In response to complaints, I wrote (quoting a defender first):

-=- It may seem "cold" to post links, but I think it's quite kind of Sandra and others to do.-=-

Thank you.

I don't see it as cold at all. We're giving, for free, more information than was ever available when we first were unschooling our now-grown kids. I used to wait two months for another issue of Growing Without Schooling. I could re-read the three or so books I had that were helpful. I could talk to my three other unschooling friends. And after a while, e-mail came along and *Prodigy (or compuserve, maybe) had an education bulletin board with a homeschooling folder. Just this week I found a pile of print-outs from 1993, and there's some good stuff there. 🙂

Joyce's site is well organized and took a lot of work. It doesn't have a single ad, nothing for sale, it's just there, as a resource for anyone who wants to use it. My site costs $130 a year, plus $100 for a nice google search with no ads. Sometimes I ask for donations, but most years I've just paid it and not said anything. Some years, book sales cover it and other expenses (office supplies, meals when I go to a conference (they usually pay for my room and air fare).

When I went to Australia, I paid my way, and the events paid for the halls. Some families pitched in for airfare in and out of Cairns (from other Australian cities) and passed the hat for a hall.

The writing and speaking and websites aren't about money-making. I don't do one-on-one coaching; I don't want to. So when someone assures me I'm wrong, or mean, or cold, or a bitch, it doesn't make it true. It means they should look elsewhere for their free help.

One on one

What I like to do is discuss things in groups of people. I like it when new ideas come by. It's rare.

More common is new examples and fresh versions of old examples. I love it when someone who was new just a couple of years back becomes a prominent, reliable, solid voice in the discussions. It's wonderful when someone who had newcomer frustrations a year before writes something clear and inspiring.

It would be cold for me to shut this down and tell people to leave me alone.

It would be cold for me to have booted out everyone who's ever been critical or whiney. Some of those folks came around! 🙂