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

Marie, you are falling into the exact pit James talks about.  My kidlets 
aren't perfect.  Far from it!  However, at an early age they learned 
personal responsibility because no one was telling them, for example, of all 
the assinine things, that they had to raise their hand to use the bathroom 
and so forth and so on.

If they need "gentle reminding," they ask for it.  Youngest sets her alarm 
clock for mornings and then has her nifty little list and asks that at "x" 
hour I give a holler if she gets too buried in some project or another. 
She's alloted herself an hour in the veggie garden between doing turkeys and 
lambs.  It's cool in the morning and she wants to get everything done before 
it heats up.  However, she's been known to start weeding and forget to stop.

Not being a perfect child, she has asked that either DH or I give a holler 
when it is 10.

The point is, it is HER choice, not ours.  She figured out how to arrange 
her day.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Homeschooling and unschooling


> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 9:10 AM,  <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:
>
> > This is an important point.  Here there are regular things that need 
> > doing
> > and everyone knows it.  ....  In fact when one
> > child or adult is away, the others fill in the missing tasks without 
> > being
> > told or reminded.  So there is not breaking into their time or 
> > interrupting their
> > attention.  They plan that for themselves.
>
> James, you're beginning to sound like a preacher, and like most
> preachers, you seem to be overstating the case. Yeah, mostly I did my
> chores, but I liked then --and I still do -- to read. Then, as now, I
> could get completely lost in a book; doesn't matter if it's fiction or
> nonfiction. So, on occasion, Mom would have to shake me out of my
> concentration -- she worried if I was out in the dark when I didn't
> need to be dragging around buckets of grain and water. I find it hard
> to believe that there are humans anywhere, especially junior humans,
> who always do what they're supposed to when they're supposed to and
> never need gentle, or not so gentle, suggestions from a parental unit.
> But perhaps your children are more perfect than any children anywhere.
> Of course, you'll say that I've never met unconditioned children. What
> can I say? That I have?
>
> > I've always suggested this proposition to dedicated schoolers.  You say 
> > that
> > a student on X grade level should be able to spell a certain body of 
> > words,
> > for an example, or do math on a certain level.
>
> I've never said that. The whole grade-level achievement paradigm
> really is BS. I think that's why the one-room school house was such a
> good environment for me: I could work at my own level. Oh, sure, I
> could have gotten as good an education at home -- where, in fact, much
> of my education took place -- but 50 years ago I would have been one
> isolated little kid. I was a loner enough as it was.
>
> Offer the student this option:
> > If you can demonstrate during the first week of school that you possess 
> > all
> > those skills, you can pass all those tasks, you can take the rest of the 
> > year
> > off.
>
> > 13 years of this and everyone is perfectly willing, in fact determined on 
> > a
> > gut level, that the norm is to work 40 hours or more a week for as much 
> > money
> > as you can get.  Nothing you can do about it, ordained by God no doubt. 
> > And
> > since you are stuck there until you retire, why not make the best of it 
> > and
> > spend the money on the things we say you ought to have.
>
> No, shit. That didn't work for me. I have spent my whole life until
> the present time where I am consigned to cubicle hell, working in jobs
> that have been really flexible, including more than 20 years as a
> freelancer. Once I'm 65, should I live so long, I'm going back to
> freelancing because my errant way of life has left me without the
> lovely pensions that my age-mates at cubicle hell are now retiring to
> enjoy. On the other hand, I had all those lovely years of freedom when
> I was in my 30s and 40s and should I die before I wake I won't have
> regrets. An unfortunately large number of agency employees have
> retired at fairly young ages (< 55) and dropped dead within the month.
> > It is such a different life to say, "I've worked 18 hours this week and I
> > have all the money I need so I that's all I'm doing."
>
> A couple of years ago, the division I'm in was way behind in its
> workload. Considering that what we do is issue teaching certificates
> (hey! somebody's got to do it) caused a certain amount of public
> consternation, not to mention bad publicity. So, management bit the
> bullet hard and offered us overtime to clear the backlog. We had a
> choice of taking the time as comp time or as money. I was the only one
> who worked a modest amount of extra time (enough to take off a couple
> of weeks in the spring when it was warm enough to start working
> outside). Others worked insane hours. One made enough money to buy a
> brand new SUV and another paid a semester of tuition at her daughter's
> private college. They both got sick.... yeah, you're right. Most
> people don't realize that it's their life they're pissing away.
>
> Marie
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