Editor’s Pick. Written by Sue Elvis. My children follow their own interests when it comes to learning. This sounds rather indulgent, doesn’t it? Why should I let them direct their own learning? Hey, they’re only kids. How do they know what they need to know? I stop and think about these questions for a moment,…
Author: Editor's Pick
Selected content picked by the editor of Everything-Voluntary.com.
Help Your Child Develop Self Control
Editor’s Pick. Written by Laura Markham. We can think of self-discipline as the ability to manage ourselves to reach our goals. In Walter Mischel’s Marshmallow experiments, he tests how long a child can resist eating a treat, if it means she will then get two treats that she really wants. In other words, does the…
The Incredible Power of the Whisper
Editor’s Pick. Written by L. R. Knost. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a whisper is worth two thousand when it comes to parenting. In the same way that the instinctive human reaction to someone raising their voice is to raise our voice one octave higher, to out-shout the shouter, to over-power…
No Sharing Required
Editor’s Pick. Written by BigDaddy MamaBear. Do you share your car with others? Your cell phone? Your favorite necklace or pair of jeans? Your engagement ring? That one-of-a-kind heirloom your grandmother passed to you? Do you share your credit card? Your stash of old X-Men comics? How about your partner? Would you willingly share any…
Reasons I Stopped Caring About Politics
Editor’s Pick. Written by Paul Rosenberg. When I was young, I felt a need to understand politics, and I spent time studying. But as time progressed, I received diminishing returns on that investment. And in the past few years, I have given it up altogether. These days, my concern with politics is limited to things…
That Which Is Learned vs. That Which Is Not Learned
Editor’s Pick. Written by Chantal K. Saucier. Human beings learn constantly and they do so from the time they are born until the time they die. I have yet to meet anyone who did not believe this to be true. Yet, the vast majority of people also seem to believe that human beings between the…
Anarchy Defended by Anarchists
Editor’s Pick. Written by Emma Goldman. To most Americans Anarchy is an evil-sounding word — another name for wickedness, perversity, and chaos. Anarchists are looked upon as a herd of uncombed, unwashed, and vile ruffians, bent on killing the rich and dividng their capital. Anarchy, however, to its followers actually signifies a social theory which…
The ‘NO’ Zone
Editor’s Pick. Written by L. R. Knost. The life of a small child is comprised of a daily onslaught of tempting surfaces begging for the artistry of a crayon, tall places crying out to be scaled, lovely little objects in need of a mouth or nose to visit, and dozens of other alluring glass and…
Our Own Measures of Success
Editor’s Pick. Written by Christopher Rowley. I have recently heard a similar sentiment across the various unschooling communities that I am privileged to have access to. The boiled down version of this sentiment seems to center on confusion concerning ideas related to goals and measureable successes. If I phrase the thoughts I have heard in…
The Other (Worse) Side of the PRISM Scandal
Editor’s Pick. Written by Paul Rosenberg. The fallout from the PRISM scandal has reached Stage Two, where faces in front of television cameras promote memorable slogans to give people reasons to accept their abuse and to pretend that everything is okay. And, overall, these slogans and their promoters break down into to two primary models…