Unschooling can prove itself if it's not thwarted.
That was part of some advice I gave in 2003 to a mom whose husband "wasn't onboard," as people say.
"Unschooling can prove itself if it's not thwarted" wasn't suggesting her husband was thwarting it, but that passivity and a lack of sharing it with a spouse thwarts it.
I like the sound of the word "thwart."
Don't thwart unschooling by using it to divide the family. Move toward it methodically and thoughtfully. Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch. Note and share the results with your spouse. It can take a while to come to shared confidence, but don't fail to see it as a family-improving project.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Two days after I reposted the 2012 post about thwarting, I was watching a series I used to watch with my kids called "The Tick," from 2001 or so.
ReplyDeleteDeb Lewis gave me a balancing "action figure" of The Tick, and it had come to be on the table where I've been working lately.
So I'm watching and a cartoonish Russian terrorist said he would have done whateverall "...but you thwarted us..."
The Tick said, "You see, Arthur? You thwart!"
And that episode of The Tick is partly about a robot. A quote is already scheduled here, from something I wrote in 2001, and I mentioned a robot. Somewhere I have a photo of a toy robot from a trip to a toy store/museum when I stayed with Alex Polikowsky in Minnesota, and I have a week to find it that photo.
Would my life be as happy without so many weird coincidences? Probably not. :-)