Sandra Dodd

I’m joking, nearly.

Maybe someday (or already) we’ll need to just look back on the days when things were clearer, or that we had any chance of keeping them clear.

I read this in a discussion—not an unschooling discussion—elsewhere:

"So I'm now unschooling my 13 yr old neighbor in Latin, Shakespeare, and really funky mathematics topics.”

It’s not someone I could persuade, nor is there any purpose in it, but I thought it would be illustrative of… something.

It was on facebook, on the page of someone I’ve known since before AOL came along—*Prodigy days, and the person responding (quoted above) was also in that very-long-ago homeschooling discussion group. So it’s not someone new to homeschooling at all, but it’s also not someone who spent the ensuing years discussing unschooling. :-)

It’s a harsh kind of thought, to advise people to be wary of advice and information, but it’s the theme of my thoughts over the past couple of days. Some people are TRULY thoughtful and analytical and kindhearted and CAN help you, and others are in the “not helpful” to “harmful” range. There’s no good way to mark them from the outside, so… be wary of advice and information.

Sandra

Kelly Callahan

I was at a fund-raiser for a 2-3 day homeschool/learning center program. We have nothing to do with the center other than my daughter wanted to attend to hear the band that was playing and some of her friends would be there. 

I met a woman there who I discovered works at the program, teaching something- not sure what. The conversation meandered and at one point she said- 'oh, i think it's such a good idea to unschool during middle school' 
Which gave me pause, because she teaches _at a school_ (even a 2-3 day school) and not 2-3 minutes later was telling me about her plans to start a charter high school in the next couple years. 

I have also seen 'unschooling' tossed about similarly in a way that implies- like this woman was- kids just not being at school. Whether there is curriculum or what, to them it's simply not being in school and doing things differently, but without any foundation beneath it, in terms of unschooling principles. 

I wonder if these folks even have any idea that there _is_ a philosophy or a set of principles that guide unschooling. Which makes me think that perhaps it's helpful to inquire a bit and er, 'shed some light' on the origins of the word, and its history, if they don't know that. Not in a judgmental or chiding way, but in a, 'hey, so you must have read John Holt...' kind of way. 

But in this case, I didn't have the energy to get into it and in this case, she was clearly excited about what she was doing and pretty dug in... so... I let it go. 

On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 9:25 AM, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:
 

I’m joking, nearly.

Maybe someday (or already) we’ll need to just look back on the days when things were clearer, or that we had any chance of keeping them clear.

I read this in a discussion—not an unschooling discussion—elsewhere:

"So I'm now unschooling my 13 yr old neighbor in Latin, Shakespeare, and really funky mathematics topics.”

It’s not someone I could persuade, nor is there any purpose in it, but I thought it would be illustrative of… something.

It was on facebook, on the page of someone I’ve known since before AOL came along—*Prodigy days, and the person responding (quoted above) was also in that very-long-ago homeschooling discussion group. So it’s not someone new to homeschooling at all, but it’s also not someone who spent the ensuing years discussing unschooling. :-)

It’s a harsh kind of thought, to advise people to be wary of advice and information, but it’s the theme of my thoughts over the past couple of days. Some people are TRULY thoughtful and analytical and kindhearted and CAN help you, and others are in the “not helpful” to “harmful” range. There’s no good way to mark them from the outside, so… be wary of advice and information.

Sandra




--
Kelly Callahan CCH 
Concentric Healing Classical Homeopathy

(207) 691-6798



chris ester

My kids used to joke that some people thought that they were unschooling because they let their kids choose which curriculum to work on first....

I thought that this was a small gem of wisdom.
chris

On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 9:25 AM, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:
 

>>>"So I'm now unschooling my 13 yr old neighbor in Latin, Shakespeare, and really funky mathematics topics.”

It’s not someone I could persuade, nor is there any purpose in it, but I thought it would be illustrative of… something.<<<<

Sandra

__._,_.__

Sandra Dodd

-=-I wonder if these folks even have any idea that there _is_ a philosophy or a set of principles that guide unschooling.-=-

There are people putting themselves forth as unschooling experts who are quite vague about how it works. They’ll cheerily say "IT WORKS!” or throw out political justifications, but their ideas wouldn’t survive in a discussion like this, because they haven’t thought clearly about it (or can’t think clearly about it).

I’m glad there are some people who do care to understand it more deeply.

There’s a link going around to a blogpost dismissing unschooling and rejecting the term as having to do with “the dominant culture,” and claiming historical chicano unschooling, but calling it something else. There is someone else I saw in passing trying to present unschooling to Black families in some particular way that would suggest some kids learn differently than others.

ALL kids learn the same way—regardless of politics or race or intellectual particulars. There is not one kind of unschooling for “gifted” and one for slow.

Blind or deaf kids ARE likely to need some expert help to get tools, but then they can learn by exploring the world in ways that interest them.

Anyway… I care about what helps natural learning, and if someone’s politics get between them and seeing or caring about natural learning, unschooling isn’t going to work for them, NOT because they are different or their kids are exceptions, but because they’re not looking at or for unschooling. They’re grandstanding about something different.

Sandra