Helen

At 9:11 PM +0000 2/1/00, [email protected] wrote:
>There is one thing that we are not doing on this list, we are not hearing
>from our long-long term unschoolers. And we aren't doing much talking about
>what affect our unschooling kids are having out there in the world.. that is
>if we can tell what might be going on. I suspect that might be because life
>is so very busy and hectic, at least it is for me.

Wow, what timing! I'm heading out on the road tomorrow, and was fiddling
around with list settings before I leave, and thought I'd check the digest
for this list, just to see how things are going... Didn't plan on posting
anything, as life is, as Lisa puts it, very busy and hectic...

But here I am. Lynda's note reminded me that this list is a reflection of
the people who use it, and if some of us don't take the time to make our
voices heard, er, writings read, then people just might be left wondering
who's minding the store, so to speak.

I'm a long-long term unschooler. Five totally unschooled kids, now ages 14
through 26. Three grandkids, with a fourth due literally any minute now.
Most of you probably know that, as I'm not exacly low-profile online, but I
thought I'd toss it out there for the newbies on this list.

What effect our unschooling kids are having out there in the world. Good
conversation starter, Lisa. <g> Mine seem to be having a pretty good
effect. Jody (20) called this last weekend and told us about going to visit
some UW college kids with a friend of hers. The Superbowl was on TV, and
some of the guys were watching it... she said a commercial came on showing
something about overcrowded schools, and posed the question "What can be
done about the problem...?" To which Jody shouted "Homeschool!"

It was a typical Jody response, but she said the reaction from the college
kids was dropmouthed amazement - they started asking questions -
intelligent questions, according to her - and she said most of those who
started out against the idea seemed to decide that maybe homeschooling
wasn't what they thought. Jody said interestingly enough, no social life
was the primary argument from the girls, and no documentation was the
biggest question from the guys.

Helen