Re: [UnschoolingDiscussion] Digest for unschoolingdiscussion@googlegroups.com - 1 Message in 1 Topic

[Cara Barlow]

*****I had a friend when my kids were single-digit ages and after she hung out with our family a while she decided she would unschool just like we did. Before long she explained to me her liberal total unschooling policy on her son's reading. He was eight or nine. She told him he could read any book he wanted to, as long as he finished any book he started.
 
Quicker than training a cat not to get on the table, she trained him not to start any books at all. *****
 

How did you respond when you saw this happening? I'm struggling with what to say (or not say) to some of my homeschooling friends who do things like you describe.

Best wishes, Cara B

[Sandra Dodd]

-=-How did you respond when you saw this happening? I'm struggling with what to say (or not say) to some of my homeschooling friends who do things like you describe.-=-

I asked her if she finished every book she started.

I saw her thinking, and saw her start to be offended, but as usual I was aiming to help the child and not to soothe the mother (and to help unschooling work, rather than support something leading away from good unschooling).

I said she was probably going to find that he wouldn't start any books at all.

I never asked if she had changed her policy. The boy was homeschooled until he wanted to go to high school to play football. They said he would need to be in school half time, and he was excited about taking history and art, but they said no, it had to be English, math and science, so that he could "keep a 2.0 average" to play football, so it would be fair to the other students. He ended up with a track scholarship to some school in Pennsylvania, and as the family had broken up about that time, the mom went with him to Pennsylvania and the older daughter (who had not gone to school) stayed with the dad. He ended up in the military.

Sandra