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Kate
All of my children (6) are traumatized from going to public school for a
multitude of reasons some worse than others. I am the one that is
"reforming" myself and them to unschool. It does seem like cheating, as
someone mentioned earlier. The old message is "you have to do it because
everyone else is" and the old one "would you jump of a cliff if everyone
else was doing it?" that my parents used to tell me.:) No contradiction
there... Yes, I think my 19 year old son needs time to recover from
public school - it seems sometimes it takes people an entire life time.
What he does best is write - deep, thoughtful, tear producing articles,
stories, songs, and so on. He sings beautifully. He has a following and
can't see that for himself right now. He works in a convenience store
that mostly sells liquor. He is tired of alcoholics talk about how
"happy" they will be when they are drunk. They tell him more than he
wants to hear and most of it is not good/healthy. He is learning on his
own about that. It has been a big lesson in life management skills, etc.
He's the kind of kid that everyone likes and talks to. I think that is a
strong point. No matter how much I tell him I think he is "perfect" he
has his own stuff to go through like the rest of us. It is hard to let
go. He thinks he has to go and learn something - he already knows so
much and voids a lot of it out. Programming. Right now I am hearing him
say I shouldn't homeschool and going ahead and doing it anyway. I think
we will all learn about unschooling little by little. Like everything
else it is a process. Blessings, Michele



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

KT

>
>
>What he does best is write - deep, thoughtful, tear producing articles,
>stories, songs, and so on. He sings beautifully. He has a following and
>can't see that for himself right now. He works in a convenience store
>that mostly sells liquor. He is tired of alcoholics talk about how
>"happy" they will be when they are drunk. They tell him more than he
>wants to hear and most of it is not good/healthy. He is learning on his
>own about that. It has been a big lesson in life management skills, etc.
>He's the kind of kid that everyone likes and talks to. I think that is a
>strong point.
>

So do I!

But the impression I got, re the "working" thread, was that he was
wasting away up in his room, working on his music, being depressed and
little else.

I still think a full time job with benefits (factory or UPS or something
like that) could be a solution for the health insurance thing. It would
still be his *choice* to be here, and once you focus on that, working is
so much less like school.

Tuck