My husband, my son, and my mom are truly unschooling enthusiasts, and they love to talk about it with pretty much anybody. Thomas has even been known to start singing its praises to the cashier at the local grocery store! Being an introvert, I find I’m a little more reticent when it comes to sharing […]
Mother-Daughter Relationships
So I planned to write this as a lovely Mother’s Day sentiment, dedicated to my mom. But then I remembered that I have 4 kids and a house virtually buried under mountains of laundry. Luckily, my mom’s birthday is conveniently located about 10 weeks after Mother’s Day. Since I’m generally about 2 months behind in […]
Might is Spite
It seems to me that children are routinely treated with a lack of respect. Many of us afford more respect to complete strangers than we do to our children. We speak to them rudely, handle them forcefully, and override their needs and wants in order to better meet our own. A few weeks back, Ted […]
Holt: Creed of a Slave
This idea that children won’t learn without outside rewards and penalties, or in the jargon of the behaviorists, “positive and negative reinforcements,” usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. If we treat children long enough as if that were true, they will come to believe it is true. So many people have said to me, “If we […]
Unschooling: What I Learned in the Men’s Room
Listening to our children. We all know how important it is. But it’s not always easy. We have our own agendas and viewpoints. It takes intentionality to quiet our own inner voices so that we can truly hear what our children are trying to say. My husband, Ted, experienced this first hand a few weeks […]
Discipline, Respect and Obedience: An Unschooling Dad’s Perspective
A young boy once got into an argument with his mother. Insults flew, and in the heat of the moment, he gave her a shove, at which point his father stepped in – and flattened him. “Never treat your mother that way again!” he bellowed, “Or you’ll be answering to me!” Sadly, this “do as […]
Anne Sullivan: A Child Is Not an Idiot
I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. -Anne Sullivan
Unschooling: Redefining Success
Like lots of dads, Ted struggles to maintain a calm center when the kids’ emotions begin to get blustery. In this post, he explores how we gauge “success” as parents – and whether that term needs redefining. It’s Not Always Warm And Fuzzy by Ted Olson My wife and I decided to take our four […]
I Don’t Like Adults
A while back, my son made an interesting remark to my husband, Ted, which inspired him to write this article… Why I Don’t Like Adults by Ted Olson “Hey Daddy,” he said, “you know why I don’t like adults? Well, some adults anyway?” “No, why?” I asked. “Because they think they’re better than me. They […]
I Don’t Speak Kid
One of my husband’s biggest struggles has been how dramatically different the unschooling philosophy is from the way he was raised. The parenting style he grew up with was very much the authoritarian model. In his early adulthood, Ted fully embraced this all-too-common style of parenting. It was all he knew. As we discovered radical […]