We should be careful that America does not become a society of obedient “little soldiers,” abdicating our individual liberty to the powers of the state under the guise that it’s good for us. High test scores may be commendable, but not if they come at such a high price.
Tag: family
Unschooling and Workbooks
Just as we have crayons and paper, books and computers, yarn and playdough, magazines and watercolors, we have workbooks. They are nothing fancy–just the ones you can pick up at a local store or online (my gang seems to like Brain Quest)–but they are scattered around our home. These workbooks are available to the kids, just like all other tools and supplies, to use and explore as they like.
Voluntary Law and Order
People are not all the same, and they make different choices because they have different values, circumstances, and levels of understanding. Sometimes those choices are peaceful and wise; sometimes they are not. So what are the best ways to promote good choices and cooperation while preventing and providing resolution for conflict?
Letter To a Prospective Homeschooling Parent
Welcome to the exciting world of learning without schooling! You have already taken the important first step in redefining your child’s education by acknowledging the limitations of mass schooling, recognizing the ways it can dull a child’s curiosity and exuberance, and seeking alternatives to school. Now it’s time to take a deep breath, exhale, and explore.
Self-Directed Education Is Instinctual
The key advantage of Self-Directed Education is that it empowers parents and children. Parents learn to trust their children’s natural learning instincts while tapping into their own instincts about how to best nurture their children’s growth. Children learn to trust themselves, retaining their innate creativity and desire to explore and understand the world around them.
White Privilege is Definitely Real
I believe in white privilege in a very significant regard. The privilege that I speak of is so significant that it’s had the power to allow millions of my fellow whites to lift themselves out of a countless number of circumstances and to reach the highest levels of social, political, and economic class. For those who don’t have this privilege, it’s kept them mired in internal and external conflict, convinced that without this privilege they can never achieve the same levels of whatever class as those who have it. And the thing is, they aren’t wrong.
What the American Flag Means to Me
The American flag, the “star-spangled banner” is one of those things whose meaning to me has changed significantly over the course of my life. Once upon a time it meant being a winning nation, the best the world had ever seen in terms of righteousness, justice, freedom, and opportunity. When I saw the flag, those are the ideas that were brought to mind, ideas that I value, and produced the warm and fuzzies deep inside. I admired and waved the stars and stripes with a sense of pride. What the American flag means to me today is very different than what it meant to me as recently as 10 years ago.
The Danger of Tribalism on a Large Scale
Seeing more latinos in my area, or more Africans, Arabs, Indians, Asians, Eastern Europeans, et cetera doesn’t bother me at all. I see them as my fellow human beings. However, I do think it would be incredibly easy for me to view them as the outgroup and be bothered by their presence. I think that’s due to my evolution as a member of a tribalistic species.
Superstitions Regarding School
My family has been on our unschooling journey for going on six years now. Within that time I have had the opportunity to meet countless other unschooling parents, families and people raised with unschooling, both online and in person. What I have learned has revealed to me bit by bit the superstitious nature that is the belief in the necessity of school, or other forms of compulsory education.
You Can’t Go Home Again, but . . .
Today, when I buy a cantaloupe brought to me in the far reaches of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, I immediately feel a link to my boyhood and relive at least for a few moments the youthful joys of that long-ago time and place.