Adults need to know what peace feels like too, though, and some feel it for the first time when they really start to understand unschooling.
photo by Colleen Prieto
Do you use books at all, Sandra?SandraDodd:
What do you mean "use books"?That mom:
As in curriculum, textbooks, etc.SandraDodd:
I use books like crazy—we need to look at what you mean by "use."
A lot of the problem with discussing all this is philosophical—the definitions of "learn" and "know" and things like that.If we talk about what we "do" and "use" and "are" instead of what's happening in and with our children we dance around the "thing" without seeing the "thing" (and the next philosophical problem is: what is this "thing"?)
We paused - oh - probably at least 25 times during the documentary to look up things ranging from "When was the Bronze Age?" and "What exactly is Stonehenge anyway?" to "Who were the Normans?" and "How exactly big is England?" and "They killed the garrison... What's a garrison??"
We also paused a bunch of times as he described how he's going to be getting up early tomorrow to start work in Minecraft right away - he plans to build a motte-and-bailey timber castle, as described in the documentary. He asked me to keep the documentary in our Netflix queue so he can refer to it as needed for the particulars.
When the show ended, he stood up from the couch and proclaimed "That was AWESOME. And the whole time it was Spock. Spock just GIVING you interesting history stuff!!!"
It hit me right away that he didn't say "Spock teaching you history" or "A show teaching you history" or anything about teaching at all. He doesn't see things in terms of Being Taught. In his mind, he received a gift of new knowledge and facts this evening. A gift given by Spock, which made it all the better. 🙂
(Read more about why experienced unschoolers sometimes seem pushy, at the link below.)
I've seen many families succeed, I've seen some wander off because it's not easy, and I've seen some fail.
Deschooling is the best next stop
though the quote came from a rougher place
photo by Colleen Prieto