Writing this on the last day of the year, I can't help my mind turning forward to my hopes for the next year--and the dreaded resolutions.
I've always been aware of being an autodidact. I love to learn, but hate to be taught. Unschooling has come relatively easily to me.
But even people like me have moments of doubt.
That's what made me realize that The Unschooling Conference is for us parents--it's us parents who need this conference really. If we've been trying to unschool our children from the beginning, our kids get it--they've never known any other life than the kind where they just do things they love and leave behind stuff they that doesn't excite them. It's US who get all tied up in knots about whether we need to make them do things that we ourselves feel, at a gut level, will bring us all pain. It's US who have unlearning to do. For our kids, it's like breathing, so much so that they can't even explain it...and that makes it difficult to understand.
It's counterintuitive, I know. I've been where most of you have been at one time or another in the last 10 years of unschooling. I can recall the images in my mind that I had when we first began this journey: free kids with colorful banners running through the park, smiling up, the warm sun on their faces, all unschoolers, all happy in that freedom...My imaginings didn't include my highly physical son, using the colorful silk flags as a javalin, or weapons of any kind actually. I just saw him being part of a gang of kids of my friends who agree with my own ideas and, he, of course, wanting to seek out and hang out with other unschoolers to the exclusion of all others...
Now that Luke is just about 14, I can see the absurdity in that image--he's been teaching me that from the beginning (especially when I took him to most of the homeschooling conferences I've made him go to).
I encouraged him to follow his own path, and he is so doing...And his pursuits don't include art, or making things of any kind, or seeking out others who've had a similar upbringing to his own at all. And, of course the road he's following doesn't currently include anything that I could have envisioned when I began.
And, almost without exception, these previously unpredicted experiences have been wonderful!
So, my resolution for next year: Look at the evidence and BELIEVE! Will you join me?
Happy New Year!
Jenina
The Unschooling Conference
Webmistress
So we're at the point in the process of conference planning when we are meeting weekly now. As I've described before, our meetings are a lot like cafe chats with some planning thrown in there. Last night, a theme definitely emerged--we all are having nights of being awakened from a sound sleep, breathless, and hot over worries from the day. No, we're not talking menopause here!
It's the Holiday season--filled with fun eating opportunities, office parties, gift shopping, concerts, nifty crafting projects, overwhelmed people, incessant Christmas music, broken furnaces, visiting family, cranky clerks--and conference planning.
Everything one undertakes in life involves learning--a constant refinement of what we know and planning The Unschooling Conference is no exception. We changed our date rather late in the process because of being able to get Manish Jain to keynote the conference. He is a very interesting person, with a lovely, kind and gentle personality who is doing fantastic work related to spreading the values and ideas of unschooling. He is just the kind of speaker we always want to have at our event. But, it's so close to the holidays, and we now see that people are busy with other things, by how slowly the registrations are coming in. There are still three weeks to go, but we're all definitely feeling like it's going to be close.
That's the reason for waking up startled in the night! The courage with which we undertake planning this event is slipping, ever so slightly, and we wonder, is it worth it to keep doing this? Is there really a need for this event in the community of unschoolers? Do you all want to come?
Of course, our thoughts naturally turn to next year, wondering whether we should keep going, and certainly whether we get a good turnout for this year will help to answer our questions. Last year, we had such positive feedback that we secured a larger venue to accomodate more people. It was certainly a calculated risk, but one that we wanted to take because of how strongly we feel the need to provide an event which specifically targets unschoolers.
We would love to hear feedback on the blog, so please write in! We need to hear from you! Give us a sign!
Oh, and Happy Holidays!
Cheers,
“What is unschooling?” “How do you know your child is learning?” These are the two questions unschoolers spend the most time trying to adequately answer for themselves and others. Of course, we all consult what the leading thinkers in the unschooling community have to say, but somehow those responses don’t seem adequate when the questions are being put to us by our mother, brother or best friend. Ultimately, we have to find answers that reflect our own unique experiences….
I don’t know about you, but most of my time spent with unschoolers involves trading stories which illustrate what the unschooled life is all about. Interestingly, these stories are not always centered on our kids’ learning, but on our own….
I have an unschooling mom-friend with a run down garage needing rebuilding. Being “doers” in that family, Mom-friend, her son, and husband tore it down. This family has a handy friend who has done similar work for other people they know and agreed to take on their project. After all, it’s a simple building without plumbing, not requiring detailed finish work; so, in two weeks, or at the outside, a month, they should have a new garage.
Turns out that “Contractor-friend” doesn’t want to be involved with “details,” such as filing for a building permit. "I don't know anything about that stuff," he says. Mom-friend doesn’t think she knows anything about that stuff either, but since she now has a hole in her yard where the old garage once stood, the garage contents are spread on the lawn covered by tarps and Fall is coming on strong, she figures she’ll step in (temporarily, she thinks) and do this part of the project, just to keep things moving along.
After reading a good part of the building code, some visits and many calls to the permitting office, and some online research she manages to procure the relevant document.
Contractor-friend brings out the Bobcat and begins digging and grading for the foundation. Soon into this work he finds an old sewer line not indicated on any of the city maps. “Mmmmmm,” says Contractor-friend, I wonder what we should do about that?” Contractor-friend is clearly perplexed and Mom-friend (highly-motivated to get her garage) calls the building inspector. He tells her they will need a special plumbing inspection (her job to find an acceptable person to do this) and an amendment to their permit for plumbing (also her job). More research and phone calls ensue, after which, she secures the required inspection and building permit amendment. Mom-friend fleetingly considers the fact that this delay will add some time to their project, but she accepts this quickly and moves on…
Now things get going. Contractor-friend puts up the piers, gets the framing up, puts up the plywood siding, gets most of the electrical wired, and puts the garage doors on. “It’s really starting to look like a garage,” Mom-friend says excitedly as she updates me on their progress. “Looks like we might be done by Christmas.” I notice the mention of “we” with silent concern that she now refers to the project as a group activity (which she notes in passing that she is now leading) rather than solely the job of Contractor-friend (whom they are paying).
Because Mom-friend’s son intends to use the garage to build an airplane (more on this some other time) it needs to be heated. They chose radiant floor heat. The heating contractor is retained by Mom-friend, as is the concrete contractor. They begin to dig with a trencher to accommodate the tubing that will run the warmed water through the floor.
Not long after digging they discover a mass of old tree roots that the trencher can’t work through. “We’ll need to dig out the rest with shovels,” Contractor-friend says. The trench is so steep though, that all the dirt falls off their shovels before they can get it out of the hole. So, there is Mom-friend belly down in the dirt, digging out the trench handful by handful. Mom-friend now notices that she isn’t in the house working on a cool craft project while Contractor-friend builds the garage.
The trench now cleared, Mom-friend (she now just assumes that she is responsible for dealings with the city) calls the building inspector prior to beginning to pour the foundation. “Do you have a heat loss calculation for this building,” he says. "What's that?" Mom-friend says, in the direction of Contractor-friend. Shrug. “Your contractor should be able to do it for you,” building inspector chimes in helpfully. Can you see where this is going now?
So, Mom-friend begins researching how to calculate heat loss in a building with garage doors. “That major in math is sure coming in handy now,” Mom-friend thinks ruefully to herself. Everything Mom-friend reads about radiant heat floors says that one-third of the floor should be left free from tubing to help spread the heat evenly through the floor. When Mom-friend tells this to the building inspector he says he’s never heard of that. “I called some local heating people who have been putting these in for 20 years and they’ve never heard of that,” building inspector says. “If you want it installed this way, I’ll need documentation from the manufacturer.”
By now, there are 6 inches of snow on the ground and still no concrete floor or heat in the garage. But, at least they can park one of the cars in there to avoid the snow…
So what does this story have to do with unschooling? The definition of unschooling is being courageous enough to jump in with both feet and do things you don’t know anything about, confident in the knowledge that you can find answers to your questions.....eventually.
Can you see the learning going on all around YOU? For more on this subject see http://sandradodd.com/seeingit.
