[email protected]

In a message dated 1/6/04 5:51:08 PM Central Standard Time,
SandraDodd@...

writes:


>
> How?
> They can't test unschoolers without screwing up everything.
> If we start teaching to their test, we lose our magic.
> But someday when a bunch of unschoolers are grown, they can interview them
and quantify them and most people will look at the statistics instead of the
anecdotes and thereby probably miss the whole point. <g>



You're right. I absolutely was NOT thinking of testing (calm down, Holly
:-).

But I don't think your *someday* scenario is so far off, Sandra. We already
have a significant number of teenagers who can be seen to be successful in
their various pursuits...writing, arts, historical reenactments, computers, etc.,
etc., etc. We can show just how socially adept our kids are compared to ps
kids (and even school-at-homers). There are a lot of ways that what we do can
be evaluated from a sociological and psychological standpoint.

I just wish someone would do the legwork.

Laura B.


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

Holly Furgason

--- In [email protected], LauraBourdo@a... wrote:

> You're right. I absolutely was NOT thinking of testing (calm down,
Holly
> :-).

I am.

> But I don't think your *someday* scenario is so far off, Sandra.

My worry about the "someday scenario" is that these kids will tend to
choose to do things that are unconventional (just like their up-
bringing and education) and these unconventional things will not look
like success to your basic researcher.

Holly
http://www.cafepress.com/2cool4school

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/6/04 7:30:27 PM, unschooler@... writes:

<< My worry about the "someday scenario" is that these kids will tend to

choose to do things that are unconventional (just like their up-

bringing and education) and these unconventional things will not look

like success to your basic researcher. >>

Oh well.
I wouldn't want them to live to the research any more than I would want them
to study to a test. <g>

Maybe it will never be proven statistically, just individually. Maybe it
will be biographies fifty years from now that affect children who will be born
in 2070.

Sandra

Sandra

Priss Adams

This was forwarded to our local list today since we've discussed this
subject as well. It's just more from the author's parents about the
view of unschooling expressed in the Washington Post article as well
as some other points they wanted to make. They gave permission to the
person they were writing to forward it to their list and from there
onward.

********************************************
____________________________________________

> Thank you for writing with your concerns about the
> Washington Post article.
> The article was troubling to Christopher and our
> family as well.
>
> The media, as I'm sure you know, doesn't always
> report things correctly. In
> fact just last week a newspaper in Britain said that
> Christopher wrote his
> book while stuck in our "ramshackle farmhouse"
> during Montana's three-month
> blizzards. Right.
>
> In the first place, Christopher did not do an
> interview with the Washington
> Post. This was a reprint of an article that ran in
> the Jewish World Review.
> He did the interview many months ago and was perhaps
> not as "on his feet" as
> he should have been with his comments. From an
> interview that may have
> lasted 20 minutes, the reporter chose comments that
> fit her purpose.
>
> The use of the word "unschooling" was the
> journalist's choice. Christopher
> never mentioned unschooling by name and never would.
> It is his firm belief
> that the success of homeschooling by any method
> depends on the efforts of
> the parents or guardians. He espouses no method as
> being better than the
> other. His comments about families whose children
> had little education was
> based on true cases from this area. The parents in
> these cases were either
> too lazy or too caught up in their own endeavors to
> give their children the
> attention they needed. Not only did the children's
> education suffer, but
> other aspects of their lives did as well.
>
> Another point in this article was particularly
> annoying, the mention of A
> Beka. Over the years, Talita cobbled together
> material from here and there.
> We used many concepts of unschooling, along with
> some workbooks, and lots of
> hands-on projects designed to help our children
> learn by tapping into their
> current interests. We used the A Beka materials for
> some math and spelling
> worksheets because it was easier than writing out
> problems by hand. We in no
> way support the ideology of A Beka, either their
> religious slant or their
> curriculum. Unfortunately, Christopher mentioned
> their name during the
> interview, and the journalist took it further, to
> mean that Christopher was
> raised with it exclusively. This is far from the
> truth.
>
> Christopher asked us to tell you that he is a strong
> supporter of
> homeschooling. He understands that life experience
> is the ultimate teacher,
> that parents and materials simply facilitate what
> must come from within. He
> and we send best regards to all homeschooling
> families. We chose to
> homeschool when it was unpopular and understand the
> pressure from family,
> friends, and society to school your children
> conventionally. We know that
> without homeschooling Christopher never would have
> written Eragon or be in
> the position he is in now. As homeschooling was the
> right choice for us, we
> also know that for many families public school is
> the best or only option.
> Our hope is that, whatever educational path is
> taken, every child has the
> chance to fulfill his potential and follow his
> dream.
>
> All the best,
>
> --
> Kenneth and Talita Paolini