Francine Sherwood

I am pretty much a lurker but I happen to enjoy very much Ned's discussions
and don't understand why the list would want to silence him or have him go
elsewhere. I believe that what he has to say is VERY relevant. I have two
children who are very much into the truth and have trouble with hypocracy. I
could hear them saying the very things that the homeschooling family in Mass
said and so I have been very interested in hearing about the case even tho I
live in Florida which has very easy homeschool regs.

Some people have learned how to make the state happy (even if they have to
lie to do so) and some people feel the need to stand on their priciples at
great personal loss. Many times it is the people who stand on their
principles that are the ones that really make the changes in how things are.
If they never challenged the law, then there could never be any change. It
is a ashame from what I am seeing on the list that the homeschoolers aren't
standing behind this family.

Perhaps it is something built into our personalities the one's fighting for
principles and the ones that placate and maybe the two types have trouble
seeing eye to eye and appreciating each other. I would hope that this list
could be tolerant enough to accept both.
Francine

Fetteroll

on 8/10/02 7:17 PM, Francine Sherwood at tsipi@... wrote:

> I happen to enjoy very much Ned's discussions
> and don't understand why the list would want to silence him or have him go
> elsewhere. I believe that what he has to say is VERY relevant.

Okay, I think I've figured out how to express what bothers me. (I knew if I
threw enough words at it I'd figure it out ;-) It isn't Ned's *particular*
political point of view that I'd like to send elsewhere. It's having a
*single* political point of view being expressed.

I think it's *very* interesting hearing a viewpoint that's so totally
different from mine. If this were the debate folder in AOL's old
homeschooling forum I'd *love* to debate this. :-)

But we don't have a debate folder or any way of shuttling off a very large
specialized discussion. The list is one great big messy it. And people
signed up to discuss unschooling. Which means that if one person does want
to express his political point of view if the rest of us go on discussing
unschooling, that one person's view becomes the defacto political point of
view of the list. I'm not accusing Ned of doing that or wanting that. It's
just how groups work. If no one disagrees, it appears everyone agrees.

I don't think it's helpful to unschoolers for Ned's to be the only political
point of view expressed nor for it to appear he speaks for everyone. I think
it's far more valuable for there to be a diverse political point of view.
Which means that since I strongly disagree with Ned that I, and anyone else
who values more than one viewpoint being heard, need to point out where we
disagree and why and discuss it.

Political discussions being the way they are, they can't be handled in a few
short posts. To offer a diverse -- or even just *one* other! -- political
viewpoint the list would be taken over -- as it has for the past few days --
by political discussion. And the people who discuss unschooling would be
spending their energy in the political discussion. The overall quantity of
emails would go up but the quality and quantity of unschooling discussion --
which is what people signed up for -- would go down. (It's not a
speculation. I've seen it happen numerous times when one discussion
overwhelms the list. People get shorter and fewer answers to their
unschooling questions.)

So the choices seem to be: 1) to have one political point of view expressed,
2) to have the list filled with political discussion or 3) to have no
political points of view. (Or at least as close as can be achieved.)

Suggesting Ned take the discussion somewhere else is like asking someone to
take a very loud and overwhelming specialized discussion to another room so
that those who came to *this* room to discuss unschooling can do so.

I think Pam suggested NHEN's Legislative list.
(http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/NHEN-Legislative). There are also loads of
other lists at Yahoo. And Ned could even start his own. (Or someone could
start one and invite Ned to join :-)

Joyce

[email protected]

In a message dated 8/10/02 9:14:36 PM Central Daylight Time,
fetteroll@... writes:


> I think it's *very* interesting hearing a viewpoint that's so totally
> different from mine. If this were the debate folder in AOL's old
> homeschooling forum I'd *love* to debate this. :-)
>

This isn't the first time I have seen someone refer to AOL's *old*
homeschooling forum. Doesn't AOL still have the homeschooling forum? Just
curious as to why the word old is stuck in there.
~Nancy


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

We could also switch the location of this discussion by opening a new folder
in the debate folder at our "Mothership" - Unschooling.com's message boards
~Elissa Cleaveland
"It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction
have
not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry." A. Einstein

gruvystarchild

"In an effort to end the flame fanning, I asked Sandra not to respond
to my
posts. She can't resist. Now she wants us all to think I don't know
what I'm
talking about because she guesses I was never in band. She seems to
need me."

See how that's in quotes Ned? That means I'm quoting someone else and
responding to that quote.....
YOU are fanning the flames by ignoring the list owner, moderator and
long time supporters by not dropping the political discussion.
It is quite obvious what your agenda is and it angers me that you
blame Sandra.
I think you have marvelous things to say about unschooling, I've read
some of it in the past.
I wish you would honor everyone's requests and focus on unschooling.
You've been asked politely, not so politely, begged and yet you
continue.

Why?

Ren