Written by Michael Bakunin, circa 1867, as published in The Voluntaryist, April 1992. We shall now examine what the State, thus constituted, should be in relation to other states, its peers, as well as in relation to its own subject populations. This examination appears to us all the more interesting and useful because the State,…
Tag: natural
Trickle-Down Theory of Kindness
Writes Scott Noelle: In peaceful “primitive” cultures, kindness is sustained from generation to generation by a kind of “trickle-down” effect. At its core is the commonly held value of serving and delighting younger people, especially babies. Adults appreciate and support the delight of adolescents,.who delight in the joy of prepubescents,..who enjoy entertaining younger children,…who love…
Unschooling: You’ll See it When you Believe It
Written by Sandra Dodd, as published at The Natural Child Project. Following years of sporadic reports by people who claimed they had tried unschooling but it hadn’t worked for them, I started tracking their similarities and, as usual, I learned something new. And, as usual, I thought I should share it so others might not…
Nurturing Children’s Natural Love of Learning
Written by Jan Hunt for The Natural Child Project. Nurturing a child’s love for learning begins with trust. As unschoolers, we trust our children to know when they are ready to learn and what they are interested in learning. We trust them to know how to go about learning. Parents commonly take this view of…
Breaking the Cycle is Hard
Writes Kicking it Unschool: I’m going to start the day off on a negative note, but it will get better from here. I don’t always like being a peaceful parent. There, I said it. And I bet some of you feel this way sometimes too, and maybe you feel guilty about feeling this way, so…
School is Bad for Children
Written by John Holt, as published at NaturalChild.org. Almost every child, on the first day he sets foot in a school building, is smarter, more curious, less afraid of what he doesn’t know, better at finding and figuring things out, and more confident, resourceful, persistent and independent than he will ever be again in his…
How do Unschooling Parents Know their Children are Learning?
Written by Jan Hunt for NaturalChild.org. In unschooling, the child’s current interests are followed, and the parents act not as teachers but as tutors and resource assistants. This approach is often misunderstood, because it is based on assumptions that are quite different from those implicit in conventional schooling.Read the full thing ยป
Embracing the Moment
Send him mail. “One Improved Unit” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OIU-only RSS feed available here. I have recently discovered a major weakness of mine. I have heretofore been aware of it, but justified it…
It’s About Love
Written by Skyler J. Collins. Modified from the original written in August 2011. I am wont to harp on non-voluntaryist political philosophies because of their foundations in violence. I’d like to take just a moment to explain something that I haven’t done a good enough job explaining.Voluntaryism to me is about one thing: Love. I’ve…
Children are Born Innocent
Written by Jan Hunt for The Natural Child Project. What do you see when you look into the eyes of a newborn? When I first looked into the eyes of my son, I saw trustfulness, curiosity and joyfulness. I saw no deviousness, meanness or selfishness. In that instant it became clear to me that if…