zenmomma *

>>Subject: "accelerated unschooling">>

>>Any ideas as to a good response I can send?>>

Ow,Ow! Uncle! I give in! I swear I'll never use the word gifted again! Geez,
they just don't get it! Ouch! You're right, people will just use any excuse
to f**k with their kids. Oops. Did I say that onlist? ;-)

There are some truly brilliant minds out there, and no, those school induced
gifted labels do not identify them most of the time. Einstein was kicked out
of school for being too dull and Edison for being a troublemaker.
Recognizing your child's gifts is a good thing. And yes, some kids do really
thrive on an accelerated pace. I call it unschooling on speed. But it's the
child who leads and the parent who tries to keep up. That's the unschooling
part of it. Leading a child like this by the nose through a pre-planned set
of study that the parents think is "worthwhile" will not lead to anything.
Time to play and dream and think might lead to something really special
though. And it certainly won't harm the child the way a pushy parent with an
agenda will.

Children need freedom in order to learn. Truly brilliant minds are no
different. If this woman thinks her kids are brilliant, then they need time
to think and daydream and ponder. They don't need to be led toward the right
answers, they need to be free to ponder the questions that haven't even been
asked yet. They need to look at 2+2 and think of the hidden answer, the
stuff that the brilliant minds of the past had not even been looking at. If
they truly are brilliant, then this is what happens. The wheels turn, the
ideas form, and always, always (as with with every human) the learning
happens.

Geez.

Life is good.
~Mary, the traditional radical unschooler




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