The AH-HA! Moments
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Joanna / Wilkinson6@... wrote:
<< I had a
huge "ah-ha!" moment, and took the leap of faith. The difference
from then to now is so immense, that I now understand why unschoolers
want to make it clear, just what unschooling is. Everytime you "slip
back" and require learning from you children, you destroy the trust
that was building up in them. The trust that you believe in them.
The trust that they are smart enough to figure it out on their own.
The trust that you belive that their interests and ideas are whats
right for them. When I relized that simple truth, I decided never
to "slip" again, no matter how fearful I became. I haven't. I now
see the tremendous difference it has made in all our lives. What the
trust really does for my children. It's a lot of work, this letting
go of old mentalities. I'm still working.
I'm writing this to try to help explain the difference in attitude,
and why so many say, "that's not unschooling". I hope I made a
little sense. >>
Joanna, I'm so glad you wrote this. I've been around dozens of other
people's AH HA moments and they are So valuable to their families and to
those reading their experiences that I can't let go of the knowledge that
continuing discussions like these changes people's lives.
Over the years some of the others on this list and I have seen people change
their minds about spanking, and about TV, and about using math worksheets,
and other particular things which were causing unhappiness in their families
or stress between them and their kids. How did we know? They told us. They
came and said "Things are stressful at our house and unschooling isn't
working as well as we'd like it to..." and they laid out their factors. Or
they came to argue against a discussion and stayed to be converted.
But if none of us stay to help newcomers or to help untangle situations in
which one parent is about to say, "ENOUGH, School!" unless things change
profoundly and quickly, then there isn't a centrally-located easily found
resource for unschooling information.
And if the information here is diluted or polluted by non-unschooling advice
in sufficient measure, then people will still not see unschooling.
Again, Joyce was able to make a great, clear analogy:
<<If people want to be *pure unschoolers* -- not just be more relaxed
homeschoolers -- then they need to see real unadulterated unschooling in
action. It's *scary* to get away from the well traveled shore. We're trying
to show how people do navigate successfully without relying on the shoreline
at all. >>
Sandra
<< I had a
huge "ah-ha!" moment, and took the leap of faith. The difference
from then to now is so immense, that I now understand why unschoolers
want to make it clear, just what unschooling is. Everytime you "slip
back" and require learning from you children, you destroy the trust
that was building up in them. The trust that you believe in them.
The trust that they are smart enough to figure it out on their own.
The trust that you belive that their interests and ideas are whats
right for them. When I relized that simple truth, I decided never
to "slip" again, no matter how fearful I became. I haven't. I now
see the tremendous difference it has made in all our lives. What the
trust really does for my children. It's a lot of work, this letting
go of old mentalities. I'm still working.
I'm writing this to try to help explain the difference in attitude,
and why so many say, "that's not unschooling". I hope I made a
little sense. >>
Joanna, I'm so glad you wrote this. I've been around dozens of other
people's AH HA moments and they are So valuable to their families and to
those reading their experiences that I can't let go of the knowledge that
continuing discussions like these changes people's lives.
Over the years some of the others on this list and I have seen people change
their minds about spanking, and about TV, and about using math worksheets,
and other particular things which were causing unhappiness in their families
or stress between them and their kids. How did we know? They told us. They
came and said "Things are stressful at our house and unschooling isn't
working as well as we'd like it to..." and they laid out their factors. Or
they came to argue against a discussion and stayed to be converted.
But if none of us stay to help newcomers or to help untangle situations in
which one parent is about to say, "ENOUGH, School!" unless things change
profoundly and quickly, then there isn't a centrally-located easily found
resource for unschooling information.
And if the information here is diluted or polluted by non-unschooling advice
in sufficient measure, then people will still not see unschooling.
Again, Joyce was able to make a great, clear analogy:
<<If people want to be *pure unschoolers* -- not just be more relaxed
homeschoolers -- then they need to see real unadulterated unschooling in
action. It's *scary* to get away from the well traveled shore. We're trying
to show how people do navigate successfully without relying on the shoreline
at all. >>
Sandra