‘homeschooling’ Archives
Computers and Self-Directed Learning
In the July 9 online edition of The New York Times, Silicon Valley-based business professor Randall Stross published an article entitled Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality. He described some studies in which economists have been measuring a home computer’s impact on the school performance of children in low-income [...]
The Fast Food Model of Education
A curriculum is a diet of other people’s ideas that is fed to children in schools. It is designed by a group of people assumed to be much better qualified than mere parents – let alone children – to decide exactly the type of information that should be fed, and when, and how its digestion should be measured. However, that very process [...]
What Really Matters is Now Available
Our latest book is hot off the press! What Really Matters by David Albert and Joyce Reed is subtitled "Two veteran homeschooling advocates discuss what learning is really all about." The official publication date is September 1, but copies are now available for sale (with no shipping!) to friends and subscribers. We are thrilled with all [...]
Unschooling: Doughnuts and Peanut Sauce
The ABC News show Nightline has recently featured “unschooling.” I guess budgets are low and the network is repurposing content – or at least ideas. Last month, one of the Nightline segment “reporters” did a similar piece, with a different family, on the ABC show Good Morning America. It was equally as ignorant, unbalanced, and [...]
Having Fun…For the Fun of It
One of the unfortunate mainstays of the homeschooling industry is inspirational books and magazine articles describing fun things to do with your kids that are also educational. This notion that we have to make learning fun by dressing it up as games or other enjoyable activities is nonsense…and, more often than not, our kids know that. And [...]
Resource for Canadian Life Learners
We've just added a new website to the Life Media family. Called LifeLearning.ca, it is an up-to-date and comprehensive resource for Canadian home-based educators. There are lists of home-based learning books by Canadian authors, links to information about legalities in all the provinces and territories, a list of - and, in some cases, links to [...]
Victory for Home Education in England
The British government's plans for a series of oppressive regulations on home education are all washed up today. And home educators there are rejoicing, albeit with caution. The nasty requirements for unsupervised and unannounced interviews with home educated children, and security checks and registration for home educating parents have been [...]
There’s No Right Way…So Let’s Lose the Insults
For many years, I have taken it for granted that people know what the term “unschooling” means. Truthfully, I really haven’t paid much attention, since I dislike the word…and labels in general. Since many people seem attached to it, I just happily play along, using it when necessary – as a web keyword, for instance – and quietly [...]
On Homeschooling and Child Abuse
I’ve been putting off writing about the difficult topic of child abuse. My time is at a premium right now. Abuse is a difficult topic. And it isn’t a life learning topic. But some people keep trying to make it one. So I have posted my thoughts and some background on my personal blog. What finally pushed me to write about this is [...]
What’s Wrong With the Schooling Mentality
The marketplace of ideas has become monopolized by corporations and institutions, and our coercion-based education system is used to create a society of consumers rather than one of thinkers. For almost twenty years (since he resigned from teaching while he was New York State Teacher of the Year), John Taylor Gatto has been writing and [...]