Direction, and unschooling
Not "direction" as in being directed by someone else, but "direction" in having a destination in mind.
Which way are you going? What is "warm" and what is "cold"?
Stars and photos are links.
Every time you speak or act, you build or break. The softer you can be, the more whole they will be. ★
The way to know the right direction
is to identify the wrong direction. ★
This is important for everyone:
- Do not do what you don't understand.
-
If you get bad advice, and it seems bad, don't take it!
- If you get a bad suggestion, and it doesn't seem to be helping, don't do it!
Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch. If you're going the wrong direction, don't keep going. ★
Is the cup half empty, half full, defective or overflowing?
One mindful step in a better direction can be joyous. You don't need to reach a destination to have joy. ★
Each journey begins with a single step, they say, but steps in the wrong direction don't get you to a good place. Milling around for a thousand steps without regard to the intended goal isn't "a journey."
★
"Intellectually, I got unschooling all the way from the very beginning. The part that took more time was relationships and wholeness. When I got THAT, that is when things started happening in the direction that made unschooling work great!"
People need to start and go, but they don't have to race at breakneck speed or never look back. "Going" sometimes just means going one step and smelling the roses! Sometimes the most important steps are those where you're still standing in the very same place, but looking a different direction!
★
"Unschoolers don't bother with lesson plans, curriculum, assignments, tests, grades, workbooks, homework, or other academic requirements because we have discovered that children who grow up in a stimulating and enriched environment, surrounded by family and friends who are generally interested and interesting, will learn all kinds of things and repeatedly surprise us with what they know. If children are supported in following their own inclinations, they will build strengths upon strengths and excel in their own ways whether those are academic, artistic, athletic, interpersonal, or whichever direction that particular child develops."
You can't wait until you understand it to begin. Much of your understanding will come from the changes you see in your child and in your own thinking, and in your relationship with and perception of learning itself. You can't read a touch and then go and unschool for a year and then come back and see what you did wrong; you could be a year in the wrong direction.
Read some, do some. Think. Rest. Watch your child directly and as clearly as you can... ★
from The Big Book of Unschooling, page 36 (or 39)
The photos above are links.
Getting Warm
Warmth and Choices
Priorities
Choices
Living by principles instead of by rules
