tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post9099149594269276440..comments2024-03-28T00:47:31.110-04:00Comments on Natural Born Learners : Unschooling: experimental or experiential?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13181853187769838301noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-34409534234734919742011-04-04T14:16:54.608-04:002011-04-04T14:16:54.608-04:00@Cathy-thanks. This does make sense. People who ar...@Cathy-thanks. This does make sense. People who are new to unschooling might think of themselves as 'experimenting.'Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13181853187769838301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-54380005357981020812011-04-04T14:14:43.732-04:002011-04-04T14:14:43.732-04:00@Shannon Dee-wow! Thanks for a great comment. Soun...@Shannon Dee-wow! Thanks for a great comment. Sounds like your unschooling experience is rocking! Nice part here-<br />Nor is life broken up into subjects. Life is vast. As hamlet said, "I could be bounded by a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13181853187769838301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-61611535531164537292011-04-04T10:27:13.876-04:002011-04-04T10:27:13.876-04:00I think that many "unschooling" parents ...I think that many "unschooling" parents are experimenting and don't actually feel comfortable with what they are doing. I think they trust their kids just as long as they are following a path that feels comfortable to the parents. It is when we feel comfortable with unschooling that it becomes an experience not only for the kids but also the parents.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13076282329093508289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-45324073017117450522011-04-04T07:40:22.919-04:002011-04-04T07:40:22.919-04:00If unschooling is an experiment, then its "ef...If unschooling is an experiment, then its "effectiveness" should be proven by the fact that every child learns things like walking and talking without any formal instruction, before they reach "school-age" even!<br /><br />I'm already convinced that it's the way for me and my family. No experimenting needed! Very good post. Interesting topic to think about.Vickie@Demand_Euphoriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17706946767924290485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-52888056194821278452011-04-03T21:38:09.319-04:002011-04-03T21:38:09.319-04:00@ Anonymous -
Children do have experiences in sc...@ Anonymous - <br /><br />Children do have experiences in school, but I doubt very much that any school is or can be a "safe and controlled" environment, unless every child is there every day, by choice. Otherwise, the very act of enforcing attendance is likely to feel like something very different than safety, to a child who does not choose to be there.<br /><br />Also, the epidemic of school bullying that reaches into the afterschool hours, but is born in the schoolroom or schoolyard or schoolbus, speaks volumes about the safety and control of those places. So does the rash of abuses committed by staff at these "safe and controlled institutions", and the memories of people like me who faced daily torment there.<br /><br />The problem with your statement that "Children experience and are exposed to all kinds of subjects" is that it isn't likely to be ALL kinds of subjects nearly so much as it is to be "all those subjects the school board or state education department deems valuable, and that can be funded". <br /><br />Nor is life broken up into subjects. Life is vast. As hamlet said, "I could be bounded by a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space." <br /><br />My 6 and 9 year olds know that quote and others, from a sunny afternoon spent sitting on the summer grass in a park, soaking up Shakespeare before riding an historic carousel, sharing birdseed with a gaggle of other kids at the duckpond, exploring sculptures and discussing Gertrude's costume and awkward death scene across two chairs with the actress who portrayed her, then negotiating city traffic by foot, and heading to another park in another town to watch a friend fulfill his acting dreams in the musical parody, "Once Upon a Mattress" (they had explored the outdoor set at an earlier visit to the park, and waited eagerly for all the goodies they knew to be under the "bed" to be revealed.<br /><br />This account is just a sliver of what happened in one day in the lives of my unschooled children. Every day varies, and each is precious and engaging and filled with moments of true, self-initiated discovery that no curriculum could ever allow enough space for. <br /><br />If school does not experiment on the children who attend, how do you account for the seemingly endless succession of "innovative" new programs, shifting start/end times, and all the other things that change from year to year?<br /><br />"We do not brain wash them but expose them to all kinds of ideas and to people from all types of backgrounds. Many unschooled children do not get these opportunities."<br /><br />I am curious about how many unschooling families you personally know. I am also curious about what constitutes "all kinds of ideas and to people from all types of backgrounds", because it seems to me that isolating children in classrooms and away from the flow of the world beyond is far more limiting than growing in the ebb and flow of that world, out where those people and ideas really, truly live, and are there, free for meeting, delving into passionately, skimming over, or saying, "no, thanks, this isn't for me" without threat of getting a bad grade.Shan Jeniah Burtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01757607146774769663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-3505781292727247332011-04-03T19:17:14.869-04:002011-04-03T19:17:14.869-04:00Thanks for the comments. Thanks to Wendy for your ...Thanks for the comments. Thanks to Wendy for your comment in response to the teacher."Safe," "controlled," these are not the kind of adjectives that make for exciting, independent learning.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13181853187769838301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-26642032133934516152011-04-03T18:34:16.758-04:002011-04-03T18:34:16.758-04:00Thought you did a great job the first time. And a ...Thought you did a great job the first time. And a better one this time. ;-) As I've written untold times over the past 35 years (and I'm certainly not the only one to do so), school is the experiment. <br /><br />And, sorry, "Anonymous," as much as teachers would like to think school is "safe," it isn't for many children.<br /><br />At any rate, learning in the real world is preferable to the pseudo-reality that we call school. I look forward to the day when teachers and others involved in schools can be really effective as learning facilitators in a non-compulsory environment...where kids participate because they want to, not because they're forced to.Wendy Priesnitzhttp://www.WendyPriesnitz.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-91370795014416523042011-04-03T16:18:50.580-04:002011-04-03T16:18:50.580-04:00RFS-I am a teacher and I take offense to this post...RFS-I am a teacher and I take offense to this post. As far as I am concerned, school is experiential as well. Children experience and are exposed to all kinds of subjects in a safe and controlled environment.They are not experimented on. We do not brain wash them but expose them to all kinds of ideas and to people from all types of backgrounds. Many unschooled children do not get these opportunities.<br />Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991800.post-8590793963607595332011-04-03T15:52:11.033-04:002011-04-03T15:52:11.033-04:00Excellent post.
In my view, schooling is the most...Excellent post.<br /><br />In my view, schooling is the most haphazard experiment wherein many children are brutalised and damaged.Danaehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com