Sandra Dodd

What's below was written in response to a somewhat awkward request from a high school student.  She named her school, but didn't say what town or state it was in.  I googled it; it's a long, long way from here. 

Here was my response, though, and there are some things I thought might be on interest to other people, and a few bits that may be worth mining for Just Add Light and Stir.
__________________________________________

Rachel, my first advice is to have a subject line for any e-mail, to keep it from looking like spam, or an accidental posting.   And when the e-mail says it's from Suzanne, and begins "Hi my name is Rachel," that's another opportunity for someone to throw it away without reading any more.

Taking a writing class and "working on a project" is practice writing, but the e-mail that goes out to a stranger requesting assistance is the REAL writing—the writing that could get a real response, or fail to get one.  


What is your job title and a brief description of your job?

I don't have a job title. I have projects. I am the author of two books, but I am not always, in every moment "an author." I am the owner of two very large and busy discussions of unschooling, but I am not "a discussion owner," outside of those discussions. I am the mother of three, but they're all grown now. I'm still a mother, but I'm no longer "a mother at home" (one of the designations people can use on government forms). I have been called, by others, "an unschooling advocate," but I don't do that all the time, in every relationship with every person. 

I speak at conferences sometimes, but I am not, all the time, "a speaker."

I have several blogs, but I am not "a blogger." When a person says "I blog," they often mean they write things that will cause people to come to a blog with a counter, and advertisers, where they are making a cut of profit. I take no advertising at all. My most popular blog is Just Add Light and Stir.

My favorite blogs are trivia and connections, which are the two most important things in unschooling.

I do a great deal of work, most of it voluntarily without pay, but I don't have a job title.

If you need something for your project, you could say that I am an author and speaker on the subject of unschooling, and that I maintain an ever-expanding website, run a weekly chat, and moderate two discussions with thousands of members.



How does the work you do impact the community?

"The community" has too many different meanings for me to respond meaningfully. The community around me, in Albuquerque, is not impacted. Individuals who choose to use some of my ideas in their home lives and learn different ways to be with their children are changed, and that might be passed on to their children's children, or to their friends and people they impress or persuade, but no one is keeping track of anything like that. Those individuals are scattered all over the world, and each came by it voluntarily, and did the work to learn it on her own. My "work" was to provide things for them to find.

Here is some feedback, if you want to read the sort of impact some individuals have reported (mostly moms):  

Why did you choose this job and how did you get it?

I didn't choose it, and I didn't "get" it (as in someone else giving me a job). It evolved. I did a little, and then some more, always based on other people's feedback and responses, and my personal satisfaction.

Recently, some of us discussed jobs, and have begun to create a jumbly list of paid and volunteer work that parents and their older unschoolers can consider, along with the fact that most people hold many jobs in their lives, and learn from all of them.

What are the rewards and downsides or challenges to your job?

For my volunteer work, the rewards are feedback, and seeing or reading about results. The downside is not always knowing if the work is getting out and being understood, but I've learned to do it without trying to follow its trails, or measure its effects.

What problems do you see with unschooling?

Done well by confident, competent parents, no problems.
Done poorly by hesitant parents who don't understand it well, it won't be unschooling at all, really.

So the problem is that it's difficult to understand, and there's the potential to botch it.


Do you think unschooling is for everyone?

No. There is nothing in the world that is "for everyone."

What problems do you think unschooling could be a solution for?

Unschooling is done by families, not by communities, or societies, or towns/districts/governments.
It's a way to live and to learn.

Some families see it as safer than school, for a child.
If done well, it is more stimulating, less pressuring, less prescribed and more personalized than school can ever be.

Many families appreciate that a child can go slowly for a while, and then zip quickly through some things, and go back to a lull, or care much more about one topic or hobby than another for a few years, which school can't accommodate without labels and punishments,or pressure and interventions, to try to get the child "on track" and "up to speed" and "at level" and all sorts of measures that have to do with teacher accountability and with crowd management. Unschooling isn't "a solution" for the problem, but can be an alternative for a child, for a family, if the family is willing and able to make the commitment and changes required to make it work well.

Sandra Dodd


Sylvia Woodman

Do you have any idea what inspired this girl to write to you?  How did she find you?  I had never heard of homeschooling much less unschooling when I was that age.



On Tue, Nov 12, 2013 at 7:07 PM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
 

What's below was written in response to a somewhat awkward request from a high school student.  She named her school, but didn't say what town or state it was in.  I googled it; it's a long, long way from here. 

Here was my response, though, and there are some things I thought might be on interest to other people, and a few bits that may be worth mining for Just Add Light and Stir.
__________________________________________

Rachel, my first advice is to have a subject line for any e-mail, to keep it from looking like spam, or an accidental posting.   And when the e-mail says it's from Suzanne, and begins "Hi my name is Rachel," that's another opportunity for someone to throw it away without reading any more.

Taking a writing class and "working on a project" is practice writing, but the e-mail that goes out to a stranger requesting assistance is the REAL writing—the writing that could get a real response, or fail to get one.  


What is your job title and a brief description of your job?

I don't have a job title. I have projects. I am the author of two books, but I am not always, in every moment "an author." I am the owner of two very large and busy discussions of unschooling, but I am not "a discussion owner," outside of those discussions. I am the mother of three, but they're all grown now. I'm still a mother, but I'm no longer "a mother at home" (one of the designations people can use on government forms). I have been called, by others, "an unschooling advocate," but I don't do that all the time, in every relationship with every person. 

I speak at conferences sometimes, but I am not, all the time, "a speaker."

I have several blogs, but I am not "a blogger." When a person says "I blog," they often mean they write things that will cause people to come to a blog with a counter, and advertisers, where they are making a cut of profit. I take no advertising at all. My most popular blog is Just Add Light and Stir.

My favorite blogs are trivia and connections, which are the two most important things in unschooling.

I do a great deal of work, most of it voluntarily without pay, but I don't have a job title.

If you need something for your project, you could say that I am an author and speaker on the subject of unschooling, and that I maintain an ever-expanding website, run a weekly chat, and moderate two discussions with thousands of members.



How does the work you do impact the community?

"The community" has too many different meanings for me to respond meaningfully. The community around me, in Albuquerque, is not impacted. Individuals who choose to use some of my ideas in their home lives and learn different ways to be with their children are changed, and that might be passed on to their children's children, or to their friends and people they impress or persuade, but no one is keeping track of anything like that. Those individuals are scattered all over the world, and each came by it voluntarily, and did the work to learn it on her own. My "work" was to provide things for them to find.

Here is some feedback, if you want to read the sort of impact some individuals have reported (mostly moms):  

Why did you choose this job and how did you get it?

I didn't choose it, and I didn't "get" it (as in someone else giving me a job). It evolved. I did a little, and then some more, always based on other people's feedback and responses, and my personal satisfaction.

Recently, some of us discussed jobs, and have begun to create a jumbly list of paid and volunteer work that parents and their older unschoolers can consider, along with the fact that most people hold many jobs in their lives, and learn from all of them.

What are the rewards and downsides or challenges to your job?

For my volunteer work, the rewards are feedback, and seeing or reading about results. The downside is not always knowing if the work is getting out and being understood, but I've learned to do it without trying to follow its trails, or measure its effects.

What problems do you see with unschooling?

Done well by confident, competent parents, no problems.
Done poorly by hesitant parents who don't understand it well, it won't be unschooling at all, really.

So the problem is that it's difficult to understand, and there's the potential to botch it.


Do you think unschooling is for everyone?

No. There is nothing in the world that is "for everyone."

What problems do you think unschooling could be a solution for?

Unschooling is done by families, not by communities, or societies, or towns/districts/governments.
It's a way to live and to learn.

Some families see it as safer than school, for a child.
If done well, it is more stimulating, less pressuring, less prescribed and more personalized than school can ever be.

Many families appreciate that a child can go slowly for a while, and then zip quickly through some things, and go back to a lull, or care much more about one topic or hobby than another for a few years, which school can't accommodate without labels and punishments,or pressure and interventions, to try to get the child "on track" and "up to speed" and "at level" and all sorts of measures that have to do with teacher accountability and with crowd management. Unschooling isn't "a solution" for the problem, but can be an alternative for a child, for a family, if the family is willing and able to make the commitment and changes required to make it work well.

Sandra Dodd



Sandra Dodd

-=-Do you have any idea what inspired this girl to write to you?  How did she find you? -=-

She didn't say.
I would have, if I had written to someone that way. :-)

Sandra