Something new from Pam Laricchia
Sandra Dodd
There’s something new from Pam Laricchia every week, but this is a new kind of thing, the second of compilations.
Some of the people she’s included are in this group.
I’m quoting Pam Laricchia’s e-mail until I end it with a second line like this, and then I have comments:
______________________
On the podcast ...
The Sparkle of Unschooling
This week I put together a compilation of sixteen experienced unschooling parents answering the question, “Looking back, what has been the most valuable outcome from choosing unschooling?” I titled this episode The Sparkle of Unschooling because it's all about THE ONE THING. The thing we eventually discover that we celebrate the most about choosing unschooling. BOOM! Mic drop. Fireworks. And often it’s not the thing we thought we were looking for when we started out on our unschooling journey.
You can listen to the episode here, or on YouTube, or read the full transcript here. [links were embedded in her mailing, but I’ll put them below]
I decided to take a short quote from each guest's reply—here we go!
Pam Sorooshian: "The close relationships that we have. Absolutely. No other thing could come close to that. There is nothing that could come close to that. There is nothing more important than relationships. That’s it."
Sandra Dodd: "Kids know that they have options. My kids know in their adult lives that they can make choices, and that they can get help from their resources, and that we will try to help them."
Amy Childs: "Well, the most valuable thing to me has been the relationship with my kids. I think what they would say about unschooling is that it’s not that they got into college or what they do for money, it’s that they have confidence that they know how to make a good life for themselves."
Joyce Fetteroll: "Well, this is a short answer, it’s definitely the great relationships that we have."
Jennifer McGrail: "This is the easiest question for me to answer. There’s obviously so many benefits to unschooling: seeing the kids learn, to have freedom and be happy, not going through the angst I see other kids go through. All of that is great, but far and away the best thing is my own relationship with the kids. I know regular homeschooled kids and public school kids can have good relationships with their parents, but I think relationships come first in the unschooling journey."
Lainie Liberti: "It’s the relationship I have with my son and the beautiful relationships that I’ve been able to forge with all the teens that have come into our lives. I don’t think I would have been as open and respectful and approached life on such a partnership with this group of people, including my son, of course, had I not discovered unschooling as a philosophy. And, I have to add, the permission to be a lifelong learner. It gave me back the permission to learn to go back to the natural learner that we’re all wired to be."
Carol Black: "People probably say this, but it’s like they always say, people on their death bed don’t say they wish they had spent more time at the office, they say they wish they had spent more time with their kids. I really feel just the time you have with each other as a family and the time you have to be out in nature and to read books together and think and talk together, it’s just the most precious part of life. To me, that’s the most important thing."
Jennifer Andersen: "The greatest part of being exposed to living this way is really understanding what unconditional acceptance and unconditional love is. At least, understanding it more than I ever had to this point. Really appreciating people for who they are, and my kids especially, because if we had continued down the path that we were on, I wouldn’t even know my kids. How could I have possibly known them if they were told where they were going to be, and what they were going to think about during school hours, and then they were going to be to told what they had to play?"
Akilah S. Richards: "It would go right back to that liberation mindset. That all of these things I believe in as a social justice believer, as an intersectional feminist, all of these things I believe in, unschooling for me has truly been the vehicle that allows me to live that. To live my politics in that sense. To afford that same right to my children—and not just mine, but I have more of an influence with my children in terms of what they can and can’t do. That’s the most important thing. I now get to practice liberation and I get to extend that space to my daughters."
Pushpa Ramachandran: "I would have to say hands down the most valuable outcome for choosing unschooling is to rediscover the joy of learning. And how learning is really the most important part of anything that you do. And how learning is constantly happening whether I decide to pin up a board on it and display it and shout out, “Oh we are learning, we are learning!” Whether I choose to or not, it is still going to happen. I have no control over learning. It will happen no matter what I try to do or not do."
Robyn Coburn: "Well, that is a really short answer. I have a very happy daughter with no school damage and a close connection to her parents, to James and me. That is the outcome. That is it."
Jan Hunt: "Just to look at Jason and know that he is happy, very secure, that he is amazing."
Jan Fortune: "The most valuable thing for me has been these ongoing relationships of trust and support which are now with a group of young adults who are on all different kinds of journeys. Just the fact that that goes on and on and develops and the excitement that it’s now developing with a first grandchild, it’s absolutely amazing to have that much trust and support with these incredible young people. It’s also given all of us the mindset that the whole of life is about learning and that’s really helpful, I think, in a world where flexibility is essential."
Ronnie Maier: "Relationships. Definitely. I wanted to say something more original because I’m sure you’ve had people say relationships quite a bit. Having grown kids who enjoy your company, who call you when they’re feeling sad and want to go shopping with you or have you come visit them in Minneapolis. It’s huge and it continues to be work."
Maria Randolph: "I would say the most valuable outcome to unschooling is that I was able to take my time and look at our relationship differently. I think we have always had a fine relationship I really do. You know, I like self-improvement, but I had to do that at a younger age with homeschooling. I feel like because of that we had a stronger bond and a more respectful relationship between two humans than I think we would have had otherwise. Because I began to see her not as the child, but as a person who needed guidance but fully had her own ideas, her own thoughts whether she was verbalizing them or not."
Anna Brown: "I think it really has to be time because, as I mentioned, we didn’t know how much time we would have with my oldest and really, the truth of matter is, we don’t know how much time we have with anybody. Some people don’t like to think about that, but it’s the truth. I knew early on, because of our experience with her, that I wanted to enjoy every moment. I wanted to be able to live with no regrets and if it all ended tomorrow that I could say we had the most awesome time together and I’m so grateful. That’s where I wanted to be and that’s what we did. That’s what we’re still doing. I still do it today all the time because you just never know, and that’s what guides my decisions, and my spending time with people that I love, and my doing the things that I enjoy. It gave us, as a family, so much that I will always be grateful for."
The sparkle of unschooling!
________________________________________
https://livingjoyfully.ca/blog/2018/08/eu138-the-sparkle-of-unschooling/
https://youtu.be/Yob3r74bXpA
https://livingjoyfully.ca/eu138-transcript/
________________________________________
Notes from Sandra:
Subscribe to Pam’s mailings if you haven’t already. The e-mails themselves are some of her best writing, and the most inspiring.
Jan Fortune is not an unschooler—she promoted another kind of learning, "autonomous education,” in the UK, and claimed for years that it was the same as unschooling. She actively discouraged UK home ed folk from reading outside of the local stuff, saying that unschooling was just another word for what she was selling (in a magazine and books). Years later it was admitted she knew all along they were different. I’m not a fan of dishonesty, so I bristle a bit, but maybe what she said is good. I haven’t listened yet, but I’m about to. :-)
Her ex husband, Mike Wood (they used to both go by “Fortune-Wood”) posted something in Radical Unschooling Info recently that was a mismatch for radical unschooling, but he didn’t know where he was posting. Two posts went wild on facebook and notifed EVERY member of that group whether they had requested notifications or not, so we got a few people show up with a “what!?” response…. anyway…
Surely there will be a ton of good stuff in this podcast and I’m off to listen while I do mending.
Sandra
Some of the people she’s included are in this group.
I’m quoting Pam Laricchia’s e-mail until I end it with a second line like this, and then I have comments:
______________________
On the podcast ...
The Sparkle of Unschooling
This week I put together a compilation of sixteen experienced unschooling parents answering the question, “Looking back, what has been the most valuable outcome from choosing unschooling?” I titled this episode The Sparkle of Unschooling because it's all about THE ONE THING. The thing we eventually discover that we celebrate the most about choosing unschooling. BOOM! Mic drop. Fireworks. And often it’s not the thing we thought we were looking for when we started out on our unschooling journey.
You can listen to the episode here, or on YouTube, or read the full transcript here. [links were embedded in her mailing, but I’ll put them below]
I decided to take a short quote from each guest's reply—here we go!
Pam Sorooshian: "The close relationships that we have. Absolutely. No other thing could come close to that. There is nothing that could come close to that. There is nothing more important than relationships. That’s it."
Sandra Dodd: "Kids know that they have options. My kids know in their adult lives that they can make choices, and that they can get help from their resources, and that we will try to help them."
Amy Childs: "Well, the most valuable thing to me has been the relationship with my kids. I think what they would say about unschooling is that it’s not that they got into college or what they do for money, it’s that they have confidence that they know how to make a good life for themselves."
Joyce Fetteroll: "Well, this is a short answer, it’s definitely the great relationships that we have."
Jennifer McGrail: "This is the easiest question for me to answer. There’s obviously so many benefits to unschooling: seeing the kids learn, to have freedom and be happy, not going through the angst I see other kids go through. All of that is great, but far and away the best thing is my own relationship with the kids. I know regular homeschooled kids and public school kids can have good relationships with their parents, but I think relationships come first in the unschooling journey."
Lainie Liberti: "It’s the relationship I have with my son and the beautiful relationships that I’ve been able to forge with all the teens that have come into our lives. I don’t think I would have been as open and respectful and approached life on such a partnership with this group of people, including my son, of course, had I not discovered unschooling as a philosophy. And, I have to add, the permission to be a lifelong learner. It gave me back the permission to learn to go back to the natural learner that we’re all wired to be."
Carol Black: "People probably say this, but it’s like they always say, people on their death bed don’t say they wish they had spent more time at the office, they say they wish they had spent more time with their kids. I really feel just the time you have with each other as a family and the time you have to be out in nature and to read books together and think and talk together, it’s just the most precious part of life. To me, that’s the most important thing."
Jennifer Andersen: "The greatest part of being exposed to living this way is really understanding what unconditional acceptance and unconditional love is. At least, understanding it more than I ever had to this point. Really appreciating people for who they are, and my kids especially, because if we had continued down the path that we were on, I wouldn’t even know my kids. How could I have possibly known them if they were told where they were going to be, and what they were going to think about during school hours, and then they were going to be to told what they had to play?"
Akilah S. Richards: "It would go right back to that liberation mindset. That all of these things I believe in as a social justice believer, as an intersectional feminist, all of these things I believe in, unschooling for me has truly been the vehicle that allows me to live that. To live my politics in that sense. To afford that same right to my children—and not just mine, but I have more of an influence with my children in terms of what they can and can’t do. That’s the most important thing. I now get to practice liberation and I get to extend that space to my daughters."
Pushpa Ramachandran: "I would have to say hands down the most valuable outcome for choosing unschooling is to rediscover the joy of learning. And how learning is really the most important part of anything that you do. And how learning is constantly happening whether I decide to pin up a board on it and display it and shout out, “Oh we are learning, we are learning!” Whether I choose to or not, it is still going to happen. I have no control over learning. It will happen no matter what I try to do or not do."
Robyn Coburn: "Well, that is a really short answer. I have a very happy daughter with no school damage and a close connection to her parents, to James and me. That is the outcome. That is it."
Jan Hunt: "Just to look at Jason and know that he is happy, very secure, that he is amazing."
Jan Fortune: "The most valuable thing for me has been these ongoing relationships of trust and support which are now with a group of young adults who are on all different kinds of journeys. Just the fact that that goes on and on and develops and the excitement that it’s now developing with a first grandchild, it’s absolutely amazing to have that much trust and support with these incredible young people. It’s also given all of us the mindset that the whole of life is about learning and that’s really helpful, I think, in a world where flexibility is essential."
Ronnie Maier: "Relationships. Definitely. I wanted to say something more original because I’m sure you’ve had people say relationships quite a bit. Having grown kids who enjoy your company, who call you when they’re feeling sad and want to go shopping with you or have you come visit them in Minneapolis. It’s huge and it continues to be work."
Maria Randolph: "I would say the most valuable outcome to unschooling is that I was able to take my time and look at our relationship differently. I think we have always had a fine relationship I really do. You know, I like self-improvement, but I had to do that at a younger age with homeschooling. I feel like because of that we had a stronger bond and a more respectful relationship between two humans than I think we would have had otherwise. Because I began to see her not as the child, but as a person who needed guidance but fully had her own ideas, her own thoughts whether she was verbalizing them or not."
Anna Brown: "I think it really has to be time because, as I mentioned, we didn’t know how much time we would have with my oldest and really, the truth of matter is, we don’t know how much time we have with anybody. Some people don’t like to think about that, but it’s the truth. I knew early on, because of our experience with her, that I wanted to enjoy every moment. I wanted to be able to live with no regrets and if it all ended tomorrow that I could say we had the most awesome time together and I’m so grateful. That’s where I wanted to be and that’s what we did. That’s what we’re still doing. I still do it today all the time because you just never know, and that’s what guides my decisions, and my spending time with people that I love, and my doing the things that I enjoy. It gave us, as a family, so much that I will always be grateful for."
The sparkle of unschooling!
________________________________________
https://livingjoyfully.ca/blog/2018/08/eu138-the-sparkle-of-unschooling/
https://youtu.be/Yob3r74bXpA
https://livingjoyfully.ca/eu138-transcript/
________________________________________
Notes from Sandra:
Subscribe to Pam’s mailings if you haven’t already. The e-mails themselves are some of her best writing, and the most inspiring.
Jan Fortune is not an unschooler—she promoted another kind of learning, "autonomous education,” in the UK, and claimed for years that it was the same as unschooling. She actively discouraged UK home ed folk from reading outside of the local stuff, saying that unschooling was just another word for what she was selling (in a magazine and books). Years later it was admitted she knew all along they were different. I’m not a fan of dishonesty, so I bristle a bit, but maybe what she said is good. I haven’t listened yet, but I’m about to. :-)
Her ex husband, Mike Wood (they used to both go by “Fortune-Wood”) posted something in Radical Unschooling Info recently that was a mismatch for radical unschooling, but he didn’t know where he was posting. Two posts went wild on facebook and notifed EVERY member of that group whether they had requested notifications or not, so we got a few people show up with a “what!?” response…. anyway…
Surely there will be a ton of good stuff in this podcast and I’m off to listen while I do mending.
Sandra