Normal, and unschooling
This is a quote from a web page that didn't make a lot of sense, and the description might not stick around long; it's not very good. The page uses "struggle" eight times. That is WAY too much struggling—all the struggle is about school, and grades and competition.
"People who have dyscalculia are neurodivergent. Neurodiversity is a term that describes how no two people have the same brain, and everyone’s brain forms and develops in a completely unique way. For people with dyscalculia, that means their brain works differently from the brain of someone who doesn’t have disorders or conditions that affect how their brain works."
If this is true (and I believe it is): "no two people have the same brain, and everyone’s brain forms and develops in a completely unique way"...
...then the rest of that paragraph is just noise. The brain is working fine, in all those cases.
Some children are better at some things than others. Thinking of those things as intelligences, rather than as disorders or conditions or divergence is very much more peaceful, and useful, to unschooling and to learning.
Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Looking at what a child (or oneself) CAN do well is better (in time, emotion, confidence, relationships) than finding why he's off, or faulty. Help your child feel hale and whole.
Katherine (Katherand2003) wrote, when a parent was worried about math and unschooling:
Not everybody needs to know math beyond arithmetic and children may not find
much use for it until later on. Understanding natural learning means seeing
that children pick up things as they find use for or have interest in them.
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." ~Albert
Einstein
Each individual can do or be something which, if it doesn't amaze people
academically, is too often seen as worthless. Sometimes that's the ability
to see or hear or say things in a unique or unusually keen or apt way, or to
do kinetic feats with greater and greater skill or for some cool purpose, or
to interact with people or animals or nature or ...
To see children through school eyes is like continually longing for a fish
to climb a tree. It's a view that insists on an improbable future or that
looks mostly for a child's potential, perhaps never able to enjoy the
present moment.
To see children as they are is to have the capability to enjoy them now.
Without that view, I think unschooling is hard or impossible.
When your child isn't good at something academic or something most people in
your family are good at, remember that not all your peers are good at that
either. Which simply means that people are different ...
Some children can use numbers easily but not all children can. Some adults
can use numbers well ...
Some children are good with people but not all children are. Some people are
good with people ...
Some children are adept at making up stuff but not all children. Some adults
are into make-believe ...
Some children adapt well to or love changes and new situations but not all
children do. Some people like anything new ...
Some children take well to swimming; others not as quickly or as well. A few
individuals are even deep sea divers ...
Some children think or read or write or draw or paint a lot. Others do other
things.
~Katherine
(original, 2010)
In 2022, 2023, MANY webpages arose, many to make money or to comfort those who wished to be disabled, or victims. Adults in their 20s and 30s started self-diagnosing themselves (with the help of questionnaires on websites) as neurodivergent, two or three ways. Some want (and get!) drugs for their (self-diagnosed) ADHD and anxiety disorders.
Some sites seemed to assure people that they SHOULD be given special dispensation at school and work, or that they should go on disability for their "neurodivergence." Sites came along promising to arrange letters from doctors to enable people to get "emotional support animals." Those sites do disappear fairly quickly, or they pop back up with new names.
None of that helps with unschooling. It doesn't help with learning, or with wholeness.
Outside of unschooling they make money for some people, and get funding for some schools. Parents who want excuses or reasons for their child being behind others in one way or another have something to show the grandparents.
Unschooling is harmed by things that make children feel wrong, or less-than, or way special, or unable. Please avoid it if it's not too late for your family.
Multiple Intelligences
Labels
Problems with labelling children
Seeing Children without Labels
