[ASusan]

on unschooling.

I teach Educational Psychology at the college level. Three men(!) in the class chose to cover unschooling for their 10-15 minute oral presentation. None of them had really heard of unschooling (and there was a question from the class as to it's definition when I gave them the list of possible topics); they barely know anything about homeschooling. They have, however, read Alfie Kohn's Punished by Rewards (introductory chapters & chapters related to education), so they shouldn't be completely surprised by an unschooling philosophy.

The other educational philosophy that will be covered (by another group) is Montessori, if that helps to give you some context. Other topics include: NCLB; reduction in recess/PE; single-sex/co-ed schooling...

So, there are 2 levels of learning going on: what the individuals in the group learn AND what they present to the class. I expect and hope that what the individuals in the group learn is more in depth than what eventually gets communicated via oral presentation/handout to the rest of the class.

I suggested to them that they try to talk to unschooling parents, children, or people who experienced unschooling as a part of their education. And/Or look at some online unschooling discussions or yahoo groups. (I did NOT suggest MDC's discussion.)

If you are willing to talk (or via email), please send me a PM.
If you have an unschooling blog you'd like to share, will you please send a link my way?
Finally, if you have good unschooling resources, you could post them here and I could pass them on to the students.

 

[Lillian J]

They can find quite a bit through my website (see sig line below), even though it's not specifically an unschooling site (but I don't want to spend the time with an email discussion, and I think they'll find more than enough online and in books). As for NCLB, I strongly suggest looking into Susan Ohanian's website - she's a teacher and author who's been very active in fighting the craziness that's been involved with all that. - Lillian

 

[ASusan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lillian J They can find quite a bit through my website (see sig line below), even though it's not specifically an unschooling site (but I don't want to spend the time with an email discussion, and I think they'll find more than enough online and in books). As for NCLB, I strongly suggest looking into Susan Ohanian's website - she's a teacher and author who's been very active in fighting the craziness that's been involved with all that. - Lillian

Thank you for the NCLB link. I've been keeping my eye out for something like that! I'm *trying* to stay neutral on NCLB - although the students must certainly have figured out what my position would be. And, the concepts of the course give them the tools to evaluate the program. I think I'll send them the link with the "warning" that it is not an unbiased source.

That said, 3 of the four students in the NCLB group have educators in their family and asked if it would be ok to use them as sources. One father has been on the school board for about 10 years, so that should be interesting.

 

[BedHead]

They're certainly welcome to read our blog (link in sig) but I don't know if our situation is very typical. I have one unschooled teen and one in grade 12 public school right now. Plus we're in Canada.

 

[Lillian J]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASusan Thank you for the NCLB link. I've been keeping my eye out for something like that!

And you should dig around in her site - it gets into a lot more than just NCLB. She's a wonderful warrior for children who are having to deal with things that shouldn't be happening. - Lillian

 

[Lillian J]

I was reading the magazine, Rethinking Schools, today and thought of this thread. If you're not familiar with it, it's a very interesting read- and they have lots of articles in the archives of their website. Lots on NCLB.

Rethinking Schools

Lillian

 

[ASusan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASusan Thank you for the NCLB link. I've been keeping my eye out for something like that! I'm *trying* to stay neutral on NCLB - although the students must certainly have figured out what my position would be. And, the concepts of the course give them the tools to evaluate the program. I think I'll send them the link with the "warning" that it is not an unbiased source. That said, 3 of the four students in the NCLB group have educators in their family and asked if it would be ok to use them as sources. One father has been on the school board for about 10 years, so that should be interesting.

The NCLB group came to me to ask for some resources. When I mentioned Susan Ohanian, they had already heard that name.