unschooling resources

http://geocities.com/moonwindstarsky/unschooling

http://geocities.com/moonwindstarsky/unschoolingbooks

Edited by author 02-12-2004 02:56 PM
Selma asks on the NDD General Topic forum:

I just came across the different (new) forums you have started and read them. At this one I read something about John Holt. So, could you name titles of books of John Holt about Unschooling? Selma

Hi Selma,
A bit of personal synchronicity here. I also remembered a reference to John Holt, somewhere, and I went to sleep last night thinking I want to read his book on unschooling.

My wife and I were very enthusiastic about his works when we were raising our son. His books “How Children Fail” and "How Children Learn", are absolutely great. Other influences were JS Neil’s Summerhill, Haim Ginott’s Between Parent and Child, Rudolf Steiner, and Sylvia Aston-Warner’s Teacher. “Teacher” stands out for me as perhaps among my top three favorite books ever read. Anyone who likes kid’s “just gotta” read it.

Anyway, I checked with Amazon and came up with “Teach Your Own --- The John Holt Book of Homeschooling” pub. 2003 as the latest release. One reviewer writes:

 “In this unofficial treatise for the homeschooling movement, John Holt, longtime private school teacher, maintains that the traditional classroom model no longer works and may, in fact, ruin kids for learning. He exhorts parents to challenge the conventional wisdom and be their children's teachers. You don't need to be a homeschooler to benefit from Holt's books; you simply need to care about children and education and to have uttered, if only once, "There's got to be a better way."

I think there is usually a distinction made between ‘homeschooling’ and ‘unschooling’, and I didn’t find a title with the latter. Anyway I am going to take a trip to the library and see if I can’t find “Teach Your Own.” When I mentioned unschooling to my wife, she responded by saying Wendy's Heather on the EarthStar forum is the best example she could think of after purveiwing her pages on the “Peace and Carrots” website. I am not sure she fits such a category but I would guess so, given her independent, dynamic character and the other outstanding results. Our own son quit public school in the seventh grade and certainly does not seem to have suffered from it. The 'education' from experiences he sought out from then on, on his own, set him in much better stead than sitting in a classroom ever could have done, we believe.

Most of these forums as you say are just now starting. I just added a new one, titled 'New Education' I somehow had overlooked, though it is one of the major headings in the newdaydawning.org website I am beginning to assemble. It will eventually be accesable from http://newdaydawning.org/neweducation/neweducationforum.htm
 
Jerry,
Thanks for your answer.
I understood unschooling as: de-schooling = free one/myself of aaaaaall the useless stuff I learned at school and "grieving over" the maaaaany unpleasant houres of being school-jailed (I guess I invented a new word!!!)yep...
I like the "rule" in education which Mrs. Montessori used as her basic in teaching: "teach me to do it myself".
Although her attitude towards educating children was a big step forward in child-friendly-education those days, I would have liked it to be a pupil at a school with the phrase: "give me the freedom and space to do (learn) it my way".

Well, as long as adults claim to know what someone (child) needs to know/learn, there will be a lot of drilling in teaching. Funny to see that more and more children can't cope in this system. So the system finally will change...
Just some thoughts..
Selma

Edited by author 02-09-2004 01:18 AM
( a lead off post borrowed from the manager's New Liberty Village education forum)

Children are very smart. They learn quickly how the world works, and know keenly what they don't know. They also want to grow up to feel confident and competent. Kids (natural kids) WANT to learn and to learn everything. Witness a 2-year-old in action to see what the natural learning of a human child is. In my experience, this remains, unless it gets dampened by coercion or testing. Only then does the joy of learning become dulled.

I have not seen an unschooled child yet that didn't swallow learning in whole bites. (Even one I know with serious dyslexia is an incredible learning machine when left to her own devices! She simply needs some help with reading.) My two are 14 and 10, and both still consider learning the greatest game in the world. Does it not require subtle, but intelligent nudges by parents?

Generally, the loss of the desire to learn is done by a formal educating program (done anywhere) that does not come from inside the child. The more the child's own desires are guiding the learning, the more intense the educating will be. Certainly a good parent will provide access to materials, people, areas, books, outings, interests of their own, interests of others, etc., to their children. These are fantastic jumping-off points, and will instigate HUGE amounts of learning. The older the child, the more they think of on their own.

Reading TO a child will also stimulate all sorts of interests; questions from the child, resulting in the provision of more books and interesting situations being provided; parent as guide... Again, the older the child, the more they think of and do for themselves. A parent interested in learning will be mimicked at the younger ages. Curiosity in new stuff and a can-do attitude are "catching." Children who grow up with these will be at an advantage.

The less quizzing and testing, the better --- because, again, kids are smart, and KNOW. "Knowledge, freely given, is a golden gift; testing is a demand for repayment."
Enjoy and appreciate the process, if you decide to embark on it; it's pretty nifty. - Ellen