RADICAL UNSCHOOLING

Sandra Dodd expounds on how people learn


This site is the "office" of Sandra Dodd, of Albuquerque. Mother of three ( Kirby 14b, Marty 11b, Holly 9g), some kind of writer, sort of a teacher, and occasionally a counselor, Sandra is found mostly on the message boards at www.unschooling.com in the Conversations with Sandra Dodd folder. A great site for new homeschoolers is the National Home Educators Network site.

SANDRA IN PERSON: March 10, 2001, Southern California Homeschool Conference, Long Beach Airport Marriott Hotel. This is sponsored by BayShore .

LEARNING ALL THE TIME

People learn by playing, thinking and amazing themselves. They learn while they're laughing at something surprising, and they learn while they're wondering "What the heck is this!?" (Also: HEM Interview , and Certificate of Empowerment )

I'm a big John Holt fan. Even the book titles are informative and inspiring: Learning Without Schooling; Learning All the Time; Never Too Late; Teach Your Own (less inspiring title, but great book). Growing Without Schooling (GWS) carries on the work of John Holt. They have a website and a catalog (John Holt's Books and Music) and a magazine (Growing Without Schooling) for unschoolers. (Looking in Amazon.com will get you a bunch of fly-fishing-in-Montana stuff; wrong John Holt. But they DO have the Grover book described below:)

CAN IT WORK IN THE REAL WORLD?

If unschooling can't work in the real world, nothing at all can. People will say "How will they learn algebra in the real world?" Is there algebra in the real world? If not, why should it be learned? If so, why should it be separated artificially from its actual uses? "Why?" should always be the question that comes before "What?" and "How?" There is a Sesame Street book called Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum. There is a "things under the sea" room and "things in the sky" room, but still each room is just a room in a museum, no windows, everything out of context. Then he opens a big door marked "everything else in the whole wide world" and goes out into the sunshine. There is unschooling.

NOT JUST FOR KIDS!

The way adults tend to learn things is the way people best learn--by asking questions, looking things up, trying things out, and getting help when it's needed. That's the way pre-school kids learn too (maybe minus the looking things up), and it is the way "school-age" kids can/should learn as well. Learning is internal. Teachers are lovely assistants at best, and detrimental at worst. "Teaching" is just presentation of material. It doesn't create learning. Artificial divisions of what is "educational" from what is considered NOT educational, and things which are "for kids" from things which are NOT for kids don't benefit kids or adults. Finding learning in play is like the sun coming out on a dank, dark day.

THINKING STICKS (a $6 tool for those wanting assistance)

MORE UNSCHOOLING IDEAS AND INFO!

REAL FAMILIES and specialty sites: International/Foreign (England, New Zealand), Christian Unschooling, Paganism, Scouting, Camp Fire...
Click the sun to shed more light on unschooling: *


and STILL more!

Unschooling.com
John Holt / GWS
Home Education Magazine
FUNschooling (catalog and lots of links!)
NHEN (National Home Education Network intro page)

more Sandra Dodd


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The "mini quiz" above is really a learning survey, not a quiz. SandraDodd@aol.com


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