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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Unschooling
  • Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:58:26 EDT


> >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>




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