bad rhetoric and unschooling
[email protected]
In a message dated 8/6/02 1:39:25 PM, nedvare@... writes:
<< School teaches
children NOT to learn, to despise the process. >>
That was not true of my experience in school (as I have already told) nor was
it in ANY way true of me while I was teaching.
<<Those places are the centers
for the limitation of learning, the denial of education. *Dumbing Down* is
not just a catchy phrase, it's the national government policy.>>
Sorry Ned, I can't ignore this. It is dark, depressing rhetoric. I don't
think it helps anyone to understand unschooling.
<<The government teaches ONLY what it wants us to know...Darn little.>>
When I was a teacher "the government" wasn't teaching in my classroom. "The
government" didn't choose the textbooks, and the school didn't try to make me
use them. They stayed in their boxes. I taught punctuation, through games;
parts of speech through games and silly exercises made by the kids. I taught
punctuation with comic strips. We played with dictionaries. On Fridays we
did traditional ballads. Our main "we have five or ten minutes left, let's
play" game was what language words come from. Within a week of learning it,
they were GOOD. That game has never been on any government curriculum.
Painting school as a dark, evil hole might be fun to do, but it's not fun to
read, and there are over 800 people here with enough sadness and problems. I
believe people come here to discuss their own bright-eyed, free-from-school
children, not to dwell in a pessimistic model of an evil boogey-man.
School can suck for some people.
The point of unschooling is to say your kids don't need to be among them, and
you don't need to use any of their methods, either.
Sandra
<< School teaches
children NOT to learn, to despise the process. >>
That was not true of my experience in school (as I have already told) nor was
it in ANY way true of me while I was teaching.
<<Those places are the centers
for the limitation of learning, the denial of education. *Dumbing Down* is
not just a catchy phrase, it's the national government policy.>>
Sorry Ned, I can't ignore this. It is dark, depressing rhetoric. I don't
think it helps anyone to understand unschooling.
<<The government teaches ONLY what it wants us to know...Darn little.>>
When I was a teacher "the government" wasn't teaching in my classroom. "The
government" didn't choose the textbooks, and the school didn't try to make me
use them. They stayed in their boxes. I taught punctuation, through games;
parts of speech through games and silly exercises made by the kids. I taught
punctuation with comic strips. We played with dictionaries. On Fridays we
did traditional ballads. Our main "we have five or ten minutes left, let's
play" game was what language words come from. Within a week of learning it,
they were GOOD. That game has never been on any government curriculum.
Painting school as a dark, evil hole might be fun to do, but it's not fun to
read, and there are over 800 people here with enough sadness and problems. I
believe people come here to discuss their own bright-eyed, free-from-school
children, not to dwell in a pessimistic model of an evil boogey-man.
School can suck for some people.
The point of unschooling is to say your kids don't need to be among them, and
you don't need to use any of their methods, either.
Sandra
Helen Hegener
At 3:23 PM +0000 8/7/02, [email protected] wrote:
list to be so negative about schools and schooling. They're still a
fact of life for many unschooling families, as other children in the
family might be attending school for various reasons (not the least
of which is some kids LIKE school and get a lot out of it), relatives
(cousins etc.) will be almost certainly attending school, friends and
relatives might be schoolteachers, etc.
At Home Education Magazine we've always tried to take a generally
positive approach to homeschooling and unschooling, helping people
find alternatives when they've decided it's time to go seeking, but
not going out of our way to convince people that they're doing the
wrong thing and need to change (well, with one significant
politically-charged exception <g>). We quite regularly reject
articles badmouthing schools and teachers and the whole educational
bureaucracy, not because we want to promote the schooling experience
(*far* from it, trust me), but because it just doesn't make any sense
to us to try to build up what we believe in, what we trust and rely
on, by tearing down what other people might believe in and trust and
rely on. There are better ways to get along in the world.
Helen
(taking a break from goofing off in Alaska <g>)
>Painting school as a dark, evil hole might be fun to do, but it's not fun toI agree with Sandra. It doesn't really serve our purposes on this
>read, and there are over 800 people here with enough sadness and problems. I
>believe people come here to discuss their own bright-eyed, free-from-school
>children, not to dwell in a pessimistic model of an evil boogey-man.
list to be so negative about schools and schooling. They're still a
fact of life for many unschooling families, as other children in the
family might be attending school for various reasons (not the least
of which is some kids LIKE school and get a lot out of it), relatives
(cousins etc.) will be almost certainly attending school, friends and
relatives might be schoolteachers, etc.
At Home Education Magazine we've always tried to take a generally
positive approach to homeschooling and unschooling, helping people
find alternatives when they've decided it's time to go seeking, but
not going out of our way to convince people that they're doing the
wrong thing and need to change (well, with one significant
politically-charged exception <g>). We quite regularly reject
articles badmouthing schools and teachers and the whole educational
bureaucracy, not because we want to promote the schooling experience
(*far* from it, trust me), but because it just doesn't make any sense
to us to try to build up what we believe in, what we trust and rely
on, by tearing down what other people might believe in and trust and
rely on. There are better ways to get along in the world.
Helen
(taking a break from goofing off in Alaska <g>)
[email protected]
i'm so glad you were one of the good teachers.. what's sad is that the schools lose the ones like you.. most of the time..
my son had one teacher that was the one in a million kind of teacher.. the one who leads his students to love to learn.. it was fifth grade.. his school room looked like a library/playroom with a few desks squeezed in.. my son learned all about shakespeare in there by reading storybook-ized versions of all his plays and each year Mr. Campbell puts on one of the plays.. a shortened version.. to the other kids in the school.. he gets out front and explains whats going on and ALL the kids in his class have parts.. its SO great.. and my son who is now fifteen goes back each year to see the plays.. and his all time favorite teacher..
just had to talk about this wonderful teacher.. because it is when we run into people like that that we know that school is not ALL bad.. the way it is run most of the time truly sucks.. but i believe people like mr campbell and sandra and a few more i've met who teach are wonderful gifts to kids.. WHEN and IF they get to be in their class..
L
my son had one teacher that was the one in a million kind of teacher.. the one who leads his students to love to learn.. it was fifth grade.. his school room looked like a library/playroom with a few desks squeezed in.. my son learned all about shakespeare in there by reading storybook-ized versions of all his plays and each year Mr. Campbell puts on one of the plays.. a shortened version.. to the other kids in the school.. he gets out front and explains whats going on and ALL the kids in his class have parts.. its SO great.. and my son who is now fifteen goes back each year to see the plays.. and his all time favorite teacher..
just had to talk about this wonderful teacher.. because it is when we run into people like that that we know that school is not ALL bad.. the way it is run most of the time truly sucks.. but i believe people like mr campbell and sandra and a few more i've met who teach are wonderful gifts to kids.. WHEN and IF they get to be in their class..
L
----- Original Message -----
From: SandraDodd@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 9:59 AM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] bad rhetoric and unschooling
In a message dated 8/6/02 1:39:25 PM, nedvare@... writes:
<< School teaches
children NOT to learn, to despise the process. >>
That was not true of my experience in school (as I have already told) nor was
it in ANY way true of me while I was teaching.
<<Those places are the centers
for the limitation of learning, the denial of education. *Dumbing Down* is
not just a catchy phrase, it's the national government policy.>>
Sorry Ned, I can't ignore this. It is dark, depressing rhetoric. I don't
think it helps anyone to understand unschooling.
<<The government teaches ONLY what it wants us to know...Darn little.>>
When I was a teacher "the government" wasn't teaching in my classroom. "The
government" didn't choose the textbooks, and the school didn't try to make me
use them. They stayed in their boxes. I taught punctuation, through games;
parts of speech through games and silly exercises made by the kids. I taught
punctuation with comic strips. We played with dictionaries. On Fridays we
did traditional ballads. Our main "we have five or ten minutes left, let's
play" game was what language words come from. Within a week of learning it,
they were GOOD. That game has never been on any government curriculum.
Painting school as a dark, evil hole might be fun to do, but it's not fun to
read, and there are over 800 people here with enough sadness and problems. I
believe people come here to discuss their own bright-eyed, free-from-school
children, not to dwell in a pessimistic model of an evil boogey-man.
School can suck for some people.
The point of unschooling is to say your kids don't need to be among them, and
you don't need to use any of their methods, either.
Sandra
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bill and Diane
>Can I jump off here and add that claiming public schools make idiots of
>
>>Painting school as a dark, evil hole might be fun to do, but it's not fun to
>>read, and there are over 800 people here with enough sadness and problems. I
>>believe people come here to discuss their own bright-eyed, free-from-school
>>children, not to dwell in a pessimistic model of an evil boogey-man.
>>
>
>I agree with Sandra. It doesn't really serve our purposes on this
>list to be so negative about schools and schooling. They're still a
>fact of life for many unschooling families, as other children in the
>family might be attending school for various reasons (not the least
>of which is some kids LIKE school and get a lot out of it), relatives
>(cousins etc.) will be almost certainly attending school, friends and
>relatives might be schoolteachers, etc.
>
us all is insulting to me personally and, in my mind at least, to most
of the members on this list who were publicly educated (or went to
comparable private schools).
:-) Diane