Lynda

Experts are like statistics and surveys. You can find one to say whatever
you want to hear.

Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kolleen" <Kolleen@...>
To: "Unschooling.com" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 7:18 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] experience, experts, ownership and road trip


> There were so many posts that I wanted to respond to. But alas there must
> of been a reason the power went out twice and I lost the snippets. With
> no time to go back through the massive amount of mail to find them
> (again).
>
> Bridget's explanation of experience reminded me of when I was hiring a
> pressman. Not an easy task at a time when unemployment was low. A very
> wise person said to me "Make sure they have experience. I mean 15 years
> of experience, not 1 year of experience 15 times over."
>
> If all your children fall easily into unschooling, are very adaptive and
> there's no neurological damage going on.. then you're going to have very
> little rocks in the road with unschooling. It becomes a challange when
> you hit bumps outside the norm. Or when you take on another child that
> you didn't raise and have to deschool them, or *gasp* they are damaged
> beyond repair and now you still need to fit that into a lifestyle.
>
> Experience comes in many shapes and forms. And what about the ones that
> are born into it.. are they more experienced? Or the ones that it comes
> natural and they didn't have to awaken to it? There was no 'aha' it just
> always was and anything outside of it seems strange...
>
> Like I said.. many shapes and forms... I'm not going to judge who's is
> worth more in anyone elses eyes but my own. Which leads to experts.
>
> Even experts with degress might not be considered experts by others at
> all. If you show me your chiropractic expert, I'm going to ask if he is
> Grostic. If not, he's no expert to me. In my eyes.
>
> We all pick our experts that belong to our belief system. In the realm of
> unschooling, I would choose my father for a start.. then think about
> Holt.. then maybe jump over to Lynda because she sums things up in a way
> that I can relate to instantly. I haven't read enough of anyone elses
> information to determine if they are my experts.
>
> Without a bonafide expert. Nor any officially recognized movement, then
> unschooling doesn't have an owner per se. It has advocates. Some of them
> vehemently disagree on certain points. Somehow, there is a commonality
> amongst them, even if the devil is in the details.
>
> With all these advocates, who then has the right, the power, the
> ownership to determine what fits into this term and what doesn't.
>
> Should we use your expert? or my expert? (blanket question, not directed
> at anyone)
>
> NY Times, Washington Post, Globe and Mail.. I haven't seen any
> proclamations that there is a unified group of the unschoolers and they
> have chosen a leader and defined the term. So we're back to square one.
> No nationally recognized experts.
>
> And for that, I'm glad. I remember learning how the AMA established
> itself in courts as the medical experts. So anything alternative isn't
> viable. I would hate to see the same of something so organic as
> unschooling.
>
> There might be factions or groups that look to certain experts. But they
> are congregating in specific places. A group here, a group there. Nothing
> on a nationally established level. So there is no ownership of the word.
> Or a movement en masse that says this is how it has to be if you want to
> be an unschooler.
>
> Therefore, nobody has the right to proclaim it as this or that, and you
> don't belong unless you follow what my group has established.
>
> Lets find the commonalities, like 'the child's agenda', and after that...
> maybe it can grow into something beyond this website, that conference,
> this publication etc. Who know?
>
> Off on a road trip, just me and the kid. I even went as far to get myself
> one of those brain-scrambling cell phones for emergencies.
>
> Going offmail for a bit.. I'll drop in if I get near a computer... enjoy
> the discussion.
>
> kolleen
>
> Mac OS X is like a wigwam: no Windows, no Gates, Apache inside.
>
> "People take different roads seeking
> fulfillment and happiness. Just
> because they're not on your road
> doesn't mean they've gotten lost."
> -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
>
>
>
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