This weekend conversation exposes the deep, underlying myth in our culture that children cannot learn unless they are systematically taught. Whether in school or school-at-home, children can only learn when they are directed by an adult, when they follow an established curriculum, when they are prodded and assessed. How could a child possibly know how to identify plants if it wasn’t part of a school-like lesson?
Tag: children
75 Times Around the Sun
Yesterday I observed the 25th Anniversary of my 50th birthday. On the original occasion, I opined that, like Merle Haggard, I could say “my life’s been grand!” I said at the time that I had lived a great half-century, therefore no matter what happened to me after that I could say that most of my life had been grand. The facts of the matter are that the continuing quarter-century has been even grander.
Social Security is the Titanic; 2022 is the Iceberg; Anybody See a Lifeboat?
Everything eventually comes to an end, and Social Security won’t be the single historical exception to that cold hard fact of reality. The big question is whether it winds down in the least damaging way or catastrophically implodes (cue images of the elderly living on cat food and so forth).
An Atelatheist Exposes the Religion of Statism
Yes, belief in the State results in buildings being built, people molested due to “laws”, and other physical effects in the real world, but those are no more proof of the existence of the State than churches, inquisitions, martyrs, or charities are proof of the existence of God. People who believe something do things based on that belief. Such is the nature of belief. Beliefs have effects on the behavior of people who believe, even when the belief is in something imaginary.
Violence, Aggression, Gun Control, Talking Back, & Unschooling as Abuse (30m) – Editor’s Break 077
Editor’s Break 077 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: are libertarians opposed to violence?; what he hates the most: aggression; why state gun control in any degree is a violation of the right to bear arms; whether or not children have a right to “talk back” to their parents, and the importance in doing so; why he unschools to hide his “abuse” of his children; and more.
Hard-Won Homeschooling Freedoms Are Under Threat and Must Be Defended
I sometimes wonder about the courage it took those earlier homeschooling parents to remove their children from school before it was fully legal, to chart an alternative education path for their children when they were often the only ones on that road. I sometimes wonder if I would have had the same courage.
Becoming Libertarian, Feminism or Masculinism?, Childism (26m) – Editor’s Break 076
Editor’s Break 076 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: the choices we make along the way in becoming a libertarian, anarchist, or voluntaryist; does he claim the label feminist or masculinist?; why neither of those hold a candle to the way children are treated in many societies, including his own; and more.
Ice Cream Shops, Saturday Night, and Peace
It’s a radical experience in human history for people to have the financial means and the freedom to go out to see a movie, to take the children out for an ice cream, to walk through a welcoming, light-strewn outdoor mall. But that’s what a Saturday night in Atlantic Station is for all of these people. It’s more impressive when I consider that some of these people from minority cultures are likely immigrants. This Saturday night may have been someone’s first night around all of this extravagance.
Feminism or Masculinism? Neither…
In light of the many and varied types of unfairness that both men and women endure today and have endured throughout history, I can’t say that one gender has been treated more unfairly than the other. Both are and have been treated like shit for the benefit of others. But maybe we can agree that the one group of people that is and has been treated the most unfairly… is children.
Anti-Gun Societies are Not “Civilized”
One non-negotiable mark of a civilized society is that it doesn’t interfere with the liberty or rights of those inside it. Anti-gun “laws” do interfere. They treat the residents as bad, stupid, helpless children.