myself "If you find yourself being a jerk to your kids about schoolwork
at home, send them to school, where a paid professional can be mean to them
and you get to welcome them home as the Sweet Mommy" which did evolve into a
simpler "don't be a jerk! Be Nice")
Then I heard amazing things about Live and
Learn<http://liveandlearnconference.org>and wanted to check it out
*with my kids*! We went to Peabody, MA in 2004
-- there is NOTHING in this world like seeing unschooling in action in every
corner and every nook of a hotel! (and freshly 6 year old Hayden met 16 year
old Marty ::bg:: and I got faces to all of the *voices* I'd read for years &
friends I'll keep my whole life, too). Albuquerque 2006 will always be a
very favorite experience of mine, I think Hotel Albuquerque is the *perfect*
venue for a few hundred unschoolers :) (if ever there was someone who maybe
wanted to schedule something there sometime, I'd come :::bg::: just sayin)
This year in SC will be the last L&L.
This Memorial Weekend there is a regional conference on both coasts :D
Northeast
Unschooling Conference
<http://www.northeastunschoolingconference.com/>Peabody, MA (near
Boston) and L.I.F.E.
is Good <http://lifeisgoodconference.com> Vancouver, WA (near portland) I
promise either of these will blow your mind -- with Joy, of course :D (I
only wish I could do both!!) If there's a way to make it happen, you really
should come check us out!
I'm venturing into the homeschool waters again, this weekend. It's a leap of
faith on my part; heretofore I've only spoken in my *comfort* zone and this
is way out of it! Luckily, I tend to bring the party with me, so I know I'll
have fun. I get to talk, officially to 21 people who signed up for me ;) and
perhaps bring some love, trust and gentleness where before there wasn't
enough (yes, I shall be channelling a good many of you :::vbeg:::) It won't
be an unschooling conference, it's an unschooler at a conference -- a very
different thing. A different depth of understanding.
--
~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
unschoolers who have gone to speak and have had a *great* time...
though it really is different than an *unschooling* conference.
I went to a few of the homeschool conferences in South Dakota and vowed
never again! Adversarial doesn't begin to describe what they were modeling
in the scariest of all god contexts... ick! (where I ironically began saying
to myself "If you find yourself being a jerk to your kids about schoolwork
at home, send them to school, where a paid professional can be mean to them
and you get to welcome them home as the Sweet Mommy" which did evolve into a
simpler "don't be a jerk! Be Nice")
Then I heard amazing things about Live and
Learn<http://liveandlearnconference.org>and wanted to check it out
*with my kids*! We went to Peabody, MA in 2004
-- there is NOTHING in this world like seeing unschooling in action in every
corner and every nook of a hotel! (and freshly 6 year old Hayden met 16 year
old Marty ::bg:: and I got faces to all of the *voices* I'd read for years &
friends I'll keep my whole life, too). Albuquerque 2006 will always be a
very favorite experience of mine, I think Hotel Albuquerque is the *perfect*
venue for a few hundred unschoolers :) (if ever there was someone who maybe
wanted to schedule something there sometime, I'd come :::bg::: just sayin)
This year in SC will be the last L&L.
This Memorial Weekend there is a regional conference on both coasts :D
Northeast
Unschooling Conference
<http://www.northeastunschoolingconference.com/>Peabody, MA (near
Boston) and L.I.F.E.
is Good <http://lifeisgoodconference.com> Vancouver, WA (near portland) I
promise either of these will blow your mind -- with Joy, of course :D (I
only wish I could do both!!) If there's a way to make it happen, you really
should come check us out!
I'm venturing into the homeschool waters again, this weekend. It's a leap of
faith on my part; heretofore I've only spoken in my *comfort* zone and this
is way out of it! Luckily, I tend to bring the party with me, so I know I'll
have fun. I get to talk, officially to 21 people who signed up for me ;) and
perhaps bring some love, trust and gentleness where before there wasn't
enough (yes, I shall be channelling a good many of you :::vbeg:::) It won't
be an unschooling conference, it's an unschooler at a conference -- a very
different thing. A different depth of understanding.
--
~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Ren Allen
~~I've been perusing the rethinking education conference website and
I'm confused as to what it's actually about. It alludes to being
about unschooling but it includes all this other stuff.~~
I spoke there last year and it is very much an unschooling conference,
contrary to how some people view it. They do include some
"alternative" types of stuff, which tends to attract Montessori
teachers and others who look at education from an intellectual pov.
But it is hugely and wholely a very unschooling conference.
The same lively energy that exists at Live and Learn is at RE. The
same huge swirl of happy kids and respectful parents and amazing
funshops is there. It tends to draw a slightly different crowd to some
degree, but for the most part it is full of unschoolers and
unschooling parents.
I thought it was a great weekend.
Ren
learninginfreedom.com
I'm confused as to what it's actually about. It alludes to being
about unschooling but it includes all this other stuff.~~
I spoke there last year and it is very much an unschooling conference,
contrary to how some people view it. They do include some
"alternative" types of stuff, which tends to attract Montessori
teachers and others who look at education from an intellectual pov.
But it is hugely and wholely a very unschooling conference.
The same lively energy that exists at Live and Learn is at RE. The
same huge swirl of happy kids and respectful parents and amazing
funshops is there. It tends to draw a slightly different crowd to some
degree, but for the most part it is full of unschoolers and
unschooling parents.
I thought it was a great weekend.
Ren
learninginfreedom.com
Bob Collier
--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
concerned, I talk about 'self-education' far more than I do about
'unschooling'. I think of 'education' in the original sense - from the
Latin educare, "to bring out that which is within" - but I see from a
quick visit to Google that by far the most common usage of the word is
in the sense of imparting knowledge to another person, usually in a
structured form.
Which is not related at all to what actually happens in my daily life
with my son.
Bob
>That's an interesting point, because, as far as my son Pat is
> -=-. This idea of "self-directed"
> and "directing their own education" seems very different from what
> actually happens in our daily lives.-=-
>
> That site is more about "education" than I'm used to thinking about,
> too.
>
>
>
concerned, I talk about 'self-education' far more than I do about
'unschooling'. I think of 'education' in the original sense - from the
Latin educare, "to bring out that which is within" - but I see from a
quick visit to Google that by far the most common usage of the word is
in the sense of imparting knowledge to another person, usually in a
structured form.
Which is not related at all to what actually happens in my daily life
with my son.
Bob