‘life learning’ 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 [...]
The Roots of Unschooling Denial
I once had a remarkable conversation with someone at a social event. A lawyer and I were happily chatting about many things, including what we each do for a living, when I, in response to a question, casually mentioned my advocacy for life learning (but certainly didn’t try to “sell” it.). All of a sudden, this man became highly defensive [...]
Kids Are Capable of Much More Than We Give Them Credit For
The recent sailing misadventure of sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland and the successful climbing of Mount Everest by thirteen-year old Jordan Romero have me thinking about skill and ability as related to age. Whenever a kid accomplishes something major, it hits the media because children aren't expected to achieve much in our society. But the [...]
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 [...]
We Know How to Learn…Until Schools Gets in the Way
I’m often bemused to read how important it is that children “learn how to learn.” It seems to be the phrase du jour among self-described progressive educators, book authors, school critics, and those who promote ever-earlier attendance at pre-school institutions. Some young children might be able to be trained – in dog-like fashion – to [...]
Quotations About Life Learning / Unschooling
As any unschooler / life learner and many homeschoolers know, there are many benefits to a self-directed education. However, I have always been surprised and pleased by how many writers, thinkers and doers from various times in history have also known and written about the folly of school and the importance of a learner-directed education. [...]