re: structured agendas
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<<With regard to the comment that "one cannot claim to be a vegetarian if one
has not eaten meat with breakfast," -- I don't claim to be an "unschooler."
I claim to be, and am, a homeschooler who uses a blend of unschooling and
something else. <<
You might just say your kids have "free choice time," which is what it sounds
like you really mean when you say you "use unschooling."
If you went to a vegetarian message board and said, "I use a blend of both
vegetarianism and carnivorism," the vegetarians there would say that that
makes you a carnivore, not a vegetarian.
I know someone who uses a curriculum-in-a-box. The kids are required to do
it. The family is a joy-filled and pretty respectful-of-each-other family and
the kids and mom have a good time with their curriculum and are proud of the
work they do. They don't feel bound by the most stringent of the requirements
of their program. The curriculum says do 2 pages each day and they are
flexible and might do 3 pages one day and only 1 page another day. They SKIP
days altogether, to go on field trips, for example. On nice days they might
take their work outside.
They call themselves unschoolers and feel like they are being really
flexible. But the use of that curriculum is teaching all kinds of unintended
lessons that unschoolers want to avoid. It contradicts the basis of
unschooling, to "impose" any school-like lessons at all.
It might be interesting to talk a bit more concretely about why having some
free choice time mixed with imposed lessons isn't unschooling -- just as
having some meatless meals isn't vegetarianism.
Unschoolers often point out that it isn't unschooling if you do any schooling
at all. The reason is that unschoolers believe there are negative
consequences of that time spent "schooling." As one example, children become
used to the idea that someone else should tell them what to learn and how to
learn it and they begin to see themselves as vessels that need to be filled
rather than feeling responsible for their own learning. This is not how
unschoolers see children, so imposing any lessons on children contradicts a
basic unschooling principle.
Kids given school-like lessons also start to think there is a time for
learning and a time for playing and that those are different things. That
again contradicts a basic unschooling principle. There are more, but those
couple of examples get the point across, I hope.
--pamS
has not eaten meat with breakfast," -- I don't claim to be an "unschooler."
I claim to be, and am, a homeschooler who uses a blend of unschooling and
something else. <<
You might just say your kids have "free choice time," which is what it sounds
like you really mean when you say you "use unschooling."
If you went to a vegetarian message board and said, "I use a blend of both
vegetarianism and carnivorism," the vegetarians there would say that that
makes you a carnivore, not a vegetarian.
I know someone who uses a curriculum-in-a-box. The kids are required to do
it. The family is a joy-filled and pretty respectful-of-each-other family and
the kids and mom have a good time with their curriculum and are proud of the
work they do. They don't feel bound by the most stringent of the requirements
of their program. The curriculum says do 2 pages each day and they are
flexible and might do 3 pages one day and only 1 page another day. They SKIP
days altogether, to go on field trips, for example. On nice days they might
take their work outside.
They call themselves unschoolers and feel like they are being really
flexible. But the use of that curriculum is teaching all kinds of unintended
lessons that unschoolers want to avoid. It contradicts the basis of
unschooling, to "impose" any school-like lessons at all.
It might be interesting to talk a bit more concretely about why having some
free choice time mixed with imposed lessons isn't unschooling -- just as
having some meatless meals isn't vegetarianism.
Unschoolers often point out that it isn't unschooling if you do any schooling
at all. The reason is that unschoolers believe there are negative
consequences of that time spent "schooling." As one example, children become
used to the idea that someone else should tell them what to learn and how to
learn it and they begin to see themselves as vessels that need to be filled
rather than feeling responsible for their own learning. This is not how
unschoolers see children, so imposing any lessons on children contradicts a
basic unschooling principle.
Kids given school-like lessons also start to think there is a time for
learning and a time for playing and that those are different things. That
again contradicts a basic unschooling principle. There are more, but those
couple of examples get the point across, I hope.
--pamS