Unschooling = funny kids with diverse interests
Deb Lewis
Last night Dylan said "Does anyone care if I go on-line?" He was
checking to see if anyone else was just then planning to use the computer
or if one of us was expecting a phone call.
In his most fatherly voice dh, David, said, "That depends, are you going
to be looking at pornography?"
Witty son, not missing a beat replied, "Almost certainly."
Dh, "By all means, then."
He did go on-line but he read book reviews at Amazon and went to the
website for the H.P. Lovecraft film festival (I know because he called me
in to look at the Cthulhu fish car emblem.) And then he came and
watched "Lost in Translation" with us.
And in light of Robyn's great post about TV content I thought I'd tell
you what an always unschooled, no TV limits, thirteen year old checked
out at the library.
One book, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlen. Three documentaries,
"World War II," The History Channel's "The Nazis Helped Into Power," and
"Prehistoric Life." Four movies: The Marx Brother's "Room Service,"
"Battlestar Galactic," "Malcolm X," and "Vertigo." And four episodes
of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Deb L
"For yesterday is already a memory and tomorrow is only a vision,
but today well lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day."
~Kalidasa
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
checking to see if anyone else was just then planning to use the computer
or if one of us was expecting a phone call.
In his most fatherly voice dh, David, said, "That depends, are you going
to be looking at pornography?"
Witty son, not missing a beat replied, "Almost certainly."
Dh, "By all means, then."
He did go on-line but he read book reviews at Amazon and went to the
website for the H.P. Lovecraft film festival (I know because he called me
in to look at the Cthulhu fish car emblem.) And then he came and
watched "Lost in Translation" with us.
And in light of Robyn's great post about TV content I thought I'd tell
you what an always unschooled, no TV limits, thirteen year old checked
out at the library.
One book, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlen. Three documentaries,
"World War II," The History Channel's "The Nazis Helped Into Power," and
"Prehistoric Life." Four movies: The Marx Brother's "Room Service,"
"Battlestar Galactic," "Malcolm X," and "Vertigo." And four episodes
of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Deb L
"For yesterday is already a memory and tomorrow is only a vision,
but today well lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day."
~Kalidasa
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 8/22/05 10:17:56 AM, ddzimlew@... writes:
Holly has made a website of her own, first time. Her "real one" is one I've
kept for years, and I have offered several times to let her take it over, but
she doesn't want to mess with HTML. So she made another one. She asked
me how to spell "mesmerize" but otherwise I didn't even KNOW about it until it
had four pages. Other kids she knows from XBox live showed her the site, I
guess. She links to a thing called "falling woman" that her friend in
England showed her. It IS mesmerizing (and a fun thing for anyone interested in
programming or art to look at). So Holly did NOT do that page. <g> (If the
woman gets stuck, you can lift/guide/pull her with the mouse.
http://www.piczo.com/blazingholly
Some people are afraid of the internet.
It still stuns me, the fear some parents have.
MILLIONS of parents who will send their kids to school (whatever all and
wherever all THAT might entail, once the kids walk away from the mom's sight), but
won't let them sit in their own homes and look at different sites on the
internet.
The DVDs and videos that have been watched by kids in the absence of adults
(sometimes with, but not at the instigation of adults, I guess I mean) in our
house lately:
Weird Al videos
The Wiz
Sin City
The Little Mermaid (remember my youngest is 13, and the boys can sing all
those songs <g>)
a trivial pursuit popular culture game involving a DVD was played for HOURS
the other night by over a dozen teens, half a dozen or more of whom ended up
spending the night because of it.
The same weekend, the night before that, Holly was invited and then prevented
from spending the night because she was a girl. Invited by the boy and
encouraged by the mom of the other boys (whom she's known for five years or so)
but the mom called me before it all really started and said they would bring
Holly home when it was time. "What it was time" meant, to her, before bedtime.
I poked at her a little to get her to say exactly what the deal was, and
she said "Because she's a girl."
First time in 19 years of parenting that there's been such a blatant bit of
discrimination. I was more amused than offended. There's more to the story.
I should tell it somewhere. unschooling.info maybe.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> In his most fatherly voice dh, David, said, "That depends, are you goingThat is so sweet. <g>
> to be looking at pornography?"
> Witty son, not missing a beat replied, "Almost certainly."
> Dh, "By all means, then."
>
>
Holly has made a website of her own, first time. Her "real one" is one I've
kept for years, and I have offered several times to let her take it over, but
she doesn't want to mess with HTML. So she made another one. She asked
me how to spell "mesmerize" but otherwise I didn't even KNOW about it until it
had four pages. Other kids she knows from XBox live showed her the site, I
guess. She links to a thing called "falling woman" that her friend in
England showed her. It IS mesmerizing (and a fun thing for anyone interested in
programming or art to look at). So Holly did NOT do that page. <g> (If the
woman gets stuck, you can lift/guide/pull her with the mouse.
http://www.piczo.com/blazingholly
Some people are afraid of the internet.
It still stuns me, the fear some parents have.
MILLIONS of parents who will send their kids to school (whatever all and
wherever all THAT might entail, once the kids walk away from the mom's sight), but
won't let them sit in their own homes and look at different sites on the
internet.
The DVDs and videos that have been watched by kids in the absence of adults
(sometimes with, but not at the instigation of adults, I guess I mean) in our
house lately:
Weird Al videos
The Wiz
Sin City
The Little Mermaid (remember my youngest is 13, and the boys can sing all
those songs <g>)
a trivial pursuit popular culture game involving a DVD was played for HOURS
the other night by over a dozen teens, half a dozen or more of whom ended up
spending the night because of it.
The same weekend, the night before that, Holly was invited and then prevented
from spending the night because she was a girl. Invited by the boy and
encouraged by the mom of the other boys (whom she's known for five years or so)
but the mom called me before it all really started and said they would bring
Holly home when it was time. "What it was time" meant, to her, before bedtime.
I poked at her a little to get her to say exactly what the deal was, and
she said "Because she's a girl."
First time in 19 years of parenting that there's been such a blatant bit of
discrimination. I was more amused than offended. There's more to the story.
I should tell it somewhere. unschooling.info maybe.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jen A
> She links to a thing called "falling woman" that her friend inWow, that's intense. It's both peaceful and horrifying at the same
> England showed her. It IS mesmerizing (and a fun thing for anyone
> interested in
> programming or art to look at). So Holly did NOT do that page. <g>
> (If the
> woman gets stuck, you can lift/guide/pull her with the mouse.
time. I just heard news this morning of a friend from college who died
last week in Namibia. He drowned in the rapids of a river. He was
doing what he loves most--exploring the world--and I like to imagine
that he was peaceful in his last moments. This computer graphic made me
think of him in his total surrender to the river.
In case anyone's interested, here's a short article about him.
http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=7300
He was a world renowned obsidian knapper and he named his own species of
fossil invertebrate after Frank Zappa. He used to climb trees in the
quadrangle and wedge bowling balls firmly into them. The next day there
would be a crowd of students looking up into the tree and wondering how
on earth a bowling ball got up there. My roommate and I always called
campus police on him every time he did it for fear that a ball would
fall down and kill someone. In fact it was pretty unlikely that one
would fall--he really wedged them in there!
Anyhow, I don't know why I just shared all this here--I guess I'm still
reeling from the news.
Jenny
[email protected]
I'm so sorry for your loss. He was a treasure!
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
October 6-9, 2005
http://liveandlearnconference.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Jen A <salten@...>
Wow, that's intense. It's both peaceful and horrifying at the same
time. I just heard news this morning of a friend from college who died
last week in Namibia. He drowned in the rapids of a river. He was
doing what he loves most--exploring the world--and I like to imagine
that he was peaceful in his last moments. This computer graphic made
me
think of him in his total surrender to the river.
In case anyone's interested, here's a short article about him.
http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=7300
He was a world renowned obsidian knapper and he named his own species
of
fossil invertebrate after Frank Zappa. He used to climb trees in the
quadrangle and wedge bowling balls firmly into them. The next day
there
would be a crowd of students looking up into the tree and wondering how
on earth a bowling ball got up there. My roommate and I always called
campus police on him every time he did it for fear that a ball would
fall down and kill someone. In fact it was pretty unlikely that one
would fall--he really wedged them in there!
Anyhow, I don't know why I just shared all this here--I guess I'm still
reeling from the news.
Jenny
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
October 6-9, 2005
http://liveandlearnconference.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Jen A <salten@...>
Wow, that's intense. It's both peaceful and horrifying at the same
time. I just heard news this morning of a friend from college who died
last week in Namibia. He drowned in the rapids of a river. He was
doing what he loves most--exploring the world--and I like to imagine
that he was peaceful in his last moments. This computer graphic made
me
think of him in his total surrender to the river.
In case anyone's interested, here's a short article about him.
http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=7300
He was a world renowned obsidian knapper and he named his own species
of
fossil invertebrate after Frank Zappa. He used to climb trees in the
quadrangle and wedge bowling balls firmly into them. The next day
there
would be a crowd of students looking up into the tree and wondering how
on earth a bowling ball got up there. My roommate and I always called
campus police on him every time he did it for fear that a ball would
fall down and kill someone. In fact it was pretty unlikely that one
would fall--he really wedged them in there!
Anyhow, I don't know why I just shared all this here--I guess I'm still
reeling from the news.
Jenny
Jen A
kbcdlovejo@... wrote:
he could run around his suburban neighborhood yelling "Pancreas! Pancreas!"
I will be thinking of him when I visit the Quad at Wash U while I'm
attending the Live and Learn Unschooling Conference in St. Louis,
October 6-9, 2005!
There we go--back on topic ;)
Jenny
> I'm so sorry for your loss. He was a treasure!Thanks Kelly. Yes, he really was. He named his cat "Pancreas" just so
>
> ~Kelly
he could run around his suburban neighborhood yelling "Pancreas! Pancreas!"
I will be thinking of him when I visit the Quad at Wash U while I'm
attending the Live and Learn Unschooling Conference in St. Louis,
October 6-9, 2005!
There we go--back on topic ;)
Jenny