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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >I am ignorant of unschooling but I suspect that "what they need to  
> know" is to be self-determined. Left to find their own path, they will  
> learn what they need to know to satisfy themselves. Yes? No? What are  
> the odds? What are the known results? How sound is our godness?

Well, Gene, that does better set the stage.  

The fuel, the nuclear energy, the dilithium crystal, that power learning is 
interest.  Just like many of the comments you've read in this thread, the 
jaded 
say, 'I know this child who has no interests.'   No.  You know children who 
have had the interests beaten out of them.  It's a human birthright, we all 
have it until there is a concerted effort to destroy it.

In pursuit of any interest a child will find himself blocked and thwarted by 
lack of skills, knowledge, and ability and will work tirelessly to correct 
that.  Remember Lynda telling about one child who learned to read from video 
games.  One of my sons was pretty much non reading until he wanted to know 
what 
was going on in the old versions of Zelda, which communicates all and sundry 
by 
flashing the words on the screen at a blistering rate.  It took exaxtly three 
weeks, count 'em, three weeks until he could read on a high school level once 
he determined not being able to read stood in the way of what he wanted.  How 
did he do it?   I haven't a clue.  It's not important.

You had asked, Gene, what I meant by involved with a wider network of 
unshcoolers.  I only try to explain this to parents whose children are in 
pain from 
very bad school experiences.  Others will have to find it for themselves 
because they are like Van Dell and Marie, utterly unable to throw off the 
indoctrination for even a moment and so I don't waste their time or mine.

We mainly provide resources for one another.  One unschooler is a 
professional costumer and one of my daughters is extremely accomplished at 
garment making 
(handy, that!).  When a child has an interest, we function to throw another 
log on the fire when we can.

Having been involved in this for years, I have seen many, many times more 
children who have never been indoctrinated in schooling than the rest of this 
list combined (with the exception perhaps of Lynda and a few others).  Most 
of 
you are lucky if you've seen one.  I have seen scores of children who do not 
deal in token rewards, external validation of their learning, segmentation of 
their attention.  To try to get them to act like schooled children is to try 
to 
herd cats.

Some of them are adults  now and by and large they are wildly successful at 
life.  

To see how much a child needs guided, you must first get out of their way to 
see where they are headed.  The unschooler believes that each child is headed 
toward marvelous things, things beyond our reckoning.  We trust in their 
inate 
goodness, wisdom, ability, and proclivities.

I can tell you this Fathers Day amdist a nest of unschoolers, and having had 
the disticnct honor of having known many others, I've seen nothing at all 
that 
makes me misdoubt that confidence placed in children.  Nothing at all.

Those of you have never spent this time with the undoctrinated, you don't 
have a clue what you are talking about.     </HTML>