I just read a great post titled
'Unschooling Thoughts' at Fall Down To Fly. The author, my friend Miranda, describes so eloquently the style of learning we also live by. Recommended reading for anyone wanting to know more about unschooling. Thanks Miranda!
7 comments:
You're welcome! I have some more blasts from the past lined up to post as well. I guess I just needed to share and remind myself, too.
Oh, re the post below, it IS nice when you get a little confirmation about the path you choose, isn't it?
Here's a link to Michelle's story on Imillionwomen.com
it reminded me so much of your earth friendly ways
Michelle's Gift Giving Experiences
Thanks,Netti....I followed your link & learned a lot more about unschooling.I strive to understand both ways of educating & can see for & against both, but I learned so much reading the posts on that site.I guess we base much of our thinking on our own life experiences & I really loved my first 4 yrs of school, but after that my parents constantly moved and from then on I hated school. Forever the "new girl" and always striving to catch up. I still, to this day, have frequent dreams of struggling, running to catch up with something that has left before I could reach it.
When you talked about seeing school kids & none of them looked happy, I could so relate to that. Used to often invent tummy aches so I could stay home from school.
My only concern about unschooling is that of earning a living when the kids are adults. Will they have to do the mundane, low paying work because they don't have that vital "piece of paper" from a uni/ college or trade?
Then again, I see kids doing brilliantly at school who are so stressed &never have time to play -toomany extracurricular activities & homework assignments.Free play is vital as I see it
Anyone care to help me think through this? thank you
Unschooling does not mean that they can't go to college / uni if they want to. A friend of mine is unschooling her 5 children. The oldest is 17 and in her second year at uni studying law and chinese. She had done a couple of distance classes, written a 1500 word paper on why she wanted to go to Uni, and sat an entrance exam.
With unschooling, children are encouraged to pursue the things that interest them and spend as much time as they want on them. Eg, AJ and animals. He'll spend hours reading books about them and we visit a school farm to interact with them, and he watches all of the bugs around here and the birds and takes it all in. He knows that a career in that field will most likely require him to go to Uni and he has discussed that.
He also has the mind of an inventor so he may end up doing that. Or something else. Either way, he is getting time to explore the things that he feels are important to him, and not the things that someone else tells him he has to know. He is learning at an early age how to trust his guidance. We expose them to a lot of different things and places. It's not like they are stuck inside a building, being told when they can eat or drink or go to the toilet and what they need to know in order to be awarded an 'A' and therefore classed as better than other students, creating unnecessary division and competitiveness. My kids are free to honour their bodies and their minds and to base their play with friends on creativity and joy.
If my kids ever did choose a low-paying job, I hope it would be because it is what makes them happy. There's a very good chance that they would become self-employed too.
Love you, A xxx
Thank you...makes heaps of sense.
I didn't mean to decry unschooling, just trying to understand it because I care. I do feel that had I been educated differently eg Opportunity Class, I would have had much more life satisfaction, self esteem & sense of fulfillment & of making a contribution to the world during the life I have been given to live out.
Another thought : perhaps your children will be healthier because they take life at the right pace and won't feel tempted to take stupid risks as adolescents because they understand about keeping themselves safe?
Frankie I appreciate that you are just trying to understand this out of your concern for your grandkids. (hugs)
I like your thought about the kids being healthier and safer due to being able to know themselves more deeply and being guided by their own instincts.
A xx
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