Sarah Thompson

I watched a documentary last night called "Janis: Little Girl Blue." It was powerful and sad, but it made me think about some aspects of unschooling, as well.

 Janis was very unhappy in school; she couldn't look or act the part of a fifties schoolgirl and the biographer clearly feels that her experience as a bullied misfit (even in college) was something she never recovered from, and that led to her untimely death. Also, she didn't know she could sing until she was 17. Imagine having a voice like THAT and not knowing! But she found it, and through it, what happiness she *did* achieve. 

That made me realize that I can't be sure I will put all the right things in my children's paths, but if I avoid putting the *wrong* things in their paths, and keep their horizons as broad as possible, they are best positioned to find their voices, and keep them. 

Sarah