[email protected]

John,

Honestly it must look like I'm waiting for you to post something, but after I
wrote what's below, I think I realized what the irritation is.

<< ...[Berman] points out that out of 158 countries we are 49th in literacy,
that 60 percent of our population has never read a book of any kind, that
the number of truly educated individuals in America may amount to less than
5 million people, >>>>

I hope his definitions of "literacy" and "a book" and "truly educated" are in
there and that they're not as irritating as this excerpt.

Where would this never-read-a-book 60 percent have volunteered their
information? It sounds like alarmist writing, and no doubt the guy hopes
lots of readers will believe anything that has numbers.

"Truly educated" is a bomb which would probably take out a fair number of
homeschoolers.

I've seen but can't quote some humorous "stats" about stats. Something like
80% of readers believe 95% of anything that contains at least 5% statistics.

=======================

Okay, now I know what I'm bristly about.

Homeschooling and unschooling are enough of a socio-political project for me.
(FOR ME, not for just anyone.) I have resented the *many* times I've
gotten alarmist e-mail or been included rhetorically with "pro-life" and
creationist science and right-wing politics just because my kids weren't in
school.

I don't believe the sky is falling.

I don't believe that if the sky WERE falling that homeschooling would be the
platform from which to catch and reposition it.

So when all radical alternative politics are offered up as part of the
unschooling buffet [and yes, I know that there's nothing in the world from
which people can't learn, including maybe/I hope even this e-mail right
here], I feel really crowded and made to eat what I don't want to eat.

In case other people are feeling crowded, it seems worth pointing out
sometimes that there is an extreme-rhetoric coating on some basic truths
which can make it taste like the sky is going to fall before lunch.

Some people see homeschooling as a part of a conservative, religious
return-to-[recreated/fantasy]-Godly-roots lifestyle and they think they
invented it and they own it. Some people see homeschooling as a part of an
alternative, interplanetary-village new-age blossoming of immediate effect.
It's like the Age of Aquarius with terrorist agents.

I really like to see homeschooling as a range of options for families to use,
and it concerns me when a homeschooling information source aligns itself too
closely with a packaged set of unrelated beliefs one way or another.

There are probably temperamental and philosophical difference in point of
view depending on the age of the parents and the ages of their children and
the number of years they've homeschooled, too. When I was young I really
wanted to reform education totally from within. I was so young I didn't know
how big it was altogether, and what it really meant to have mortgages and to
be five years from retirement, and how many peripheral industries (cafeterias
and their providers of equipment and goods; schoolbus drivers and their
training seminars...) were between me (thousands of us, not me alone) and
change.

I neither want to be invited to abortion clinic protests nor be expected to
be vegan.
I neither want to have to sign a statement of faith nor to have to admit
whether I voted for Nader. I want to share how children can learn and how
families can incorporate unschooling with confidence. I'm interested in pure
unschooling.

So having made my protest here, I'll try to back off John as much as possible
and to shush up when something reminds me of something which has been really
unpleasant socially in the past. But please remember I'm not the only one
here, and that others will come in the future, with the same sensibilities.

Sandra

Mac and Carol Brown

Sandra,

Thank you for expressing something I too feel irritated and bristly about!

> Okay, now I know what I'm bristly about.
>
> Homeschooling and unschooling are enough of a socio-political project for me.
> (FOR ME, not for just anyone.) I have resented the *many* times I've gotten
> alarmist e-mail or been included rhetorically with "pro-life" and creationist
> science and right-wing politics just because my kids weren't in school.

I know one can 'just use one's delete finger' but it still irritates!

> So when all radical alternative politics are offered up as part of the
> unschooling buffet [and yes, I know that there's nothing in the world from
> which people can't learn, including maybe/I hope even this e-mail right
> here], I feel really crowded and made to eat what I don't want to eat.

Yes.

> Some people see homeschooling as a part of a conservative, religious
> return-to-[recreated/fantasy]-Godly-roots lifestyle and they think they
> invented it and they own it. Some people see homeschooling as a part of an
> alternative, interplanetary-village new-age blossoming of immediate effect.
> It's like the Age of Aquarius with terrorist agents.

Oh I like that phrase! <g>

> I really like to see homeschooling as a range of options for families to use,
> and it concerns me when a homeschooling information source aligns itself too
> closely with a packaged set of unrelated beliefs one way or another.
>
> There are probably temperamental and philosophical difference in point of
> view depending on the age of the parents and the ages of their children and the
> number of years they've homeschooled, too. When I was young I really wanted to
> reform education totally from within.

Me too, but perhaps this is something we all have to arrive at? Is it possible to
become a wise old woman when you're young? Or in John's case, well, sorry John,
but I doubt you'll ever be quite that - old yes, (I hope so), wise, maybe, but
woman - even with a sex change op, not quite <bg>

> I neither want to be invited to abortion clinic protests nor be expected to
> be vegan. I neither want to have to sign a statement of faith nor to have to
> admit whether I voted for Nader. I want to share how children can learn and
> how families can incorporate unschooling with confidence. I'm interested in
> pure unschooling.

And I really enjoy it when you do this here, and on the message boards :-) I
really like the way sometimes you make me nod vigourously in agreement, sometimes
I reel back, but always you make me think, and always I know that you are saying
what you think without compromise.

> So having made my protest here, I'll try to back off John as much as possible
> and to shush up when something reminds me of something which has been really
> unpleasant socially in the past. But please remember I'm not the only one
> here, and that others will come in the future, with the same sensibilities.

Please don't shush up - you tend to say what I'm trying to think, and it is so
much easier when I'm puzzling away about why/what/how I feel about something to
just shrug and say 'well, I'll just wait for Sandra to say it, and then I'll
know'. And even if I disagree with you, by the time you've had your say I know
exactly what I think!

Carol

[email protected]

John's original post was, as far as I could tell, a sharing of an
activity he did with his family. I agree with you that we should focus on
sharing about our families and their learning. I don't feel that anyone is
pushing his/her point of view most of the time. Although once in a while it
feels that way when someone is highly opinionated. Let's all try to learn
from each other and refrain from long reactive posts if possible.
-Amalia-