Writing sample and comments
Sandra Dodd
Here's a candid sample of Holly Dodd's writing. She's 17 and although
she never has had any writing classed, she like words. She didn't
read until she was eleven years old, though she was writing before
then by asking people how to spell words.
Stems is a flower shop a block from here. Zumiez is a store in the
mall aimed at skateboarders and snowboarders.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME
So on Mondays from 1 to 6 I work at Stems.
Monday has become a total week-marker for me, even though I've been
hardcorely mixing every other day up, it really clears things out week-
to-week wise. Well realizing it'd been two weeks since the first night
I hung around with Mike and Lyndsey, I also realized how much shorter
it was from the 30th to the 6th as opposed to the 6th to today. I've
been trying to put my finger on just what makes different weeks or
months seem long and exhausting or short and exhausting.
Not to say that I've been totally exhausted, but a lot has been going
on.
So I think after the 30th of March I was doing something everyday.
Zumiez, Stems, or something very stimulating, but away from home. This
last week, though, I feel like I would have a big day and then a down
day. Or a busy morning and then a relaxed afternoon. Or even sleep
late and wake up to an exciting day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was posted in an on online place few people read. It's mostly
for her own thinking.
If she were to ask for help editing it, I think I would suggest a
clean-up of the first long sentence starting with "Monday..." and
point out that in "I was doing something every day" it should be two
words that way because it's telling when, not what-kind-of (adverb and
not adjective). She would probably have caught it if she were
reading someone else's writing. Few adults even understand that
anymore, but Holly usually sees it. And a dash between "every day"
and "Zumiez" would be better than a period.
By "down day" she doesn't mean depressed or sad; she means a day
without requirements or schedules.
My favorite part is this:
-=- I've been trying to put my finger on just what makes different
weeks or months seem long and exhausting or short and exhausting.-=-
Holly's interested in dreams and memory. She's interested in
perception. All of that is about brain function and biochemistry.
How do people know what they know? How do people process and retrieve
thoughts?
Some people would say "then she needs to study psychology." And in
the sense of going to a university and getting a psychology degree,
she might. She might do that someday. But she's trying to put her
finger on some of it now. She's been thinking and observing and
asking questions about these things already for years, and probably
will keep doing that because she's curious and interested. Some of
those people who plan to study psychology just put it all out of their
minds and wait for the professors they've paid to teach them to put
some facts into their willing and open blank slate minds. Holly is
building on what she already perceives.
Here are some samples for those who wonder what I'm talking about with
the difference between every day and everyday:
Some days I think she might go to college someday.
I think everyday thoughts every day.
And the purpose of this post, past showing a sample of Holly's
writing, and to show you how I unschool (for those who want "but how?"
and "like what?"). Being able to see several aspects of something is
part of what has made unschooling work well for me. Holly wrote that
to express herself and her thoughts to a very few people. Writing it
helped to clarify her own thoughts, and she's made a record for
herself of what she was doing which she can refer back to in years to
come (when she started hanging out with those two friends, who are
students at La Cueva High--friends of another friend of hers, and she
bought a skateboard from Mike). It shows the mechanics of her
writing, which are in the range of most adults who are willing to
write in public. So she's not "behind" there. It's a glimpse into
her thoughts on perception (perceiving the passage of time).
This is how I can know whether she's learning without giving her a test.
This is how I can compare her progress to other people her age.
Sandra
she never has had any writing classed, she like words. She didn't
read until she was eleven years old, though she was writing before
then by asking people how to spell words.
Stems is a flower shop a block from here. Zumiez is a store in the
mall aimed at skateboarders and snowboarders.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME
So on Mondays from 1 to 6 I work at Stems.
Monday has become a total week-marker for me, even though I've been
hardcorely mixing every other day up, it really clears things out week-
to-week wise. Well realizing it'd been two weeks since the first night
I hung around with Mike and Lyndsey, I also realized how much shorter
it was from the 30th to the 6th as opposed to the 6th to today. I've
been trying to put my finger on just what makes different weeks or
months seem long and exhausting or short and exhausting.
Not to say that I've been totally exhausted, but a lot has been going
on.
So I think after the 30th of March I was doing something everyday.
Zumiez, Stems, or something very stimulating, but away from home. This
last week, though, I feel like I would have a big day and then a down
day. Or a busy morning and then a relaxed afternoon. Or even sleep
late and wake up to an exciting day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was posted in an on online place few people read. It's mostly
for her own thinking.
If she were to ask for help editing it, I think I would suggest a
clean-up of the first long sentence starting with "Monday..." and
point out that in "I was doing something every day" it should be two
words that way because it's telling when, not what-kind-of (adverb and
not adjective). She would probably have caught it if she were
reading someone else's writing. Few adults even understand that
anymore, but Holly usually sees it. And a dash between "every day"
and "Zumiez" would be better than a period.
By "down day" she doesn't mean depressed or sad; she means a day
without requirements or schedules.
My favorite part is this:
-=- I've been trying to put my finger on just what makes different
weeks or months seem long and exhausting or short and exhausting.-=-
Holly's interested in dreams and memory. She's interested in
perception. All of that is about brain function and biochemistry.
How do people know what they know? How do people process and retrieve
thoughts?
Some people would say "then she needs to study psychology." And in
the sense of going to a university and getting a psychology degree,
she might. She might do that someday. But she's trying to put her
finger on some of it now. She's been thinking and observing and
asking questions about these things already for years, and probably
will keep doing that because she's curious and interested. Some of
those people who plan to study psychology just put it all out of their
minds and wait for the professors they've paid to teach them to put
some facts into their willing and open blank slate minds. Holly is
building on what she already perceives.
Here are some samples for those who wonder what I'm talking about with
the difference between every day and everyday:
Some days I think she might go to college someday.
I think everyday thoughts every day.
And the purpose of this post, past showing a sample of Holly's
writing, and to show you how I unschool (for those who want "but how?"
and "like what?"). Being able to see several aspects of something is
part of what has made unschooling work well for me. Holly wrote that
to express herself and her thoughts to a very few people. Writing it
helped to clarify her own thoughts, and she's made a record for
herself of what she was doing which she can refer back to in years to
come (when she started hanging out with those two friends, who are
students at La Cueva High--friends of another friend of hers, and she
bought a skateboard from Mike). It shows the mechanics of her
writing, which are in the range of most adults who are willing to
write in public. So she's not "behind" there. It's a glimpse into
her thoughts on perception (perceiving the passage of time).
This is how I can know whether she's learning without giving her a test.
This is how I can compare her progress to other people her age.
Sandra
Jenny C
>test.
> This is how I can know whether she's learning without giving her a
> This is how I can compare her progress to other people her age.What I find most interesting about Chamille, I would never find in her
>
writing. It's through discussion mostly. Her greatest skill, in my
opinion, is her knowledge of how people work. She's really good at
knowing people, knowing what makes each individual tick, and the
possible reason for why they do the things they do.
She's deeply analytical about it, but doesn't draw attention to it, I
think largely because she doesn't realize that what she does is
exceptional. Her friends are starting to see it. I've seen it for
years. Her newly acquired boyfriend sees it, or at least senses that
she's waaaay smarter than she ever lets anyone see. He told me so, he
told me that Chamille is really smart, way smarter than he initially
knew, and he likes that she's smart and pretty!
Sandra Dodd
-=She's deeply analytical about it, but doesn't draw attention to it, I
think largely because she doesn't realize that what she does is
exceptional. =-
Holly and Kirby were always that way.
Marty is observant and analytical about people too, but less (thinking
of a word...) it's less central to his thinking. He's more physical
and mechanical than the other two.
Kirby and Holly see wide and deep on human interactions and personal
motivations. Each of them expressed surprise and disappointment upon
discovery that not everyone has those abilities.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
think largely because she doesn't realize that what she does is
exceptional. =-
Holly and Kirby were always that way.
Marty is observant and analytical about people too, but less (thinking
of a word...) it's less central to his thinking. He's more physical
and mechanical than the other two.
Kirby and Holly see wide and deep on human interactions and personal
motivations. Each of them expressed surprise and disappointment upon
discovery that not everyone has those abilities.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Hema A. Bharadwaj
I loved this:
"I've been trying to put my finger on just what makes different
weeks or months seem long and exhausting or short and exhausting." (Then i
read that it was your fav part too :-)
So exciting and yet if at that age I'd mentioned this to someone at
home...they'd have asked me to look at the calendar, calculate how many
days/hours etc... Feeling things and thinking about them are different to
me.
I did writing as a form of free flow for about 7 months (everyday) a long
time ago... and loved the shape of words and how things sounded when read.
My grammar is not upto speed... so it was nice to read your little
pointers. I really enjoy this book: "writing down the bones" by Natalie
Goldberg. She is a writer writing about writing. But it connects to
learning and art and everything in between for me.
Hema :-)
--
Hema A. Bharadwaj
http://thebharadwajknights.blogspot.com/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
"I've been trying to put my finger on just what makes different
weeks or months seem long and exhausting or short and exhausting." (Then i
read that it was your fav part too :-)
So exciting and yet if at that age I'd mentioned this to someone at
home...they'd have asked me to look at the calendar, calculate how many
days/hours etc... Feeling things and thinking about them are different to
me.
I did writing as a form of free flow for about 7 months (everyday) a long
time ago... and loved the shape of words and how things sounded when read.
My grammar is not upto speed... so it was nice to read your little
pointers. I really enjoy this book: "writing down the bones" by Natalie
Goldberg. She is a writer writing about writing. But it connects to
learning and art and everything in between for me.
Hema :-)
--
Hema A. Bharadwaj
http://thebharadwajknights.blogspot.com/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
Holly (18) has re-done her MySpace page, and here are her interests:
General
Psychology- memory and dreams
Movies- lighting, writing, sets and props
Clothing- fashion, history, costumes and style
Food- health, tradition, appetite
People- interpersonal and intrapersonal
It's not prose writing, but it reads almost poetically.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
General
Psychology- memory and dreams
Movies- lighting, writing, sets and props
Clothing- fashion, history, costumes and style
Food- health, tradition, appetite
People- interpersonal and intrapersonal
It's not prose writing, but it reads almost poetically.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]