"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt

Monday, December 15, 2008

New plates!

It was sooo time to retire the WOOKA plate we've had for years. I was all done explaining what it meant to strangers. Of course, the new one is apt to be a conversation starter as well. Usually, I explain unschooling as fast as possible with a one liner... "It's like homeschooling but cooler!" and move on because most people really aren't interested.

Sometimes we come across people who are fascinated and ask genuine questions. Those folks I love talking to and I am proud to have told them about a way of life they never knew existed.
However often we are met with furrowed brows and a look of disdain as if we have just spat on their shoes. We get the "Oh- I could never do that!" or "You must have a lot of patience!" comments.

What I'd like to say is, "Yes you can and no, I don't have a lot of patience actually. What I DO have is freedom to live life our way. Freedom from schedules implemented by an institution, freedom to follow my children's interests, freedom to explore our passions. We have lazy mornings and pajama days, we have playgroups and co-ops and field trip days. We have fun and do things that bring us joy. We have frustrations and grumpy days too. We have each other and I wouldn't have it any other way.

1 comment:

Dayna Martin said...

OMG Jess!! LOVE EM'
Very, very cool!

"By nature people are learning animals. Birds fly; fish swim; humans think and learn. Therefore, we do not need to motivate children into learning by wheedling, bribing, or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we need to do - and all we need to do - is to give children as much help and guidance as they need and ask for, listen respectfully when they feel like talking, and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest."
John Holt
"In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it...and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself." -Grace Llewellyn
"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child."
George Bernard Shaw
Real, natural learning is in the living. It's in the observing, the questioning, the examining, the pondering, the analyzing, the watching, the reading, the DO-ing, the living, the breathing, the loving, the JOY. It's in the joy. ~Anne Ohman
"How could youth better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?" -Henry D. Thoreau