Posts Tagged ‘unschooling’
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. [...]
More Than the Absence of School
A number of people have recently asked me questions about our family life back in the 1970s and 80s. And I realized that, in all of my books and articles over the years, I haven’t written much about that. So here goes! When Rolf and I got married in 1970, we had already decided that our future children wouldn't go to school. So when Heidi [...]
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 [...]
Unschooling from a Father’s Perspective
Life Learning Magazine's publisher Life Media also publishes a small selection of books under The Alternate Press Imprint, founded in 1976. Our most recent book is For the Sake of Our Children by Leandre Bergeron. This book is unique in many ways. One of them is that it's a natural parenting memoir written from the perspective of a father who [...]
Beginnings: It Hasn’t Shut Me Up
As part of the process of writing a memoir called It Hasn’t Shut Me Up (my 10th book, to be published when it’s done), I’ve been examining the roots of my radicalism – especially as it relates to education. Like most other people, my upbringing and my schooling in the 1950s and ‘60s taught me to accept what I was told by my parents, my [...]
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 [...]
Unschooled Teens Are Different
There has been some discussion lately about (and by!) teenaged life learners. All too often, teens are collectively discriminated against or looked down upon due to their supposed bad behavior, moodiness, etc., etc. However, I think much of that is due to the way they are treated in our society...and people's expecta...tions of and respect for [...]
The Dark Side of Influence
A recent blog post by a dad with kids enrolled in a Sudbury Valley type school (SVS) has prompted me to think once again about how life learning parents relate to their children in a unique way. The blogger was comparing unschooling to the SVS model because someone had once used the oxymoron “unschooling school” to describe a SVS. He came up [...]
Five Requirements for Effective Parenting
In an interview this morning, I was asked to name the five things that I think are crucial for effective parenting. Respect and trust were the first to come to mind; I’ve been talking about them forever as prerequisites for creating an environment in which kids can develop and learn. It took me a little while longer to distill everything else [...]
March/April 2010 Issue Now Published
Subscribers to Life Learning Magazine have just been notified that the password-protected March/April 2010 issue is now available for them to download. You can view the table of contents here and you can subscribe here. We've also posted a short sample article from the issue on the Life Learning Magazine website. Drop by the website and [...]