susan

hi,

what i understood her to be saying was that kids are hardwired to learn therefore there's no need to use a teaching or 'facilitating' hs method.   i didn't pick up on the part about not helping kids learn in the way you implied but felt she helping her kids acquire knowledge as the need arose - she helped write a paper on the legalities of unschooling w/ her oldest and help her younger one discover edible plants in their backyard - perhaps this is just semantics or splitting hairs type of thing.  

it seemed apparent she uses books (unless she has a good grip on taxonomy:) and isn't completely anti-school because she sees her kids going on to college if they so choose.  i thought the article ended on a weird note because the 10 yo, when asked about school, said she'd like to go but when asked why she said because she's never been there.  sounds to me like she'd be more interested in a field trip than a lifestyle change.  but the author interpreted it as a denial by the mom of the child's wishes but it sounded more whimsical to me.

the part i liked was this:
'No matter how inane the conversation, Furgason listens intently and takes her kids seriously. There is no
shushing, even when they get a little loud with excitement.'

i also admire her courage to stand up and be counted.  it's obvious her kids are learning just not in a neat and scheduled manner much to the authors and ps teacher dismay.

-susan
austin, tx
'unity through diversity'
 

Tracy Oldfield wrote:

 Hmmm.  You're right, that was interesting.  Some stuff was baloney, like not needing to help kids learn: if they ask for help, and need it, then we help, right?  we help them learn how to put their socks on...  But I thought the bit about the 6yo eating leaves was good :-)  The 10yo wanting to go to school was interesting, is it unschooling to not allow her to go?  I suppose one could argue about the disruption to the family and so on, but if it's genuinely her chioce?  I've always said that if mine wanted to go, they could, even though it would turn my life upside down, but ahving kids turns one's life upside down anyway <g>  Food for thought... Thanks for sharing :-) Tracy

http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2000-04-20/feature.html/index_html?qs=1