Caroline Gallear

Ok, so today I faced my first bout of "why aren't you planning to send them
to school, they'll miss mixing with other kids" etc from a friend. A very
well-meaning one, and to be honest, I was kind of looking forward to meeting
up with her as I knew she'd have something to say on it!

I agree with all the positive stuff I hear about unschooling and I'm sure I
think it's a good idea, but my answers to my friend were a bit rubbish!

I'm not asking anyone to tell me what I think, :) but do you have any
practised, quick answers to the same old questions? I don't want to give a
lecture to my friends, but I think I sounded a bit lame!

thanks,
Caroline
dd 3.5
ds nearly 2
Hampshire, UK.


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otherstar

Depending on the person, you can answer it with a bit of humor. "I said I plan on homeschooling, not locking them in a closet."

Seriously, when I get those kinds of questions, I tell people about the playgroups and homeschooling groups that we belong to. The opportunities for homeschooled/unschooled kids to make friends/socialize are limitless.

Connie


From: Caroline Gallear
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 12:47 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Quick answers!



Ok, so today I faced my first bout of "why aren't you planning to send them
to school, they'll miss mixing with other kids" etc from a friend. A very
well-meaning one, and to be honest, I was kind of looking forward to meeting
up with her as I knew she'd have something to say on it!

I agree with all the positive stuff I hear about unschooling and I'm sure I
think it's a good idea, but my answers to my friend were a bit rubbish!

I'm not asking anyone to tell me what I think, :) but do you have any
practised, quick answers to the same old questions? I don't want to give a
lecture to my friends, but I think I sounded a bit lame!

thanks,
Caroline
dd 3.5
ds nearly 2
Hampshire, UK.

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Joyce Fetteroll

On May 11, 2010, at 1:47 PM, Caroline Gallear wrote:

> but do you have any
> practised, quick answers to the same old questions?

How about "Right now this is working for us. When it stops working
then we'll try something else." That way they don't see it as a
forever thing but something that will soon show you how foolish it is
and you can do things the "right" way ;-)

You also might start thinking in terms of not how you'll be able to do
what schools do but how school is an artificial way of kids trying to
do what they learned through real life. The socialization at school is
a warped imitation of real socialization. At no other time in life are
people divided up by age and expected to form friendships based on
nothing more than birth year.

Joyce

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Carole

I find the questions about mixing with other children fairly easy to answer, as we've been involved with quite a few HE groups and there's always more going on than we can do. Where I tend to feel like I've been completely lame is when I get the school-based interrogation - 'how do you do this?', 'how do you teach that?' etc. Basically, they are asking me the 'wrong' questions, questions that don't make sense in how we are approaching things, so I find that I am floundering when I try to answer them. Recently, I've found it helpful to answer the questions as best I can, try to have a couple of examples of something we have done, and quickly move on to wondering why they feel the need to prove to me that their children's schools do a very fine job of providing a personalised child-led education.

Carole
also in Hampshire

Caroline Gallear

On 11 May 2010 19:15, Joyce Fetteroll <jfetteroll@...> wrote:

>
>
>
> "You also might start thinking in terms of not how you'll be able to do
> what schools do but how school is an artificial way of kids trying to
> do what they learned through real life. The socialization at school is
> a warped imitation of real socialization. At no other time in life are
> people divided up by age and expected to form friendships based on
> nothing more than birth year."
>


>
>
Thanks Joyce, this is pretty much what I tried to say, just not very
succinctly!

Caroline.

>
>


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Karen Swanay

Of course you don't have to answer either. This is my pearl of wisdom age
is bringing me...not all questions need or deserve an answer.

However...my typical answer is that my kids AREN'T going to be learning to
be bullies, bullied, or passive accomplices to the bullying that is
pervasive in public school. The rest will work itself out.

Mine are older than yours but they have friends on XBOX live including
Schyler's children and that is socialization I prefer. "Hanging" with kids
that have common interests. So much better than simply because of birth
year and last name don't you think?


Karen
"Correlation does not imply causation."

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
nail." Abraham Maslow


On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Caroline Gallear <
carolinegallear@...> wrote:

> On 11 May 2010 19:15, Joyce Fetteroll <jfetteroll@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > "You also might start thinking in terms of not how you'll be able to do
> > what schools do but how school is an artificial way of kids trying to
> > do what they learned through real life. The socialization at school is
> > a warped imitation of real socialization. At no other time in life are
> > people divided up by age and expected to form friendships based on
> > nothing more than birth year."
> >
>
>
> >
> >
> Thanks Joyce, this is pretty much what I tried to say, just not very
> succinctly!
>
> Caroline.
>
> >
> >
>
>
>


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