This weekend, our new kitten, Misty, joined our family. He was a long time in coming – and I’m not just talking about the 10 weeks we had to wait until he was weaned and ready to leave his mama. No, for us the journey to our kitten was long and winding, with many challenges […]
Holt: Escaping from Jail
Children are subject peoples. School for them is a kind of jail. Do they not, to some extent, escape and frustrate the relentless, insatiable pressure of their elders by withdrawing the most intelligent and creative parts of their minds from the scene? -John Holt, from How Children Fail
Unschoolers Rock!
A month ago today, my family attended the Life Rocks! unschooling conference in beautiful North Conway, NH. It was five days of non-stop, jam-packed festivities. To be among like-minded people was, for many of us, a blessing, a respite, a sanctuary from the world in which we usually live. It was easy to see how […]
Paley: Credibility
Only as I began to seek the children’s approval could I concentrate on individual needs and differences. If you want a certai nperson to like you, then you find out what makes him or her happy. I began to realize that I could not teach much to anyone unless the person liked me a lot. […]
Kohn: Human Nature
…we assume that people naturally avoid challenging themselves, that it is “human nature” to be lazy. The evidence shows that if anything deserves to be called natural, it is the tendency to seek out optimal challenge, to struggle to make sense of the world, to fool around with unfamiliar ideas. -Alfie Kohn, from Punished by […]