Power. Such a loaded word. And with power comes the potential for mis-using it. Recently my daughter Katy has been thinking a lot about power. Specifically, she’s been thinking about how much of it she wields. This has made for some interesting dynamics. A few days ago, after an altercation with her younger sister, Katy […]
Archives for May 2012
Unschoolers Have Doubts, Too
Being a teacher, I was kind of amazed at how naturally our family made the transition from school-at-home to unschooling. Maybe the fact that I am a teacher helped. It was pretty easy for me to find the learning in most of my kids’ activities, which was reassuring – especially at first. But I’m going […]
Unschooling: Yes, Sometimes It Sucks
I’m going to be honest with you. Unschooling has been an awesome experience for our family. But not every minute. Sometimes things go south. Sometimes they go even further downhill than that. And yes, there are moments that truly suck. Now, I’m not telling you this to bring you down – really! I’m telling you […]
Unschooling: Can You Be Successful without College?
Ordinarily, I like to think of myself as more pro-unschooling than anti-school. I prefer to spend my energy focused on the positives of the unschooling approach rather than on the negatives associated with traditional schooling. However, a recent episode of Harry’s Law, which touched on whether a college degree is still essential in this day […]
Unschooling: What’s the Value of a Diploma?
I can’t shake the sneaking suspicion that a closet unschooler is a writer on Harry’s Law. An episode I watched a while back seemed just loaded with unschooling philosophy. I found its premise to be so unschool-y, in fact, that I’ve written about it not once, but twice already. And here I go again… If […]
Unschooling: Success and Failure
Children who undertake to do things…do not think in terms of success and failure, but of effort and adventure. It is only when pleasing adults becomes important that the sharp line between success and failure appears. -John Holt, from How Children Fail
Are Kids Supposed to Hate School?
So as it turns out, I’m writing a small series on a single episode of a show called Harry’s Law. What does that have to do with unschooling, you ask? You’d be surprised. The episode centers around 16-year old Scott, who’s battling his parents in court in order to win the right to quit high […]
Popular TV Show Promotes Unschooling Philosophy
Anybody who’s followed my posts probably knows by now that tv shows tend to ignite my thoughts about unschooling. Usually, it’s kid shows I have something to say about, but today I’m writing about one of a handful of grown-up shows I manage to watch: Harry’s Law. This particular episode caught my attention because it […]
Unschooling: Worrisome Ideas
The time to worry is when the idea is so widely shared that we no longer even notice it, when it is so deeply rooted that it feels to us like plain common sense. At the point when objections are not answered anymore because they are no longer even raised, we are not in control; […]