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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Well, I'm not James but I have a 14 yo.  She hates math, always has, always
will and isn't the least interested in anything that has to do with math.
However, she has learned what she needs to do things that she does have an
interest in such as . . . big pause <g> . . . astronomy.  She wanted a
telescope and I told her I didn't know a blooming thing about them, so she
sat down at bookcase to see what we had on astronomy (5 books, two sky maps)
and then dug out some books on careers in astronomy.  She asked if the next
time we went down to visit relatives if we could head on over to the big
telescope down in the Bay Area.  She talked to the guys there and made a
list.  She taught herself about the "x" and what have you (I still don't
have a clue and I'm the math whiz <g>) about telescopes.  She's saving her
money to buy a good one now.

She also loves to write and wants to become an author.  She has written fan
fics and short stories and is reading up on how to be self-published.  She
has 11 chapters of a book completed and the outline for 2 more.

Another friend who unschools has a daughter who wanted to become a surgeon.
She calmly took the local transit over to the teaching hospital and asked
for the chief of staff.  Got herself a list and then went to work on what
she needed to know.  She got college level biology books and had her mother
buy her animal organs at the local slaughterhouse to begin doing disecting.
She also, at the age of 13 got a neuro-surgeon to let her shadow him for a
day.  I guess she must have done a pretty good job of convincing him that
she was sincere because he had her scrub up and come into the operating room
to watch a surgery.  She hasn't continued on to medical school because she
fell on a balance beam (she was state ranked in gymnastics) and injured her
back and now suffers from a severe cause of fibromyalgia and is in constant
pain.

I personally know dozens of unschooled kids who have gone on to college.
None of them have had any problem with the math element and I think Stanford
and CalPoly (Danyell is going into architecture) are pretty stringent on
what they require for admission and those are only two of the major colleges
they are attending.

Oh, btw, ya know that test you have to take to get into the service, Kidlet
#5 had no problems with any sections of that test you have to take to get
into the Marines.  In fact, had the highest scores for the area we lived in. 
No math studies before the test.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>

> You beat me to the punch, Van Dell!  I was going to say the same thing.
> Sure, in day to day living, most people use basic math operations, but
> in some cases, math does, or rather can, require more advanced study.
> I think it depends on the child's interests, which supports the
> unschooling philosophy, but at the same time, I know that most kids
> don't have a clue as to what opportunities await them out in the real
> world, so they don't know what they might need to learn.  Waiting until
> you need something to learn it works fine in some cases, especially in
> early and middle school level education and for adults who are already
> in a job/career, but for teens and young adults, I feel that they really
> need to have a more well-rounded capability in math, even if they end up
> in a career that doesn't use it.
> I want to ask James if his 14 year old can do this or that, but I know
> that would only be setting him up for a comparison against other 14 year
> olds that attend public school, so I won't do that as I know unschoolers
> learn things at different rates and at different times.  However, I
> would like to know how James' son/daughter will learn, if he/she hasn't
> already done so, logrhythms, trig functions, scientific notation, base
> 2, and other concepts in a practical way.  How much reading do they do,
> how much practice with problem solving do they get, or will they get?
> What are his/her interests (the oldest)?
> Homesteading *can* be complex and full of lessons, but many who
> homestead don't pursue the more advanced trades and skills that require
> higher math.
>
> Bev
>
> VAN DELL JORDAN wrote:
> > The advantage of studying math is not just that you might use
> > mathmatical calculations in life, but the mental skills, logic etc.
> > apply to all our thinking. Van Dell
> >
> >
> >
> > --- "Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > You could say that you don't need or use much advanced algebra in
> > > daily living, but I suppose some people do and it would depend on
> > > what you do.
> > >
> > > Lisa
> >
> > >
> >
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> --
> BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
> 34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky
>
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