Luz Shosie and Ned Vare

>
> Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 12:54:06 +0000
> From: "audrey elwood" <audreyelwood@...>
> Subject: Re: Re: 2189 Unschooling -- the fringe
>
> hi ned
> i'm new- haven't even introduced myself yet... but curious-can you tell me
> where i can read about PLAY being all humans need? sounds wonderful. thanks
> for your post.
> audrey


Children learn, not from schooling, but from living. And for them, living
means playing.

Luz and I have a friend in Chicago, Bruce Thomas,
who runs an organization called The Children¹s Learning Project. After
extensive research and observation by both Bruce and others, they concluded
that what children need most of all is play, and what they need least is
schooling, especially the usual -- ³traditional² -- type that we adults
experienced.

The more our activities resemble the practices and theories of regular
school, the less effective they are (educationally and/or otherwise); and
the more our children¹s, and our, activities resemble play (and leisure) the
more effective they are. Our kid seemed to know that instinctively, since
his favorite expression was Churchill¹s, ³I love learning, but I hate being
taught.²

Trust Your Kids.

Luz and I were inspired by the writings of John Holt, The Teenage Liberation
Handbook by Grace Llewellen, Linda Dobson's books, Free At Last, by Daniel
Greenberg (Sudbury), and Mark Twain, ³Don¹t let your schooling get in the
way of your education.² Looks like the start of a Suggested Reading List --
does anyone else have suggestions?

John Holt's books: Teach Your Own, How Children Learn, Escape From
Childhood, Learning All The Time, Instead of Education, Never Too Late,
Freedom and Beyond, How Children Fail, What Do I Do Monday? The
Underachieving School.

www.Unschooling.com has a list of resources. Our list of recommended
resources is on our web site, Unschoolers Unlimited:
http://www.borntoexplore.org/unschool

Ned Vare