[email protected]

<< I do realize that and that's probably a large part of it. My 10 yos
thinks
"If those kids don't have to do schoolwork, they must not learn anything! I
don't want to not learn anything." >>

It's rough when it was the parent who instilled the fear of unschooling.
That's an additional problem with some families, when the mom told them the
reason they HAD to do their schoolwork at the kitchen table was because
otherwise they would never learn, never be able to get a job--and then when
mom changes her mind, it's easier for her to see a difference than for her to
go back to the kids and try to undo what she had said before.

Sometimes I think the easiest way must be to say "I thought that was true,
but I don't think so now. Let's try something else."

We have a neighbor who's about six, and yesterday she and Holly played a
while. As before, she has forgotten that Holly is homeschooled. Holly said
the conversation was like this:

"We should play again tomorrow after school."

"I don't go to school. But when you get home?"

"You don't go to school?"

"No. I've told you before, remember? I'm homeschooled."

"You don't want to go to school?"

"My mom doesn't want me to go."

"She doesn't want you to learn?"

(So of course between me and Holly it was "What? You tell people you wanted
to go but I wouldn't let you?" ; "But I DID want to go when I was little" ;
"But you wante dto go to play with Kellee and she wasn't in your grade"; "I
KNOW!..." and back and forth <g>.)

I haven't villianized schools and teachers at all to the kids, because
similarly, if they trust me and I tell them school is an unbearably horrible
place, what if my husband and I die and they have to go? I liked school.
(But I see that in Germany, someone has gone into his old school and killed
18 people... and that unbearable horror was not a part of my schooldays.)

Sandra