What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.
– Matina Horner
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What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.
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Musings on my beliefs on parenting and health. Fertility, Pregnancy and Childbirth Circumcision Breastfeeding and Nutrition Attachment Parenting, Positive Parenting and Gentle Discipline Vaccines Homeschooling and Unschooling HomeschoolingMy husband, Kevin's thoughts on unschooling . One thing that is often asked of unschooling parents is ,"How can you be sure that they are learning all of the subjects?" The answer starts with challenging the assumption that there is such a thing as "all the subjects." The questioners probably don't mean all the knowledge in the universe. They probably mean the traditional subjects that traditional schools think should be taught to kids. Well, those subject classifications are irrelevant a lot of the time. They're narrow groupings of facts that somebody at some point thought were important. They have no connection to the real world. Life is not broken up into subjects. Skeptics of self-led learning probably went through a traditional educational system in which "all the subjects" were presented to them. Do they know all those facts now? Did they ever really learn them? Are they going through life just fine without remembering exactly what the War of 1812 was about? It might not be the end of the world if a person doesn't learn "all the subjects." I have never learned anything I wasn't interested in or had a use for. I have remembered some facts long enough to take a test, but forgot them immediately if I had no use for them. One of the things that I don't like about traditional schools is the idea that some children are "gifted" or "talented". What are these special children gifted in? They are gifted in state sanctioned areas (ie., math, science or English). It is my contention that all children are gifted just not in ways that traditional schools can measure. Some kids are gifted gardeners, poets, musicians, mechanics, photographers, carpenters, cooks, what have you. Why can't we nurture all gifts? Recommended ReadingHow Children Learn by John HoltHow Children Fail by John Holt Freedom and Beyond by John Holt Escape From Childhood by John Holt Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom by Mary Griffith Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn The Schools Our Children Deserve by Alfie Kohn |
