khalsakaur

Hi. I consider myself to be on the edge between relaxed homeschooler (altho I refer to it as home education, which is more commonly used here in the UK, disliking the term homeschooling) and unschooler. I would say that I follow an unschooling approach but am still seeking to understand the radical unschooling approach. Anyway, I have a question: how do people deal with the education authorities (if they do?) when they are unschooling? I have a visit next week from the 'Flexible Learning Educational Service' to assess the education provision for my 5 year old son, which I am nervous about although I've heard this particular officer is supportive of autonomous learning. I guess it's the 'full time education provision' stipulation that worries me - because of course I believe that learning happens all the time, but whether they will understand that is uncertain. I talked to my son about what we would say when this woman comes, and after telling me he would say to her that he reads a lot of books and finds out about birds, he also said he would tell her he 'eats sweets and watches TV' - so I'm a little worried! (I tried to explain why that might not be a good idea!) Last year I refused a visit and submitted a report instead, but I've decided to have the visit now as I think it's in our best interests - mainly because my son's dad (we are long separated) is vehemently anti home education and should it come to court, it probably won't reflect well on me if I refuse education authorities admittance to my home.

Your thoughts/insights/suggestions are welcome...thank you for reading this.

Joyce Fetteroll

On Jun 13, 2013, at 8:48 AM, khalsakaur wrote:

> how do people deal with the education authorities (if they do?) when they are unschooling?

The best place to ask about local issues is local lists. Since this is an international list, most people aren't in the UK.

Sandra has a list of groups in the UK (and elsewhere):

http://sandradodd.com/world

Joyce

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Naomi

I would try the UK Unschooling Network Facebook group for this question - it doesn't seem to be on Sandra's list. The moderator has a lot of experience with dealing with authorities and it is made up of a wide range of unschoolers, not all of whom are radical.
Naomi


--- In [email protected], Joyce Fetteroll <jfetteroll@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Jun 13, 2013, at 8:48 AM, khalsakaur wrote:
>
> > how do people deal with the education authorities (if they do?) when they are unschooling?
>
> The best place to ask about local issues is local lists. Since this is an international list, most people aren't in the UK.
>
> Sandra has a list of groups in the UK (and elsewhere):
>
> http://sandradodd.com/world
>
> Joyce
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Sandra Dodd

-=- it doesn't seem to be on Sandra's list. The moderator has a lot of experience with dealing with authorities and it is made up of a wide range of unschoolers, not all of whom are radical. -=-

I've tried only to have the most radical-unschooling groups listed, because that's what people are looking for when they ask me. It's not always possible, of course.

Everyone should be in contact with other unschoolers from their own jurisdictions (state, province, country�whatever level the laws are, applicable to you). That's not the purpose of this discussion.

Those who are in places with no requirements are better off not even thinking about tests, reports or portfolios.
Those are required to consider such things might get good ideas from some of the examples here:
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum

Let's continue to avoid making it the focus of the Always Learning discussion, though. Thanks!

And people in the UK might want to be reminded of two opportunities to hear Joyce Fetteroll and me speak:
June 24, Selkirk http://speakingsandradodd.blogspot.co.uk/p/selkirk-scotland.html
July 13-14, Ashford (Surrey) http://www.lttl.org.uk

Sandra



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