[email protected]

In a message dated 2/11/2003 2:04:09 PM Eastern Standard Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:

> When I go to conferences I like to hear people talk, though, I don't mind
> hearing them answer questions, but I don't want to go to a conference to
> hear
> everybody else say what they think, because some of the people at
> conferences
> haven't even unschooled, and so their opinions are kinda time-wasting if
> they
> get the mike for too long.

The REALLY cool thing about the Live & Learn Conference is that it is SOLELY
UNschooling. All the presenters are unschoolers you've either "met" here or
on the unschooling.com message boards. You will find no better panel of
UNschoolers anywhere!


And if an hour of a conference is spent answering
> things like "what about socialization" and "how can they learn to read
> without phonics" then those who paid money aren't getting much good
> information, and those asking those questions could have them answered by
> just looking around at the kids and by reading any beginning unschooling
> article, or picking up two or three homeschooling magazines until they find
>
> an article on reading.

And most of the attendees are ALREADY hard-core unschoolers or are "almost
there" wannabees. It's very exciting to have THAT many folks who "get it" in
one building. There's NO discussion of "socialization" (I can't remember
any)---it's obvious if you just look around. Reading and math are usual
concerns with newbies, so those subjects DO come up. The philosophy of
unschooling seemed to be a popular "subject" last year.

> I don't love panel discussions much either, because too often it granulates
> the information down into little reactionary bits and there's not enough
> cohesion to get a good point. There was an unschooling panel at last
> year's
> HSC conference. There were some good moments, but overall it seemed very
> disjoint to me.

AH! But if the panel members are all on the same wavelength---what a cool way
to get your questions answered! A panel set up at the end *shouldn't* have to
answer a lot of those exhaustive questions 'cause many should have been
answered throughout the weekend (I would think).

Panel discussion this year? Yay? Nay?

~Kelly


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

[email protected]

In a message dated 2/11/03 2:48:19 PM Eastern Standard Time,
kbcdlovejo@... writes:

> Panel discussion this year? Yay? Nay?
>
>

I liked the way it was handled last year. Near the end of the weekend and
had all the presenters. So I say Yay. It really was not focused on the
socialization etc issues that we have all had to answer.
Pam G.


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

Olif VanPelt

Are these conferences that you are talking about primarily in California? How do I find them in my area (IL)? I haven't heard of unschooling conferences before, only curriculum shows.

Is unschooling fairly common in California? I know that California is big on separation of school and state. Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com


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

[email protected]

In a message dated 2/11/2003 5:38:32 PM Eastern Standard Time,
ovanpelt@... writes:

> Are these conferences that you are talking about primarily in California?
> How do I find them in my area (IL)? I haven't heard of unschooling
> conferences before, only curriculum shows.

Live & Learn is in Columbia, South Carolina.

~Kelly


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

[email protected]

In a message dated 2/11/03 1:03:16 PM, genant2@... writes:

<< I liked the way it was handled last year. Near the end of the weekend and
had all the presenters. So I say Yay. >>

I heard Marty was on it last year! <g>

Something like that is different from what's happening this year at HSC which
is more presentations than not will be panels. One or two are fine, and
giving people choices seems fine to me and me being on a panel discussion (or
not) is fine, I just don't like them better than I like a presentation on a
topic by a person I actually really want to hear.

If I want to hear Richard Prystowsky or Pam Sorooshian (people I've wanted to
hear in Caliornia, for examples), I'd rather hear them for some sustained
period of time without four or five others having a chance of disputing them.
<g> On the other hand (or on a totally different hand, rather) I like
joint workshops with Richard, and Pam and I are doing a joint thing in South
Carolina.

With two people who know each other and feel a complementary relationship,
presenting together can be more powerful than either one alone, in my
experience. And with Richard, we plan who will lead into the other's points,
and that has worked out really well three times. We did a fourth
presentation (our first) which was one person asking us both questions.
Since we didn't do the planning, it didn't have the really smooth flow we've
tried to get the other times.

What Pam and I are thinking of doing is telling stories about the other
person's kids or family. Our families have been together, whole and in
various partial combinations, several times.
Pam's been to my house and I've been to hers.

Sandra

Heidi Wordhouse-Dykema

I have to say that the whole panel thing, or even whole room discussions
are my favorite bits of 'education' conferences (only been to HSC's, so
there's that as well.) While it's nice to sit on one's duff and listen to
an 'expert' hold forth, I generally find my mind wandering in the first 10
or 15 minutes. It's just not as engaging as a whole-room or panel
discussion where you might yourself have a question, suggestion or
challenge. With a whole-room/panel, there's a variation on
philosophies. Maybe that's part of it.

When many people are responsible for sharing, the session seems somehow,
well, more robust, more interesting. Maybe it's that there's more
engagement, more challenge to the faculties with panels/whole-room
conversations than head-bobbing in agreement with the lone speaker (or
head-shaking and not being able to question their thinking.)

Or maybe I'm just too cantankerous to deal with 'experts' anymore. (grin)
...could be.
Heidi WD

zenmomma2kids <[email protected]>

>> With two people who know each other and feel a complementary
relationship, presenting together can be more powerful than either
one alone, in my experience.>>

Anne and I will be doing something together on the topic of special
needs. We've shared a lot over the years to get where we are on our
views of "special needs kids".

Life is good.
~Mary

Pam Sorooshian

Nay.

Usually the people who have the least interesting things to say are
those who dominate the panel discussions. It is some kind of law <G>!

-pam

On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 11:46 AM, kbcdlovejo@... wrote:

> Panel discussion this year? Yay? Nay?
>
Pam Sorooshian
The National Home Education Network
~The World is Our Classroom~
www.NHEN.org