Life-in-progress

The structured homeschooling that involves buying a curriculum and teaching at the kitchen table on a schedule is not the control group the school system needed. Those who practice “school at home” serve to reinforce the school’s claims that they could do better if they had more teachers and better equipment. When a structured family has high test scores, the schools say “SEE? We could do that too if we had one teacher per three or four students.”. . . .
Scientifically speaking, my children are not a control group. They’re not isolated and kept purely away from school methods and messages. But what is unquestionable is that there are now thousands of children who are learning without formal teaching. They are learning from the world around them, from being with interesting and interested adults doing real work and real play. Instead of being put away with other children to prepare for life, they are joining life-in-progress right at birth, and never leaving “the real world.”

SandraDodd.com/thoughts
photo of Holly Dodd and Adam Daniel, by Adam's mom
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Know what you don't want!

The way to know the right direction is to identify the wrong direction.



SandraDodd.com/screwitup
photo by Sandra Dodd

Where art lives

Robyn Coburn wrote:

Maybe thriving at [the University of Wollongong] gave me an enhanced appreciation of blurred edges. I find the concept of interconnectedness of all knowledge, one of the tent poles of Unschooling philosophy, to be a no-brainer. Art as science as history as math as language studies as economics; skills acquisition as a function of activity rather than a separated prerequisite. I believe creativity is the foundation of all activity.

—Robyn Coburn

"Encouraging Creativity": SandraDodd.com/robyn/creativity
photo by Sandra Dodd, of medieval floor tile at Winchester Cathedral

Testing some things

I'm trying to get my little-tree favicon to show in the browser windows, and need to mess with a post to do that.

ALSO, some people were having a hard time commenting on posts at the blog. Some people are responding to the e-mails (those who read by subscription), and that's fine with me; I get a direct e-mail. If you would like to leave a comment at the blog, though, please click on the title of the post (at the top of the e-mail message), and leave a comment there.

I think it's fixed. If any of you who have had a problem before or who haven't posted but have a minute to test it could at least leave a "ping" on this one, that would be appreciated. It should take anonymous comments. It will say "anonymous," but you can sign your post in the body of it, if you want to.

There are 772 subscribers today, just for a bit of update.

Sorry for the boring post. Maybe there will be another one, later. :-)

Thanks for reading!

gratuitous photo by Sandra

Years

Deb Lewis, out of context, but a really good part:

There's evidence galore! There's evidence throughout human existence. There's evidence in the fossil record. Stone age evidence and Bronze Age evidence and evidence in every archaeological site in the world. Humans learn.

They learn what the other humans around them are doing. They learn by living.

And now there's the evidence of my own son's life. He is surrounded by the things that interest humans in the twenty-first century. He is surrounded by the whole of human history. He is a citizen of the world in a time when access to information has never been easier. He is learning all the time.

Read the whole article, "The Evidence of Years":
SandraDodd.com/deblewis/years
photo by Sandra Dodd

What's natural?

Pam Sorooshian wrote:

It is natural for people to learn—each in their own way. It is natural for children to want to understand the world around them. They also want to join the adult world and become competent and capable adults themselves. They'll strive for this in their own natural ways. Unschooling parents work on creating a home environment that supports their children's natural desire to learn and grow.

—Pam Sorooshian

from "I LIVE THEREFORE I LEARN: Living an Unschooling Life"
photo by Sandra Dodd

Look up

When I was little, there was mean little trick we did to younger kids, and I didn't know enough to feel guilty about it. It had hurt my feelings when I was younger, but still I passed it on.

It started "Look up." It ended, after a while with "Gee, you're dumb."

I was reminded recently that I had told a relative NOT to teach my kids that fake "game." I'm still glad I asked that it not be done to them. The entirety of the rhyme, which has hand motions, was

"Look up. Look down.
Look all around.
Look at my thumb.
Gee, you're dumb."

I never wanted my kids to think for one joking moment that they were "dumb." I always stopped at the "look up" part, and life has looked up for all of us.

SandraDodd.com/negativity
photo by Sandra Dodd
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