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I just wanted to comment on how WONDERFUL unschooling is going for us! For those of you who don't know me.. I am a mommy to a 7 yr. old girl and two boys who are 6 and 4. I have been aware of and interested in unschooling since October of last year and in the last 2 months or so have really become comfortable with it and I'm beginning to see it really "work" for us!
Let me share an example with something specific that happened earlier this week. My daughter's best friend (and her two older sisters) have been homeschooled all their lives and the parents have chosen some of the most strict curriculums out there. Everything is very rigid and scheduled and they have a very burnt out and almost rebellious 13 yr. girl now as a result of it. She simply HATES school and the mom has given up and BEGGED the dad to put them all in school (she is just BURNT OUT) but he refuses and is now homeschooling them himself. This family is one I used to compare myself to when my kids were before "school age" and thought.. "there's just NO way I could ever be that disciplined and scheduled to do what they do." I was intimidated by them and thought they were not only doing it "right" but doing it better than several other examples I had seen. Well, earlier this week Emily was asked by her friend, the 7 yr. old homeschooler to come over so they could do school "together." This was way out of character for that family but her dad had okayed the invitation and so I said sure. Emily put on her old school uniform and gathered some of her old workbooks and put them in her backpack and set off for "school time." I wondered if the dad was going to be checking on her progress and asking her a million questions but I trusted him to be kind and polite..even if he was really investigating us! But I WILL admit that I tried not to bite my nails all morning.. wondering what was going on and what was being perceived. Meanwhile.. their oldest daughter.. the 13 yr. old had come over here and as usual we were talking about life etc... She shared with me (AGAIN) how much she HATES school and HATES math and HATED reading etc. I just listened... she said that she will be allowed to read her favorite Star Wars books AFTER she finishes the three Sherlock Holmes books and book reports that she has to do. Now, this girl hates reading but has about 5 books checked out already that her parents WONT give her to read until she gets her "school" work done. Unbelievable. The Star Wars trilogy could be so educational! This young lady wants to be a photographer so the filming of the movies alone would teach her more about her desired career than any Sherlock Holmes book ever could! And what will she remember about Sherlock Holmes? Certainly not the great mysteries involved nor the critical thinking used to solve them! She will see those great books as drudgery to be waded thru until she could really have fun! I'm not judging these particular parents but I'm just AMAZED at how PREPOSTEROUS this seems to me. Not a year ago I wouldn't have thought anything of that type of thinking but today I am just APPALLED~ And I truly feel sorry for this girl and even more so for her parents. These folks love their kids to death and pursue God's will in so many areas of life. But are so brainwashed with what "needs to be learned" and what HAS to be tested, etc., that I fear they will never be free from all this stress and frustration. But back to that particular day... Emily made it home later and she seemed to enjoy having "school" but when we talked about it she had no interest in going back to workbooks or scheduled school times. ( that was that!) and so we all continued with our day. A couple of nights later I was catching up in my journal, writing down what the kids had been doing through out the week. On the particular day that Emily had "schooled" at her friends house she had also done a lot of unschooling: Emily:
Now none of this was planned and all of it was enjoyed and if I understand the brain correctly most all of it will be remembered and used to build upon for further concepts and explorations! I looked over what she had done that very morning in her "school books" and it was dry and dull and *I* can't even remember what she did! Another observation: when talking to the 13 yr. old about some books we had been reading I was often met with the statement "Oh.. I already "did" that (as if a subject can be DONE and FINISHED) in 3rd grade." No matter how INTERESTING this stuff was... if she had seen it before then in her mind it was FINISHED and no longer needed to be discussed or explored. what a shame~ For all I know.. her deepest level of understanding of what happened in Pompeii will be limited to what some curriculum deemed necessary to test on in the third grade! Unless of course she has to "know" it for a test later on. Then she will limit herself to what is considered important by those curriculum writers. How unfortunate! No wonder we don't have thinkers and dreamers anymore! All of learning should be treated like a delectable banquet table with the freedom to come and go and taste and eat when the hunger is there. Who would ever taste pecan pie ONCE and claim that they'd already "done" that never to taste of it again? Unschooling gives my kids various sized bites of the exotic or the basic depending on what they are hungering for at the moment. All of it can be tasted again and again and combined with any number of other menu items. If pecan pie was on the menu and I had FORCED one of my children to eat a whole piece one day then no matter how good it tasted the psychological damage of being forced to partake of something that in essence should be freely chosen would deter my child from the whole experience of pecan pie! Whether it tasted good or not would no longer be the criteria. Unschooling is really making sense to me now and I'm convinced more and more each day how fortunate my kids are! Thanks for letting me share. Jen~ (Jennnn1969@aol.com) |