Last night I had an “It’s a Wonderful Life” kind of experience. You know that old James Stewart movie in which the main character gets a look at what life would be like without him? Sitting with my son as he eagerly wrote a letter to a friend, I found myself “flashing sideways” to what his […]
Unschooling Thought for the Day: Youthful Insight
With few exceptions, invention is the provenance of youthful insight; cut that spring of ideas off by embedding the young in a network of rules and judgements, and you should expect important negative consequences. -John Taylor Gatto, from Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
Kohn: Working Together
…working together to solve problems offers a vote of confidence, a statement of trust, to a child. It says, “I believe that when you understand the moral issues involved, and when you have the necessary skills, you will act responsibly.” -Alfie Kohn, from Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, […]
Screen Time: Finding the Balance
Balance. It’s an ever-moving target, that elusive “just right” blend of social activities and alone time, physical activity and rest, screen time and actual face time…. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had several conversations with folks who are struggling to find balance between time on electronic devices and time doing other things. As […]
The proper place and the best place for children to learn whatever they need or want to know is the place where until very recently almost all children learned it – in the world itself, in the mainstream of adult life…We made a terrible mistake when (with the best of intentions) we separated children from […]