[email protected]

In a message dated 8/4/2007 8:56:28 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:

Why be so insistent that you (collective you) know best? I know people are
here
to get *your* (collective your) advice,<<<<<<<<<<<

OK I really haven't had time to keep up on the posts on any list, LOL, but
did have a minute this morning to read through the digest here and wanted to
comment on this one.

Personally I don't look at lists like this as "advice columns". I think of
it more as: we are all on this path, well some of us are at the beginning
just looking down the path trying to decide if it is the one we want to take.
But we are all somewhere on the path. Maybe I have always been living
consensually with my children so unschooling was just the logical path when they
became school age, so I might be a little further along the path than others,
and less so that some. But I think of us all as equals, no gurus. All I can
do is share my journey, share what has worked for us, and what hasn't (that
helps too). I can talk about our journey but it is our journey. I may be able
to suggest what I might have done if I were in a particular situation, but
will never know for sure if I have never encountered that. I also may reach
roadblocks. It may be that someone who has been unschooling longer than I
will take a step back and help me move that road block, or it may be that
someone who is new to all of this will run up ahead and help me move it. Or we all
three work together. So I don't think there is a "collective you" there is
an "us". We can only throw down pebbles along the road and some might find
them useful and pick them up, some not.

Giving advice seems like that are people here who know what others should
do. I can only speak for myself and what I have done or might do, not what
others should do. I agree that delivery is key, sharing is nice.

Anyway just my thoughts on this busy morning, now back to work.
Pam G





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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Deb Lewis

***So I don't think there is a "collective you" there is
an "us". We can only throw down pebbles along the road and some
might find
them useful and pick them up, some not.***


Edna St. Vincent Millay referred to the collective knowledge of
mankind as "little gray stones" on the great cairn of knowledge in a
poem called, "The Cairn."


When I think of the little children learning
In all the schools of the world,
Learning in Danish, learning in Japanese
That two and two are four, and where the rivers of the world
Rise, and the names of the mountains and the principal cities,
My heart breaks.
Come up, children! Toss your little stones gaily
On the great cairn of Knowledge!
(Where lies what Euclid knew, a little grey stone,
What Plato, what Pascal, what Galileo:
Little grey stones, little grey stones on a cairn.)
Tell me, what is the name of the highest mountain?
Name me a crater of fire! a peak of snow!
Name me the mountains on the moon!
But the name of the mountain that you climb all day,
Ask not your teacher that.

~Edna St Vincent Millay~

I enjoy the imagery of what Euclid knew as just one little gray
stone on the ever growing stone heap of human knowledge. Then, the
little children forced to try to climb that cairn.

No one on this list is here by force. We toss our little stones
gaily. <g>

Deb Lewis

Ren Allen

~~No one on this list is here by force. We toss our little stones
gaily. <g>~~

I like this. Maybe it's just about deschooling. The collective voices
here aren't going to have anyone's answers. Advice is simply coming
from a place of "here's what I've learned over the years" as Pam said.

Like the Buddhist philosophy, nobody else can find your
truth....that's for each person to excavate. Unschooling is hugely
about your own learning, your own path. Nobody can give that to you,
but there are "way-pointers".

The posts here are sort of like a person pointing to the door.
Everyone has to walk through it in their own way and time. But people
can point to the door and say "That one will help you with this".:)

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

diana jenner

On 8/4/07, Ren Allen <starsuncloud@...> wrote:
>
> ~~No one on this list is here by force. We toss our little stones
> gaily. <g>~~
>
> I like this. Maybe it's just about deschooling. The collective voices
> here aren't going to have anyone's answers. Advice is simply coming
> from a place of "here's what I've learned over the years" as Pam said.
>
> Like the Buddhist philosophy, nobody else can find your
> truth....that's for each person to excavate. Unschooling is hugely
> about your own learning, your own path. Nobody can give that to you,
> but there are "way-pointers".
>
> The posts here are sort of like a person pointing to the door.
> Everyone has to walk through it in their own way and time. But people
> can point to the door and say "That one will help you with this".:)
>

















-=-
For me, as an experienced unschooler with still so much to learn, I'm here
because I feel what was missing from my *basics* intro to RU was a voice
like mine. It seemed a lot of work to take others' experiences and apply
them to my own World. And yet the more voices I had speaking to me, the
easier the adaptation was because I could pick and choose who's words rang
true in my heart.
I don't want the discussion of *basics* (about any topic) to be only between
those who are on the exact same place on the Path, I need to hear from those
ahead of me and understand there are those still behind me to fully
appreciate where I *am* right now and help me with the sometimes elusive
"Big Picture" perspective.
--
~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Lisa

I have always thought of this list as a group of folks taking a walk
together... sometimes the path gets very steep and some of us are not
as physically fit as others so we figure out a little different way to
get further along the path. Sometimes the path is going downhill and
we all can go down as one group. Sometimes someone trips and falls
and we help them up... and sometimes someone is tired and grouchy and
we allow them some alone time to get their thoughts together so they
can carry on. No one is here to carry the others, no one is here to
trip the others, no one is here to drag the others. Sometimes there
are people who have already been along this path and they can tell the
others things that worked to make their path easier the last time.
Just think if every single person on this list had the same exact
viewpoint?? Boy that would sure be boring and we wouldn't be likely
to get much out of having a discussion with people who think the exact
same things we do. We always learn more when what we think and do
are challenged... we have to stretch our minds and our expectations in
order to further understand the path. Again my new mantra... it's a
process!
Lisa Blocker






> For me, as an experienced unschooler with still so much to learn,
I'm here
> because I feel what was missing from my *basics* intro to RU was a voice
> like mine. It seemed a lot of work to take others' experiences and apply
> them to my own World. And yet the more voices I had speaking to me, the
> easier the adaptation was because I could pick and choose who's
words rang
> true in my heart.
> I don't want the discussion of *basics* (about any topic) to be only
between
> those who are on the exact same place on the Path, I need to hear
from those
> ahead of me and understand there are those still behind me to fully
> appreciate where I *am* right now and help me with the sometimes elusive
> "Big Picture" perspective.
> --
> ~diana :)
> xoxoxoxo
> hannahbearski.blogspot.com
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>