Ren Allen

"I am not trying to be argumentative. This is just my way of testing
this theory of unschooling. That said... example:

I had to learn multiplication tables.
I never forgot them.
I use them them all the time.
How does this fit in?"

It doesn't fit in, you weren't an unschooler!!;)

There are many things we were forced to learn, but I agree with others
that we would have eventually learned them anyway, in a more joyful
manner.

Do we HAVE to memorize a table of facts in order to thrive in this
world? I say no. My children all have their own way of figuring out
number equations, no two are exactly alike.
I had the times tables down pat in third grade, but felt stupid at
math all my life! What is more important, for a child to believe they
are capable and intelligent and can learn anything they need, or to
have some table of facts memorized that may or may not be helpful to them?

I say the multiplication tables are highly overrated as a table worth
memorizing. If a person finds it useful, they can memorize it at the
time they see the necessity.

Ren

Zoey

We are an Eclectic Homeschool family but we use a lot of Life
Learning or "Unschooling" techniques because I my self am a
knowledge addict and believe that all the things I have truly
learned in my life was learned through doing and applying. I have
forgotten most of my Public School carreer and I am just past 30
years old. Thank God I dove into life and slept,ate and drank what
ever knowledge I found after leaving THAT place. I found college
much more rewarding but way toooooo time consuming. I could learn
all that stuff in an eigth of the time, with hardly any of the
stress, expense or travel. Sorry, back to the point...

I was recently using some rote worksheets to teach my daughter math
but then I realized that she had no concept of how to figure out
life problems with what she had learned. I chucked the worksheets
and we now make up our own math thought experiments. In a few weeks
we have gone from doing sheets of addition and subtraction to
exploring concepts of multiplication, division, fractions, money
problems and she even tried to drag me into a percentage problem. I
told her I would look it up and study it myself so I didn't screw it
up and teach her wrong {I DISPIZE percentages%%%} Math is becoming
fun for both of us, she is learning it faster and she now
****WANTS**** to memorize the multiplication tables so she can
figure out problems faster. What a difference, no more long
sighs... ohhhhhmoooommmmm's... or but's... She is making everything
into a math problem... now how do I get her to stop, so I can think
in english instead of math.

Zoey Lee


--- In [email protected], "Ren Allen"
<starsuncloud@n...> wrote:
> "I am not trying to be argumentative. This is just my way of
testing
> this theory of unschooling. That said... example:
>
> I had to learn multiplication tables.
> I never forgot them.
> I use them them all the time.
> How does this fit in?"
>
> It doesn't fit in, you weren't an unschooler!!;)
>
> There are many things we were forced to learn, but I agree with
others
> that we would have eventually learned them anyway, in a more joyful
> manner.
>
> Do we HAVE to memorize a table of facts in order to thrive in this
> world? I say no. My children all have their own way of figuring out
> number equations, no two are exactly alike.
> I had the times tables down pat in third grade, but felt stupid at
> math all my life! What is more important, for a child to believe
they
> are capable and intelligent and can learn anything they need, or to
> have some table of facts memorized that may or may not be helpful
to them?
>
> I say the multiplication tables are highly overrated as a table
worth
> memorizing. If a person finds it useful, they can memorize it at
the
> time they see the necessity.
>
> Ren

[email protected]

In a message dated 9/29/2005 7:19:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
starsuncloud@... writes:

Do we HAVE to memorize a table of facts in order to thrive in this
world? I say no.


Nope! I remember HAVING to memorize the element chart in chemistry. I am not
a chemist. I have never used it since. I can't even remember most of it now.
I think the only time I've ever seen anything pertaining to it is maybe from
a crossword puzzle or Trivial Pursuit.

Same with the multiplication table. I remember being 8 yrs old and in tears
with my father standing over me drilling it into me. I still struggled with
it. I love my calculator these days. My parents just never understood why I had
such a hard time with numbers. My dad being an engineer and my mother was an
accountant/bookkeeper. It "should've been in my genes". I preferred the
written word. My biggest fascination was linguistics... where words come from,
how they evolved... in college, I took a class, History of the English
Language. My favorite class. I can still read and pronounce Middle English.

Jenny
Homeschooling in Greenfield
Danny (12-1-99), Kelsey (11-1-01) and Evelyn (5-19-04)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire. ~William Butler
Yeats



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

Deb

--- In [email protected], Saulithyia@a... wrote:
>
> My biggest fascination was linguistics... where words come from,
> how they evolved... in college, I took a class, History of the
>English
> Language. My favorite class. I can still read and pronounce
Middle >English.
>
> Jenny
Very cool. In 7th grade English, we learned the Lord's Prayer in old
or middle english (I forget which exactly) but I still remember a
few tidbits of it because it was so cool.

In college, one of my favorite classes was an elective I took on
semantics. It was fun - like a puzzle - trying to rephrase things
and digging into the construction of things. I still remember
rewriting (as a class assignment) the Pledge of Allegiance using
only a set of about 100 words (apparently someone had determined
that these hundred or so words are all that is needed to communicate
in the English language, eg instead of 3 words black, white, and not
just two black and not black - I don't exactly agree but it was fun
to play with). We could not use a single original word (Had to
figure something that sounded okay for "I" - that was tough).

But then my dad is a veteran crossword puzzler with a journalism
degree from NYU (though I don't think it's genetically related
generally speaking).

--Deb