About The Big Book of Unschooling
Sandra Dodd
For hours, today, I’ve been working on my website, updating links, finding MANY other people’s websites gone altogether, and coming across oddments and surprises here and there.
I found lots of reviews of my book, mostly sweet and positive, on the GoodReads site I don’t want to link it here, because that would “out" the people I’m about to quote anonymously. I brought three, and will comment below.
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Oct 19, 2012 [somebody] rated it
This is a good book, but but I didn't realize beforehand that it's just a copy/paste of pages from her website.
It might be nice to own it, and leaf through the paper version rather than reading it online, but it probably wasn't worth getting through inter-library loan, since it's not a "sit down and read it through" type of book. I'll just continue browsing her website! :)
________
Sep 25, 2015 [someone else] rated it
i'm not saying this book doesn't have good information to share but i didn't like how it was set up. i didn't realize that it was just a copy/paste from her website before i bought it. i just picked it up at the HSC conference because sandra's name was on it. i gave it to my husband as a reference guide. maybe he'll find it more useful.
________
Jan 19, 2016 [and someone wrote, just recently, this one):]
This is a collection of quotes from Dodd's blog, lectures and other work. I like what she has to say, I just did not appreciate this format at all.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So hold on….
One wrote " I didn't realize beforehand that it's just a copy/paste of pages from her website.”
Another wrote, and right after, on the website, too: i didn't realize that it was just a copy/paste from her website before i bought it.
THAT seems to be some “copy/paste.”
And it’s not true. :-)
Though I had kind of hoped that I could bring the good parts of online writings there (because that was the request I was trying to honor—to put my website into a book), it didn’t work for most of the topics. Either what I had written was way too long to fit on the page, so I wrote a new summary, or there wasn’t a page about it and the writing was entirely new. Some of the pages I have on my site now are the writings from the book that people had remembered and were looking for but couldn’t find. Or they were put online because when there was a (long) series of online chats on sections of the book (many of which were edited and saved, but not all of which have been linked yet because it was a huge project and life keeps moving on), I wanted to let people participate even if they didn’t have the book, and to cut and paste for the discussion.
It’s frustrating to see people write things that are plainly not true, and leave them in public that way.
The third writer didn’t copy, but it still wasn’t true: "This is a collection of quotes from Dodd's blog, lectures and other work.”
There ARE some quotes and from page 293 on (AFTER the first 292 pages, I mean), that is (and clearly marked) Essays and Bonus Materials. That section was articles and interviews that had been published in various places.
In the dedication to that book, I wrote:
"For Hema A. Bharadwaj, who said she wanted my whole unschooling website in a book. I said it wasn't possible, but the thought stayed, and here's an artistic impression of my website in a book, for Hema."
I think that over half of that book was new writing. But what if it wasn’t? Would 350 pages of cut and paste from a website’s that’s thousands of pages long somehow be unworthy of appreciation?
And should a couple of hundreds pages of new writing (which is as long as and longer than some other people’s entire unschooling books) be insulted with “it’s just a copy/paste”?
And why would I bother to get flustered?
I think it’s because sometimes I come across something and it’s old already, and I didn’t know I had been maligned, and it wasn’t fair, and it triggers my “that’s not fair” whine. :-)
I think that’s all. It’s not fair.
Although what you read about me might be false, I will continue to live and to write in such a way that what you read BY me will true.
Here’s the new page I was working on. Any page like this requires checking the links I’m adding, to see if they’re working well, and whether what’s on THAT page is working.
http://sandradodd.com/writings
It’s not finished. I’ll more links to interviews (of me, by me), and clean the page up more, I hope. And I haven’t added books (there are half a dozen, I think; maybe a couple more). But it’s a start.
Sandra
Alex & Brian Polikowsky
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 30, 2016, at 7:36 PM, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:
I want to apologize in advance for coming here to defend myself. It seemed, possibly, a reasonable place to do so. :-)
For hours, today, I’ve been working on my website, updating links, finding MANY other people’s websites gone altogether, and coming across oddments and surprises here and there.
I found lots of reviews of my book, mostly sweet and positive, on the GoodReads site I don’t want to link it here, because that would “out" the people I’m about to quote anonymously. I brought three, and will comment below.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Oct 19, 2012 [somebody] rated it
This is a good book, but but I didn't realize beforehand that it's just a copy/paste of pages from her website.
It might be nice to own it, and leaf through the paper version rather than reading it online, but it probably wasn't worth getting through inter-library loan, since it's not a "sit down and read it through" type of book. I'll just continue browsing her website! :)
________
Sep 25, 2015 [someone else] rated it
i'm not saying this book doesn't have good information to share but i didn't like how it was set up. i didn't realize that it was just a copy/paste from her website before i bought it. i just picked it up at the HSC conference because sandra's name was on it. i gave it to my husband as a reference guide. maybe he'll find it more useful.
________
Jan 19, 2016 [and someone wrote, just recently, this one):]
This is a collection of quotes from Dodd's blog, lectures and other work. I like what she has to say, I just did not appreciate this format at all.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So hold on….
One wrote " I didn't realize beforehand that it's just a copy/paste of pages from her website.”
Another wrote, and right after, on the website, too: i didn't realize that it was just a copy/paste from her website before i bought it.
THAT seems to be some “copy/paste.”
And it’s not true. :-)
Though I had kind of hoped that I could bring the good parts of online writings there (because that was the request I was trying to honor—to put my website into a book), it didn’t work for most of the topics. Either what I had written was way too long to fit on the page, so I wrote a new summary, or there wasn’t a page about it and the writing was entirely new. Some of the pages I have on my site now are the writings from the book that people had remembered and were looking for but couldn’t find. Or they were put online because when there was a (long) series of online chats on sections of the book (many of which were edited and saved, but not all of which have been linked yet because it was a huge project and life keeps moving on), I wanted to let people participate even if they didn’t have the book, and to cut and paste for the discussion.
It’s frustrating to see people write things that are plainly not true, and leave them in public that way.
The third writer didn’t copy, but it still wasn’t true: "This is a collection of quotes from Dodd's blog, lectures and other work.”
There ARE some quotes and from page 293 on (AFTER the first 292 pages, I mean), that is (and clearly marked) Essays and Bonus Materials. That section was articles and interviews that had been published in various places.
In the dedication to that book, I wrote:
"For Hema A. Bharadwaj, who said she wanted my whole unschooling website in a book. I said it wasn't possible, but the thought stayed, and here's an artistic impression of my website in a book, for Hema."
I think that over half of that book was new writing. But what if it wasn’t? Would 350 pages of cut and paste from a website’s that’s thousands of pages long somehow be unworthy of appreciation?
And should a couple of hundreds pages of new writing (which is as long as and longer than some other people’s entire unschooling books) be insulted with “it’s just a copy/paste”?
And why would I bother to get flustered?
I think it’s because sometimes I come across something and it’s old already, and I didn’t know I had been maligned, and it wasn’t fair, and it triggers my “that’s not fair” whine. :-)
I think that’s all. It’s not fair.
Although what you read about me might be false, I will continue to live and to write in such a way that what you read BY me will true.
Here’s the new page I was working on. Any page like this requires checking the links I’m adding, to see if they’re working well, and whether what’s on THAT page is working.
http://sandradodd.com/writings
It’s not finished. I’ll more links to interviews (of me, by me), and clean the page up more, I hope. And I haven’t added books (there are half a dozen, I think; maybe a couple more). But it’s a start.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
> Although what you read about me might be false, I will continue to live and to write in such a way that what you read BY me will be true.Be.
Being.
I’m better, the next morning, from bad reviews. :-)
Thanks, Alex, and sorry I whined. :-)
Sandra
Dena Morrison
Sandra,
I think with the years, months, days, hours and infinite moments of your life (and your family's lives) you have dedicated to your honest, thought provoking, paradigm-shifting writing with passion about Unschooling, that having your feelings hurt or being mad about unfair, incorrect, public reviews is reasonable.
I'm glad you feel better about it this morning.
I was irritated FOR you, knowing those people obviously did not pay attention to how/why your beautiful book came to be!
I, for one, am so grateful for ALL your writing, in every format, and for all the ways Unschooling has brought peaceful changes into our lives!
And I cannot think of a more appropriate place for you to express your feelings.
Blessings,
Dena Morrison
On Jan 31, 2016 8:43 AM, "Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning]" <[email protected]> wrote:Finger-fumble on my guarantee of continuing honesty:
> Although what you read about me might be false, I will continue to live and to write in such a way that what you read BY me will be true.
Be.
Being.
I’m better, the next morning, from bad reviews. :-)
Thanks, Alex, and sorry I whined. :-)
Sandra
Karen Whitehead Kuntz
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 30, 2016, at 8:05 PM, Alex & Brian Polikowsky polykowholsteins@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:
I Went to check if I had left a review at Goodreads and I had!I still stand by my review!Thank you for writing it Sandra .Anyone wanting to do unschooling well should have it. Full of inspiration in it!Alex Polikowsky
Sent from my iPhoneI want to apologize in advance for coming here to defend myself. It seemed, possibly, a reasonable place to do so. :-)
For hours, today, I’ve been working on my website, updating links, finding MANY other people’s websites gone altogether, and coming across oddments and surprises here and there.
I found lots of reviews of my book, mostly sweet and positive, on the GoodReads site I don’t want to link it here, because that would “out" the people I’m about to quote anonymously. I brought three, and will comment below.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Oct 19, 2012 [somebody] rated it
This is a good book, but but I didn't realize beforehand that it's just a copy/paste of pages from her website.
It might be nice to own it, and leaf through the paper version rather than reading it online, but it probably wasn't worth getting through inter-library loan, since it's not a "sit down and read it through" type of book. I'll just continue browsing her website! :)
________
Sep 25, 2015 [someone else] rated it
i'm not saying this book doesn't have good information to share but i didn't like how it was set up. i didn't realize that it was just a copy/paste from her website before i bought it. i just picked it up at the HSC conference because sandra's name was on it. i gave it to my husband as a reference guide. maybe he'll find it more useful.
________
Jan 19, 2016 [and someone wrote, just recently, this one):]
This is a collection of quotes from Dodd's blog, lectures and other work. I like what she has to say, I just did not appreciate this format at all.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So hold on….
One wrote " I didn't realize beforehand that it's just a copy/paste of pages from her website.”
Another wrote, and right after, on the website, too: i didn't realize that it was just a copy/paste from her website before i bought it.
THAT seems to be some “copy/paste.”
And it’s not true. :-)
Though I had kind of hoped that I could bring the good parts of online writings there (because that was the request I was trying to honor—to put my website into a book), it didn’t work for most of the topics. Either what I had written was way too long to fit on the page, so I wrote a new summary, or there wasn’t a page about it and the writing was entirely new. Some of the pages I have on my site now are the writings from the book that people had remembered and were looking for but couldn’t find. Or they were put online because when there was a (long) series of online chats on sections of the book (many of which were edited and saved, but not all of which have been linked yet because it was a huge project and life keeps moving on), I wanted to let people participate even if they didn’t have the book, and to cut and paste for the discussion.
It’s frustrating to see people write things that are plainly not true, and leave them in public that way.
The third writer didn’t copy, but it still wasn’t true: "This is a collection of quotes from Dodd's blog, lectures and other work.”
There ARE some quotes and from page 293 on (AFTER the first 292 pages, I mean), that is (and clearly marked) Essays and Bonus Materials. That section was articles and interviews that had been published in various places.
In the dedication to that book, I wrote:
"For Hema A. Bharadwaj, who said she wanted my whole unschooling website in a book. I said it wasn't possible, but the thought stayed, and here's an artistic impression of my website in a book, for Hema."
I think that over half of that book was new writing. But what if it wasn’t? Would 350 pages of cut and paste from a website’s that’s thousands of pages long somehow be unworthy of appreciation?
And should a couple of hundreds pages of new writing (which is as long as and longer than some other people’s entire unschooling books) be insulted with “it’s just a copy/paste”?
And why would I bother to get flustered?
I think it’s because sometimes I come across something and it’s old already, and I didn’t know I had been maligned, and it wasn’t fair, and it triggers my “that’s not fair” whine. :-)
I think that’s all. It’s not fair.
Although what you read about me might be false, I will continue to live and to write in such a way that what you read BY me will true.
Here’s the new page I was working on. Any page like this requires checking the links I’m adding, to see if they’re working well, and whether what’s on THAT page is working.
http://sandradodd.com/writings
It’s not finished. I’ll more links to interviews (of me, by me), and clean the page up more, I hope. And I haven’t added books (there are half a dozen, I think; maybe a couple more). But it’s a start.
Sandra
Liz Struk
Sandra Dodd
That’s kind of amusing. :-)
Maybe you could photocopy the torn-out page, and stick the photocopy in that place, in the book. But copy both sides. :-) What’s on the back of Unschooling Nest?
Oh! Page 126, Playing !
Maybe you should sacrifice that copy, tear out more pages to stick other places or to give to friends as they need them, and buy a new copy. :-)
http://sandradodd.com/bigbook
(Or not…. just an idea. :-) )
Sandra
Hedy Hanni
That’s kind of amusing. :-)
Maybe you could photocopy the torn-out page, and stick the photocopy in that place, in the book. But copy both sides. :-) What’s on the back of Unschooling Nest?
Oh! Page 126, Playing !
Maybe you should sacrifice that copy, tear out more pages to stick other places or to give to friends as they need them, and buy a new copy. :-)
http://sandradodd.com/bigbook
(Or not…. just an idea. :-) )
Sandra
Megan Valnes
On Monday, February 1, 2016, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:-=-As I'm typing this, I'm realizing I should have just photocopied the page… next time :)-=-
That’s kind of amusing. :-)
Maybe you could photocopy the torn-out page, and stick the photocopy in that place, in the book. But copy both sides. :-) What’s on the back of Unschooling Nest?
Oh! Page 126, Playing !
Maybe you should sacrifice that copy, tear out more pages to stick other places or to give to friends as they need them, and buy a new copy. :-)
http://sandradodd.com/bigbook
(Or not…. just an idea. :-) )
Sandra
--
Sent from Gmail Mobile
Sandra Dodd
Thank you. I was so impressed with Holly’s ability to do that. She learned it from her experimentation doing the art for Learn Nothing Day, which she helped me document. She says Marty taught her to use Photoshop Elements, but Marty says he showed her a couple of things and she figured out lots on her own that he didn’t even know.
http://learnnothingday.blogspot.com/2014/07/about-logo-for-learn-nothing-day.html
I’m glad the book has a good home and that you like it.
-=-It seems rather "un-unschooly" to lambast something on the basis that you think you can get it for free somewhere else. -=-
I don’t know whether it touches on “unschooliness,” but it seems particularly odd to complain that you can get “it” free from the very same person. :-)
I KNOW the website isn’t as easy to use and to share as the book is. :-)
And the book has a pretty cover!
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
Yes. The “Ouija-book” method.
For people without the book, the randomizer function on Just Add Light and Stir might work that way, too. If you’re stuck, you could try going here, and clicking “Surprise me” in the upper right. :-)
If that one doesn’t soothe you, maybe one of the linked files below the post (if you’re on a computer) will.
I have a little book I used to carry around and use as a Ouija book. ZEN LESSONS: The Art of Leadership
There’s a link to one image from it on my site, below. I found what I had written about it, years ago, in another context, for students of mine in the Society for Creative Anachronism (my apprentices, my husband’s squires, and a friend’s squire). I had no idea, then, that I would someday create a book other people used that way. :-)
__________
Finding Inspiration
Some people like to read Twelve-Step affirmations books, some like the Bible, some people like to go to the mountains and hear the wind in the trees and smell the clean sky. Whatever it takes to be inspired, find that and do it. (And now, again, I'm talking to myself because I forget. Everyone forgets.)
My favorite book is ZEN LESSONS: The Art of Leadership from Shambhala Books. My copy was a birthday gift from Wendy/Aindrea when she was my student. I've had it for just a couple of years, and it's dog-eared, dog-bitten, written in and well loved. Here's a quote:
ENLIGHTENED VIRTUE
Mingjiao said:
Nothing is more honorable than enlightenment, nothing is more beautiful than virtue. Those who have enlightened virtue have it even though they be ordinary people, while those who lack enlightened virtue lack it even though they be kings.
There were some people who starved to death in ancient times but have been admired ever since for their virtue; there were others who were kings but have been despised ever since for their lack of virtue.
So learners worry about not being imbued with virtue, they do not worry about not being in positions of power and authority. —[Tanqin Annals]
________________
Here’s the quote I’ve used about not labeling kids, about multiple intelligences:
http://sandradodd.com/intelligences/zenthing
The puppy that chewed that book grew old and is gone.
The image links to the page onHoward Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
One thing leads to another. Or to many others. :-) I hope you all keep following trails, and sharing what you find, even after your children are grown and gone.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
______________
a couple of assumptions are being made about the people who wrote those reviews, one of them perhaps being that those ladies aren't on this list. at least one of them is. hi, i wrote the 2nd review that sandra quoted.
i'm very sorry sandra, that you got your feelings hurt. i wish you hadn't taken it that way. in all three of those reviews, none of us said that we didn't like what you had to say. no one said there was no value in the book. no one said that it didn't take work to produce. what all three reviews said is that the format wasn't for them. a pretty valid statement i think. not everything is for everyone. that's the information i shared publicly, it wasn't wrong or incorrect, it was my opinion that the book wasn't for me.
in my review, i said that i bought the book without even looking in it, just because it had sandra's name on it. that's pretty complimentary i think. i obviously found value in that alone.
is it a far stretch to imagine that someone could get the impression that the book was taken from the website when the dedication says "here is an artistic impression of my website in a book"? my review wasn't written as an insult, it was my honest impression of what i was looking at.
by the way, my review wasn't a copy of someone else's. i didn't even realize that someone else had written something similar until now. you can write reviews without actually going to the book's info page and reading what others have written, especially from the app. the september 2015 date also isn't correct for when i wrote that. that's just the last date of activity, when i shelved under a homeschool tag.
i'm not sure why it was assumed that any of the reviewers was looking for something for nothing. i bought the book. the statement i made wasn't "this is on the internet, so no need to pay for it." the statement was, i didn't like the format of what looks like the website in a book.
I'd also like to add that the anonymity of the original post, wasn't actually so anonymous. The page wasn't linked, but the website was given and the reviews there are attached to real names.
i'm disappointed that no one gave the benefit of the doubt to any of the reviewers. it was just assumed that they were misinformed, unkind, and looking for something for nothing. not actually the case at all.
just adding a little perspective from the other side.
______________
The reason I deleted names and didn’t link the page is that I wasn’t trying to talk about individual people, or the reviewers. I was, as I said, expressing my own frustration that things were posted that weren’t true.
-=- I don’t want to link it here, because that would “out" the people I’m about to quote anonymously.-=-
I didn’t wonder who the people were, I didn’t click on their names. It wasn’t about who wrote. It was about what was written, and the humorous truth that two reviews (one right after the other, on the page) seemed (and i said “seems”) to be so identical.
_______________________
So hold on….
One wrote " I didn't realize beforehand that it's just a copy/paste of pages from her website.”
Another wrote, and right after, on the website, too: i didn't realize that it was just a copy/paste from her website before i bought it.
THAT seems to be some “copy/paste.”
And it’s not true. :-)
_________________________
It is NOT “just a copy/paste from her website.”
That was my point.
“Just” is a heck of a word to use one way or the other.
I’m not asking for anyone to take anything back. I’m not mad. I told a story, involving myself, without naming any other names, and would like for it to remain that way.
Sandra