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Ready for a Changing World by Wendy Priesnitz
One of the main concerns about unschooling is that kids from a
life learning background won't be ready and able to
function in the “real world.” John Taylor Gatto has described at length how
schools were designed to churn out obedient workers and
consumers who would fit nicely into the cogs of a capitalist
market economy. And I find myself agreeing with the critics that
life learners aren’t all that well suited to the sausage
factory. However, that particular “real world” is changing if
not disappearing, and young people who have grown up in charge
of their own learning and their own lives are, I think, very
well prepared to thrive in (and help create) its replacement.
Read more.
The Unexpected Benefits of Unschooling by Sandra Dodd
As I write, my children are 18, 21, and 23 years old. They are in
Quebec, New Mexico, and Texas. I have time to review the effects
of nearly twenty years of living without school in our lives.
There were some unforeseen joys, and they continue to arise.
Read more.
The Hall of Mirrors by John Taylor Gatto
The marketplace of ideas has become monopolized by corporations and
institutions, and our education system is used to create a society of consumers
rather than one of thinkers. In this article, Gatto describes how the "mass
child indoctrination by force" came about and continues in our schools...and
suggests way to resist.
Read a short excerpt.
Am I Giving Them Enough? by Theresa Shea
For the most part I am the happy life learning mother of three children aged
nine, seven and five, and I’m immensely grateful for the freedom and flexibility
my family enjoys. Not doing school-at-home or following any set curriculum
enables us to set our own schedule, make spontaneous plans, lie low and read all
day or pursue any old adventure that comes our way. My children have never gone
to school and, aside from asking once to go to a daycare that had enticing toys
and a playground barred to them by a chain link fence, they have never voiced a
desire to attend school. Yet I must admit that there are days when I question my
pedagogical beliefs within the homeschool community and wonder if I’m giving my
children enough....And where does this sudden kernel of insecurity come from?
Read more.
And Some Have Greatness Thrust Upon Them by Karen Ridd
There’s a lot of giggling going on in the back seat of the car. We’re on our way
home from the prestigious Golden Boy indoor soccer tournament. My
eleven-year-old son Daniel has a gold medal around his neck after a hard-played
final. He also has a book in his hand – not exactly standard “Grade Six” reading
fare. It’s Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare... Read more.
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