[email protected]

Unschooling

This is child-led learning, meaning the children's interests dictate what
they learn. This philosophy comes from Rousseau's book, Emile. The late John Holt
also popularized the idea in his homeschooling books. The families that
choose this approach are homeschooling because they believe that traditional
methods of education stifle children's creativity and zest for learning. The online
interview ofSandra Doddhelps explain what unschooling can be if a parent can
relax and enjoy it. I wasn't able to deal with the uncertainty myself.

http://wwwiz.com/issue32/html/article2.html

I doubt the philosophy comes from any one book, but it's an interesting
assertion. I'd rather think it came from something I had at least read.
Slapstick, or Candide or something. Did anyone read Emile and want to tell us how it
changed all our lives?

But as I'm cited and linked, I'm able to deal with the uncertainty.

(I do think the middle part is true about stifling and zest.)

Sandra

Danielle Conger

This is child-led learning, meaning the children's interests dictate what
they learn. This philosophy comes from Rousseau's book, Emile.
=========================================================

Rousseau's _Emile_ is not even close to unschooling. It's manipulative, prescriptive and incredibly mysogenistic. If you feel like slogging through it go ahead; it's rather eye opening. Instead, _Emile_ serves as the foundation of liberal education--the kind we see in public schools and universities all across the US. The whole purpose is to educate Emile into a true citizen.

Definitely *NOT* unschooling! Sandra, yes. Emile, no! *g*

--danielle



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