Holly Furgason

--- In [email protected], "Robyn Coburn"
<dezigna@c...> wrote:

> This is still dividing life into the educational, and the non-
educational
> and therefore less worthy.

My oldest who is 19 and in college was upset yesterday because his
girlfriend said she didn't think he had accomplished anything in
Nov. She is a senior at a very exclusive private high school and
cannot see learning beyond the schoolish.

Justin knew he had a accomplished a lot and was upset that she
couldn't see it. He told me that he some of his accomplishments were-

-Finding a simple brass fife at the thrift shop for 50 cents and
learning to play the songs that he knew from his tin whistles and
recorders on it.

-Figuring out how to make kilts by looking at some kilts at the
thrift store. He hand stitched two kilts (a cotton practice one and
one out of a wool black watch tartan he also found at the thrift
store) and even made the leather straps.

-Studying hard and *passing* all of his classes at school. This one
doesn't count though because his goal is not to A's in every class
but to just get through two of the required ones so he doesn't have
to take them again.

Even if that's all he did, that's still a lot of learning and
accomplishments to us and these are just the highlights but she
misses the whole thing. Sometimes it's hard to keep my mouth shut.
<sigh>

Holly
2 COOL 4 SCHOOL
Unschooling t-shirts and more!
http://www.cafepress.com/2cool4school

Julie

Thank you for your thoughts too!
Curious about this...

> -Studying hard and *passing* all of his classes at school. This
one
> doesn't count though because his goal is not to A's in every class
> but to just get through two of the required ones so he doesn't have
> to take them again.

Is your son taking some college classes?

I figured I needed to change my train of thoughts and letting my
kids 'learn as we go thru life' but what I think makes it hard is
trying not to compare my kids with their government-schooled
cousins. And having 13 educators in our family sort of puts me in
the mode of wanting to prove we're learning, even if it isn't the
way 'they' are doing in. KWIM?

Well, thanks again! I have so much to learn!

Julie

--- In [email protected], "Holly Furgason"
<unschooler@s...> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "Robyn Coburn"
> <dezigna@c...> wrote:
>
> > This is still dividing life into the educational, and the non-
> educational
> > and therefore less worthy.
>
> My oldest who is 19 and in college was upset yesterday because his
> girlfriend said she didn't think he had accomplished anything in
> Nov. She is a senior at a very exclusive private high school and
> cannot see learning beyond the schoolish.
>
> Justin knew he had a accomplished a lot and was upset that she
> couldn't see it. He told me that he some of his accomplishments
were-
>
> -Finding a simple brass fife at the thrift shop for 50 cents and
> learning to play the songs that he knew from his tin whistles and
> recorders on it.
>
> -Figuring out how to make kilts by looking at some kilts at the
> thrift store. He hand stitched two kilts (a cotton practice one
and
> one out of a wool black watch tartan he also found at the thrift
> store) and even made the leather straps.
>
> -Studying hard and *passing* all of his classes at school. This
one
> doesn't count though because his goal is not to A's in every class
> but to just get through two of the required ones so he doesn't have
> to take them again.
>
> Even if that's all he did, that's still a lot of learning and
> accomplishments to us and these are just the highlights but she
> misses the whole thing. Sometimes it's hard to keep my mouth shut.
> <sigh>
>
> Holly
> 2 COOL 4 SCHOOL
> Unschooling t-shirts and more!
> http://www.cafepress.com/2cool4school

Robyn Coburn

<<<<Justin knew he had a accomplished a lot and was upset that she
couldn't see it. >>>>

The comforting fact about this is that *he* knew he had accomplishments, and
his distress was over his girlfriend's obtuseness, rather than becoming
discouraged and self-deprecating and *believing* her point of view that he
had no accomplishments. That self-esteem is an important and wonderful
factor for you to hold on to - maybe even remind him of somehow.

Robyn L. Coburn

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Holly Furgason

--- In [email protected], "Julie" <julesRN@c...>
wrote:

> Is your son taking some college classes?

Yes. He started two years ago but this is his first fulltime,
academic semester. He's a drama major so all his classes up until
now have been performance. He still had to take tests and write
papers and reports but the load was lighter. He knows that the
classes he's taking are just hoops (though he loves learning about
new subjects but he'd rather just have dinner with the professors and
discuss things :-) and he just wants to jump through them ASAP.

> I figured I needed to change my train of thoughts and letting my
> kids 'learn as we go thru life' but what I think makes it hard is
> trying not to compare my kids with their government-schooled
> cousins. And having 13 educators in our family sort of puts me in
> the mode of wanting to prove we're learning, even if it isn't the
> way 'they' are doing in. KWIM?

We're forced into it because it's the standard that society has and
it's constantly being thrown in our faces, educators in the family or
not. I was reading an article recently that said something parents
in functional families meet the current needs of their children
without worrying about the future. That's exactly what unschooling
does and the opposite of what schools do.

Holly
2 COOL 4 SCHOOL
http://www.cafepress.com/2cool4school
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