UnschoolingDiscussion
· UnschoolingDiscussion@yahoogroups.com
From: "Vesna" <duonexus@tds.net>
Date: Thu Sep 8, 2005 7:18 am
Subject: Re: I need some help.....(sorry it's long)
Sandra,
I totally agree with you. I'm sorry, I didn't explain the point of the
book right. The book "Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling
Ourselves" does not justify pressing lessons on kids. The whole book
is about just the opposite. It shows how disastrous it is to press
lessons on kids.
I agree, and the writer of the book would agree, more than twice IS
just too much. If she could go back in time and take back whatever
efforts she ever made to foist schoolish lessons on her kids, I'm sure
she would.
But the stories she tells are her true stories. She was an elementary
school teacher who was thoroughly brainwashed, and it took years for
her to become unschooled (hence the title).
There is one particularly sad story about how her son's enthusiasm for
a particular thing was quashed by her schoolteacherish attempts to
"help" him "do it right." She didn't even do or say much, but even
what seemed like a little bit had a big effect. Reading about the
process of his passion dying was just excruciating. He never became
interested in that area again -- maybe he never will -- maybe her
well-meaning blunder changed his whole life. Her chagrin over it is
deep and real. I found the whole episode appalling, instructive, and a
dramatic illustration of the awesome negative potential of the
schoolish approach.
If reading this book, or a similar one, can short-circuit an
education-oriented person's impulse to pull out the workbooks now and
then (whenever they lose faith in their child, in other words), then I
think it is an ideal recommendation. That is the effect it has had for
me. It shows how damaging the schoolish lessons can be, and the
importance and validity of getting out of the way.
Vesna
-----------------------
From: SandraD…@...
Date: Wed Sep 7, 2005 8:20 pm
Subject: Re: [UnschoolingDiscussion] Re: I need some help.....(sorry it's long)
In a message dated 9/7/05 1:35:48 PM, duonexus@... writes:
> -=-She shares how nervewracking, but ultimately rewarding, it
> was every time she and her husband would TRULY let go and TRULY let
> the children learn at their own paces.=
>
It's much better for the parents and the kids and the family and every
relationship dyad if they truly let go once and don't go back. "Every time..."
sounds like it was more than twice. That's just too much.
-=- By the time this came about, his mind was so sharp that it was all a very
smooth process.-=-
His mind was sharp when he was born.
School and schoolish lessons can dull that sharpness.
The book is probably great for some people, but if it justifies several
instances of pressing lessons on kids, I don't think it's an ideal
recommendation.
Sandra