Tim and Maureen

In "Coloring Outside the Lines" (not an unschooling book, but an interesting perspective if you park the unschooling philosophy while you read) which I read about a 2 yrs ago, the author stated that as an engineer, he rarely used more than simple arithmetic and fractions in his day-to-day work. He wrote reports that required simple language. He advocated schools make Shakespeare and algebra optional for those who delighted in it only. Huge-o waste of time.

So to him, Math and English are over-blown in school, and he had his kids find one subject they loved at school to excel in and they could get bare passes in all others - delight driven but unfortunately still in the system. As a parent he told the finger-wagging Math and English teachers to take a hike, which made me giggle.

My thots.

Tim Thomas

----- Original Message -----
From: sandradodd@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] new to the list



In a message dated 5/11/03 7:08:33 AM, hitekmom@... writes:

<< Don't yell at me, but probably our first year will be 20% teaching (from
Math, Bible readers, and English text) and 80% unschooling. I need this
re-training time for myself, mentally. >>

No you don't.

If you're going to tell your children (by your actions) that you don't trust
them to learn math and English from their environment but you DO expect
science and history to come for fun "when they're through with their work"
(math, English and Bible), you're not going to be unschooling and it's not
going to work.

What you'll really be saying is that English and math are more important than
the other things AND that you don't think they're capable of natural learning.


Sandra

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