Letting Go
luv_my_three_kids
Even though I have come to the conclusion that we mostly unschool here
it is still hard for me to let go of the "school" idea. Especially
since DH thinks they need to sit down for hours a day and do school
work. I understand the fact that children learn on their own and its a
natural process. I was looking through thier "school" books(we are
using a charter right now) trying to think of what to do for tomorrows
lessons. Everything looked so pointless, I kept thinking why do they
need to sit down with this book and "learn" this, they can learn that
on their own. The only book I could possibly think of using is their
math book. Knowing all this and believing in unschooling doesn't help
me get over the idea that they need to sit and do lessons. Don't know
what exactly my question is or if I even have a question, its just
hard to let go of these kind of ingrained thoughts.
it is still hard for me to let go of the "school" idea. Especially
since DH thinks they need to sit down for hours a day and do school
work. I understand the fact that children learn on their own and its a
natural process. I was looking through thier "school" books(we are
using a charter right now) trying to think of what to do for tomorrows
lessons. Everything looked so pointless, I kept thinking why do they
need to sit down with this book and "learn" this, they can learn that
on their own. The only book I could possibly think of using is their
math book. Knowing all this and believing in unschooling doesn't help
me get over the idea that they need to sit and do lessons. Don't know
what exactly my question is or if I even have a question, its just
hard to let go of these kind of ingrained thoughts.
scrapgal
--- In [email protected], "luv_my_three_kids"
<elaina.morrison@g...> wrote:
society "needs" school in order to contribute to the economic status
of our society. That's the mindset that we are put in. Without
schools our society would fail because this is the only way in which
people can learn. How else are we going to teach the masses if not
in schools? Certainly they can't learn this stuff on their own! (I
hope you are reading this dripping with sarcasm!)
How did most of us "learn math?" It was at school. So we don't
know any other way of learning math. Or science. Or literature.
Or economics. Or history. Or ART for that matter! Very few of us
were given the freedom to learn these things for ourselves. To
explore them on our own and figure it all out on an "as needed
basis." I liken it much to the fact that we don't live in a
breastfeeding society. If we did live in a breastfeeding society,
breastfeeding would be the norm and bottle feeding would be what
womyn did if they really truly couldn't breastfeed. Mothers
wouldn't quit after 3 or 4 days because they were familiar with the
cycle of breastfeeding and that breastfeeding would get easier and
smoother after the first couple of days or weeks. And they would
have support from their mothers, sisters, aunties, grandmothers,
girlfriends as well as the men in their lives because it was what
was *normal*
What we are trying to accomplish with unschooling is "not normal"
Abnormal if you wish to think of if that way. Think what we would
have if we were truly an unschooling society (in that wonderful
utopia that we dream of LOL!) Children would have all the creative
play and materials for creating art. Shopping malls (if they even
exist in our version of utopia) would be built around large green
spaces where children could run and play and curl up under (or in)
trees while waiting for their mothers to try on another pair of
shoes (if we are even wearing shoes in our utopia LOL!) Instead of
conversations at dinner like "So what did you learn today at school,
Junior" the parents and children alike would be sharing the joy of
their day. And our society, somehow, would still thrive. Video
games wouldn't be evil and television wouldn't be vile. And there
might even be something worth watching on television! :-D
We wouldn't question whether our children were "learning" because we
would see them excel and create and thrive beyond just thriving!
They would be living life to the fullest and they would feel
respected and honored by not only their parents but by society as a
whole. Unfortunately, we don't live in an unschooling society. We
live in a society that is geared to train our children to be ready
for school as soon as they are walking (if not sooner). Kids forget
how to be kids.
It might help to know that kids don't need to sit and "do math" to
learn math. They will learn math as they have a need for it and
many kids figure it out on their own. I'm astounded sometimes when
my kids ramble off something mathematical and I have to sit and
figure out if they are right or not (99,9% of the time they are).
And I didn't teach it to them. Not really. I mean we counted
together and learned numbers and quantities, but I did very little
arithmetic with them. They just figured it out because they had a
need to know a number and how to get that number.
Michelle
<elaina.morrison@g...> wrote:
>here
> Even though I have come to the conclusion that we mostly unschool
> it is still hard for me to let go of the "school" idea.That's because we live in a school-driven society. Our
society "needs" school in order to contribute to the economic status
of our society. That's the mindset that we are put in. Without
schools our society would fail because this is the only way in which
people can learn. How else are we going to teach the masses if not
in schools? Certainly they can't learn this stuff on their own! (I
hope you are reading this dripping with sarcasm!)
How did most of us "learn math?" It was at school. So we don't
know any other way of learning math. Or science. Or literature.
Or economics. Or history. Or ART for that matter! Very few of us
were given the freedom to learn these things for ourselves. To
explore them on our own and figure it all out on an "as needed
basis." I liken it much to the fact that we don't live in a
breastfeeding society. If we did live in a breastfeeding society,
breastfeeding would be the norm and bottle feeding would be what
womyn did if they really truly couldn't breastfeed. Mothers
wouldn't quit after 3 or 4 days because they were familiar with the
cycle of breastfeeding and that breastfeeding would get easier and
smoother after the first couple of days or weeks. And they would
have support from their mothers, sisters, aunties, grandmothers,
girlfriends as well as the men in their lives because it was what
was *normal*
What we are trying to accomplish with unschooling is "not normal"
Abnormal if you wish to think of if that way. Think what we would
have if we were truly an unschooling society (in that wonderful
utopia that we dream of LOL!) Children would have all the creative
play and materials for creating art. Shopping malls (if they even
exist in our version of utopia) would be built around large green
spaces where children could run and play and curl up under (or in)
trees while waiting for their mothers to try on another pair of
shoes (if we are even wearing shoes in our utopia LOL!) Instead of
conversations at dinner like "So what did you learn today at school,
Junior" the parents and children alike would be sharing the joy of
their day. And our society, somehow, would still thrive. Video
games wouldn't be evil and television wouldn't be vile. And there
might even be something worth watching on television! :-D
We wouldn't question whether our children were "learning" because we
would see them excel and create and thrive beyond just thriving!
They would be living life to the fullest and they would feel
respected and honored by not only their parents but by society as a
whole. Unfortunately, we don't live in an unschooling society. We
live in a society that is geared to train our children to be ready
for school as soon as they are walking (if not sooner). Kids forget
how to be kids.
It might help to know that kids don't need to sit and "do math" to
learn math. They will learn math as they have a need for it and
many kids figure it out on their own. I'm astounded sometimes when
my kids ramble off something mathematical and I have to sit and
figure out if they are right or not (99,9% of the time they are).
And I didn't teach it to them. Not really. I mean we counted
together and learned numbers and quantities, but I did very little
arithmetic with them. They just figured it out because they had a
need to know a number and how to get that number.
Michelle
Rodney and Rebecca Atherton
>Don't know what exactly my question is or if I even have a question, itsjust hard to >let go of these kind of ingrained thoughts.
I know what you are saying. It is hard to let go of how we were
conditioned? It might take time to unlearn or relearn that we CAN learn on
our own. It's a process and may take time. It was 13 years of programming.
It seems like when my brain takes one step forward in the process (towards
living an Unschooling lifestyle) my fears kick in and take me two steps
back. It's hard for me to let go and trust that my children will learn what
they need to learn and that they will learn it in their own time. I don't
have this trust because I was never trusted to learn on my own? I feel
schizophrenic sometimes.
<http://www.geocities.com/rebeccawow.geo> Rebecca
Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to
solve. -Roger Lewin
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