Re: .RE: [UnschoolingDiscussionDoing too litZtle? WAS Unsch and "gifted" ch...
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In a message dated 1/3/05 2:55:45 PM, pamsoroosh@... writes:
<< So - if I put out a box load of pattern blocks on the coffee table and
wake up in the morning to discover that kids have played with them ---
that is unschooling or not, depending on what I was THINKING when I did
it?>>
Yeah, that's beyond rational.
YES, mothers need to deschool themselves. Yes.
And one thing that helps the most is for the to really see their kid learning
without being taught.
If a mom wanted to try unschooling but she was skeptical and didn't think it
would work, still if she put some things out and discovered her children were
learning, she would be a step closer to believing it could work lifelong.
<<I'm in the middle of reading George Orwell's "1984" and I can't help
reading things like the above and thinking "Thought Police.">>
Some people are better at reading other people's thoughts than others
(--Howard Gardner's interpersonal intelligence writings), and most kids wouldn't know
or care what their mother intended. Those who had been in school recently or
been schooled at home recently REALLY wouldn't care, as long as they weren't
being assigned to do a particular thing. And they might just avoid the
presented whatever, but that has always been a part of the "leave stuff out"
advice. Let them take it or leave it, and let your reactions to that be a further
part of your work to get to unschooling.
-=-A parent who thinks her kids might benefit from and enjoy learning a
bit more about mathematical shapes strews pattern blocks in their path.
Leaving a pile of pattern blocks on the table for kids to discover on
their own and to DECIDE on their own if they are, or are not,
interested and to play with them in their own way - is NOT a "schoolish
agenda."-=-
It's a learning agenda, maybe.
I've always hoped my kids would learn. Gosh and golly, I still do. But I've
never *made* them learn (or thought I could). I've never prided myself on
being their only teacher and I've never thought it was because of me that they
could walk or talk. But I have thought it was because of me that they could be
left alone to learn to read in their own ways. I manipulated the rest of
the world to leave them alone, I didn't manipulate the kids.
Sandra
<< So - if I put out a box load of pattern blocks on the coffee table and
wake up in the morning to discover that kids have played with them ---
that is unschooling or not, depending on what I was THINKING when I did
it?>>
Yeah, that's beyond rational.
YES, mothers need to deschool themselves. Yes.
And one thing that helps the most is for the to really see their kid learning
without being taught.
If a mom wanted to try unschooling but she was skeptical and didn't think it
would work, still if she put some things out and discovered her children were
learning, she would be a step closer to believing it could work lifelong.
<<I'm in the middle of reading George Orwell's "1984" and I can't help
reading things like the above and thinking "Thought Police.">>
Some people are better at reading other people's thoughts than others
(--Howard Gardner's interpersonal intelligence writings), and most kids wouldn't know
or care what their mother intended. Those who had been in school recently or
been schooled at home recently REALLY wouldn't care, as long as they weren't
being assigned to do a particular thing. And they might just avoid the
presented whatever, but that has always been a part of the "leave stuff out"
advice. Let them take it or leave it, and let your reactions to that be a further
part of your work to get to unschooling.
-=-A parent who thinks her kids might benefit from and enjoy learning a
bit more about mathematical shapes strews pattern blocks in their path.
Leaving a pile of pattern blocks on the table for kids to discover on
their own and to DECIDE on their own if they are, or are not,
interested and to play with them in their own way - is NOT a "schoolish
agenda."-=-
It's a learning agenda, maybe.
I've always hoped my kids would learn. Gosh and golly, I still do. But I've
never *made* them learn (or thought I could). I've never prided myself on
being their only teacher and I've never thought it was because of me that they
could walk or talk. But I have thought it was because of me that they could be
left alone to learn to read in their own ways. I manipulated the rest of
the world to leave them alone, I didn't manipulate the kids.
Sandra