Sandra Dodd

You can see some of the interview with Broc Higgins here.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968679247/unschooling-the-movie/posts/385

For those who don't know Broc and Gail, Broc has three kids who live
in Texas. They're late teens/young adults. Gail has two kids (Brenna
and Logan) who are mid and late teens. They're all wonderful, and all
in New Mexico this week because Broc's parents had their 50th
anniversary. They both have other relatives in the state, too.

The first couple on this page is Broc and Gail:
http://sandradodd.com/spouses
Gail's blog is
http://gail-hummingbirdhaven.blogspot.com/
and there are photos of all the kids there.


Lee Stranahan, who's making these videos for a DVD on unschooling,
taped Broc yesterday and Brenna.

He has quite a bit more of me (more than he's put on youtube, which I
have here:
http://sandradodd.com/video ) which won't be online, but will be on
the final DVD and the advance copies.

Financial supporters of the project can get an advance DVD or a
special version of the final.

Sandra

Jenny C

> You can see some of the interview with Broc Higgins here.
>
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968679247/unschooling-the-movie/post\
s/385
>


What Broc says about schools training people to do the steps from 1-60
to get to 60, is so true! Unschooled kids will look at that process and
decide wether or not they really need to do steps 2-59 to get to 60,
while kids who have been schooled won't necessarily question that.
Schools tend to belabor processes that could be so much simpler and take
so much less time.

Kids who question things and don't like jumping through hoops, the ones
who often get in trouble in school, are really the smart ones! They
know inside themselves that what is being said to them isn't truth and
they can't do much much about it. So they either sacrifice themselves
to get along in that system, or they don't and the system fails them.

I don't know about other people, but I was one of the ones that
sacrificed myself to get along. I'm soooooo eternally grateful that I
can give my own kids a better life! I love that they are able to find
their own ways to do things. That process is so overlooked by schools,
yet, in my thinking it is one of the most important things in life for
kids (well anybody really) to be able to do.

Pam Sorooshian

On 6/23/2009 9:22 AM, Jenny C wrote:
> I don't know about other people, but I was one of the ones that
> sacrificed myself to get along.
Me too.

But to keep this from being just a "me too" post, I think it is really
important to recognize that those of us who looked like school success
stories might, in fact, have been significantly harmed by school. It
took me many years to get over

pam

Jenny C

>
> But to keep this from being just a "me too" post, I think it is really
> important to recognize that those of us who looked like school success
> stories might, in fact, have been significantly harmed by school. It
> took me many years to get over
>


I really admire the kids who don't just take it, the ones who know there
is something wrong. It's a hard road to go though, to constantly feel
like you aren't wrong but to be told so repeatedly that you are simply
because you aren't fitting into that mold of school.

I was a school success story, but I myself, am not really successful.
I'm a good mom, and my kids are already way more whole and intact than I
was by the time I reached adulthood. The things that I love to do, I
really wanted to do when I was a teen and couldn't because of how
enormously time consuming school was. I don't think I ever got over
that. By the time I was out of school, I had a baby and that was time
consuming too, a good time consuming, unlike school.

I really love that I can undo that damage by not doing it to my kids! I
love that my kids have the freedom to do nothing if they so choose, even
though that never happens. The amount of hands on activities that
Chamille does is huge and wonderful and exciting and Margaux has learned
how to read full sentences. She read her first book from front to back
last night. It was a Curious George lift the flap book. Their
curiousity and love of life and learning hasn't diminished with the
tedium of school.

Sandra Dodd

-=-I really love that I can undo that damage by not doing it to my
kids! I
love that my kids have the freedom to do nothing if they so choose, even
though that never happens. -=-

OH! I want to have that flash-red-lights and hand-cranked-siren thing
they have at ice cream parlors or kids' pizza places sometimes, to
show that something BIG is happening!!

-=- I love that my kids have the freedom to do nothing if they so
choose, even
though that never happens.-=-

The only way a child can choose to do something is if she had the
option to do nothing.

Put that piece in the big puzzle we've all been working on for a dozen
years or more, please. Thank you, Jenny!

(I guess I'd also like the big fire-extinguisher-looking whipped-cream
dispenser to go with all this.)

Sandra





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