My five kids may dispute the notion, but I’m pretty certain I’ve learned much more from them than they ever learned from me. I’m so sure of it that I’ve put a lot of thought into the idea, and I’ve come to the conclusion that on some levels it has to do with learning the value of learning. Let me explain.
I don’t think kids really value learning per se. Why should they? They’ve been doing it nonstop since they were born, but still we constantly remind them to do it, advise them how important it is, tell them how useful it will be in their lives when they’re all grown up, and we’re constantly coming up with new and improved ways to get them to do it. We buy their toys with an eye toward how ’educational’ they’ll be. We take them places where they’ll learn things like science, history, or geography. When they ask us simply how to spell a word we seize the opportunity to turn the answer into a quest for knowledge: “How do you think it’s spelled. Sound it out slowly. Think about the root word.”
Yes, I was guilty of all that and more early on. It took me a few years to learn the error of my ways, and for that I believe I owe my oldest two sons an apology. They were the guinea pigs, so to speak, the ones I learned how to handle learning with. By the time our three younger kids came along I’d smartened up enough to relax and trust that learning was always happening, with or without my help, and the learning that happened without my assistance was much more likely to be useful and relevant to the learners.
I learned the value of learning, and I think it’s a lesson my kids will need to learn for themselves. Like so many things in life, it’s not something you can just tell someone else and expect to have any meaning , it really needs to be experienced, to have a context all its own.
Eventually we reached a point where learning was just accepted as something that happened, sort of like the fortune-cookie philosophy about life being what happens while you’re making other plans. Learning is certainly what happens while you’re living life. For better or worse, we learn every day, wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, whoever we’re with. We learn good things, useful things, handy things; and we learn bad things, destructive things, things we might someday wish we hadn’t learned. Life’s like that.
On the whole, though, learning serves us quite well, and we’re constantly arranging and rearranging our learning so it’s more useful to us. Something draws our attention and we ask questions or find books to read or take classes until we’ve learned enough to satisfy ourselves. Something else seems interesting so we team up with others and share and hone our skills and put our knowledge to work, thereby learning more and more in ever-widening circles. We find ourselves with a need to learn something and we set about doing so just as we set about feeding ourselves when we’re hungry. It’s just what people do. My kids taught me that. But they also taught me so much more.
They taught me that life makes us all learners, but while some of us learn easily, others learn with more difficulty. They taught me it’s okay to skip knowing something. They taught me there will never, ever be enough time to learn everything I’d like to learn, to do everything I’d like to do, and that’s how it should be. They taught me to view them – and indeed, everyone I meet , as individuals, and not to fall into the trap of sticking people with convenient labels based on my personal experiences. They taught me to acknowledge that everyone has their own experiences which make them unique in the world, and try as I might I’ll never know all there is to know about anyone except myself. My kids taught me it’s a mistake to sacrifice your life to work or even to lofty ideals. Work and worthwhile causes come and go, but the people in our lives are what are most important.
My kids taught me to listen with an open heart, and to see without making judgments. They taught me patience, and perseverance, and persistence , but they also taught me to know when to quit. They taught me that love does not bring conditions with it, but just is, and they made me a much better person than I’d have ever been without them.
Thanks kids, for homeschooling me.
(© 2004/2009 by Helen Hegener. Adapted from an HEM editorial from 2004. Still learning after all these years…)
Tags: children, family, Helen Hegener, homeschooling, kids, Learning, Unschooling
John Taylor Gatto has been an outspoken and eloquent critic of the public school system for over 20 years, and I’d like to share some of my favorite quotes from him, along with links to his biography, some videos of his speeches and interviews, and more information about this incredibly dynamic and engaging man. Although we’ve only crossed paths a few times over the years, I’m very proud to call him a personal friend.
John Taylor Gatto was the 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year when he ended his 30-year teaching career with a flourish, with an essay he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, titled “I Quit, I Think.” In the wake of that opinion piece and a show later that year at Carnegie Hall titled “An Evening with John Taylor Gatto,” he found himself much in demand as a public speaker, and he observed:
“As I traveled, I discovered a universal hunger, often unvoiced, to be free of managed debate. A desire to be given untainted information. Nobody seemed to have maps of where this thing had come from or why it acted as it did, but the ability to smell a rat was alive and well all over America.”
From coast to coast, and then circling the globe, John has traveled and lectured about education, children, learning, schooling, and where we’re headed as a society, as a planet.
David Albert, one of our longest-running columnists, wrote about John in 2002 in an essay he titled “The Success of Public Education: A Tribute to John Taylor Gatto on the Publication of the 10th Anniversary Edition of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (New Society Publishers, 2002).” David was a founder of New Society Publishers, and he was the editor of John’s first book, but he noted that Dumbing Us Down wasn’t actually John’s first book:
“…Gatto’s first book was first published in 1975, a Monarch Notes guide to the late Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
John related to me once, after affixing his signature on my copy — with handwriting only a hair more legible than my own that the Monarch Notes guide, still in print after 26 years, has actually sold hundreds of thousands of copies, making it by far his most widely read work.”
David’s analysis of John’s analysis of Kesey’s book is eye-opening, and gave me a whole new respect for the novel:
“Pivotal to Kesey’s novel, according to Gatto, ‘is the cataclysmic revelation that the inmates of the asylum are not committed but are there of their own free will.’ And the way they are controlled, ultimately, is through guilt, shame, fear, and belittlement. Double hmm.”
David muses:
“I doubt that a set of Monarch Notes has ever been heaped with literary praise before, but Gatto’s are much deserving. His description of the Keseyan institutional world contained in this incendiary set of crib notes… is as compelling as the novel itself.”
Here’s a little of John Taylor Gatto at his best:
“There isn’t a right way to become educated; there are as many ways as fingerprints.”
“In 30 years of teaching kids rich and poor I almost never met a learning disabled child; hardly ever met a gifted and talented one either. Like all school categories, these are sacred myths, created by human imagination. They derive from questionable values we never examine because they preserve the temple of schooling.”
“I want to open up concealed aspects of modern schooling such as the deterioration it forces in the morality of parenting. You have no say at all in choosing your teachers. You know nothing about their backgrounds or families. And the state knows little more than you do. This is as radical a piece of social engineering as the human imagination can conceive. What does it mean?”
“One thing you do know is how unlikely it will be for any teacher to understand the personality of your particular child or anything significant about your family, culture, religion, plans, hopes, dreams.”
“You wouldn’t build a home without some idea what it would look like when finished, but you are compelled to let a corps of perfect strangers tinker with your child’s mind and personality without the foggiest idea what they want to do with it.”
A short history of John Taylor Gatto, edited from his biography at The Odysseus Group site:
John Taylor Gatto was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. He attended public schools and a private Catholic boarding school in Pennsylvania, did undergraduate work at Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia, then served in the U.S. Army medical corps, after which he did graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva, the University of California, and Cornell.
After college, John Taylor Gatto worked as a scriptwriter, an advertising writer, a taxi driver, a jewelry designer, an ASCAP songwriter, and a hotdog vendor before becoming a schoolteacher, and during his schoolteaching years he also entered the caviar trade, conducted an antique business, operated a rare book search service, and founded Lava Mt. Records, an award-winning documentary record producer.
After being named New York City Teacher of the Year on three occasions Gatto was awarded New York State Teacher of the Year. He ended his 29-year teaching career on the OP-ED page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991, while still New York State Teacher of the Year, in an essay titled “I Quit, I Think,” claiming that he was no longer willing to hurt children. Later that same year he was the subject of a show at Carnegie Hall called “An Evening With John Taylor Gatto,” which launched a career of public speaking in the area of school reform, which has taken Gatto over a million and a half miles in all fifty states and seven foreign countries.
John Taylor Gatto’s books include:
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992)
The Exhausted School (1993)
A Different Kind of Teacher (2000)
The Underground History Of American Education (2001)
Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008)
YouTube Videos with John Taylor Gatto:
The link above goes to multiple videos, including this one:
J.T. Gatto interviewed by Lennart Mogren, Sweden, March 2003
John Taylor Gatto is a learned eloquent critic of the present school system all over the world. In this interview he exposes the hidden agenda that makes most of us hate school. I have written a book, “Sluta skolan!”, on my own experiences and views and I have come to the same conclusions as Mr Gatto has. He exposes the dark and terrifying machinery behind the scenes. Mr Gatto gíves us hope and tools to start dismantling this hideous institution. In my view parents need to get in charge of their kids’ education in new loving and nurturing ways. Mr Gatto is a great inspiration for those of us who realize this.
Tags: David Albert, Dumbing Us Down, homeschooling, John Taylor Gatto, Ken Kesey, New Society Publishers, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, public school critic
“Chances are, your childhood was not all about fear… Chances are you walked to school and rode your bike and stayed out till the lights came on, right? Maybe you even ate an unwashed grape.” ~Lenore Skenazy
Lenore Skenazy’s “Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry” (2009, Jossey-Bass) is a down-to-earth and common sense book about how to raise confident children by simply saying no to paranoid parenting, and just letting kids be kids, without invoking the harum-scarum fear tactics which have become commonplace in too many young lives today. As Lenore writes at her website:
“Somehow, a whole lot of parents are just convinced that nothing outside the home is safe. At the same time, they’re also convinced that their children are helpless to fend for themselves. While most of these parents walked to school as kids, or hiked the woods — or even took public transportation — they can’t imagine their own offspring doing the same thing. They have lost confidence in everything: Their neighborhood. Their kids. And their own ability to teach their children how to get by in the world.”
Lenore Skenazy ruffles feathers with her concept of free-range kids, but she’s quick to reassure as well:
“We are not daredevils. We believe in life jackets and bike helmets and air bags. But we also believe in independence. Children, like chickens, deserve a life outside the cage. The overprotected life is stunting and stifling, not to mention boring for all concerned.”
In an article titled “Helicopter Moms vs. Free Range Kids” (Newsweek, April 21, 2008), the usual questions are raised and summarily answered:
“So why are some parents so nervous about letting their children out of their sight? Are cities and towns less safe and kids more vulnerable to crimes like child abduction and sexual abuse than they were in previous generations?
Not exactly. New York City, for instance, is safer than it’s ever been; it’s ranked 136th in crime among all American cities. Nationwide, stranger abductions are extremely rare; there’s a one-in-a-million chance a child will be taken by a stranger, according to the Justice Department. And 90 percent of sexual abuse cases are committed by someone the child knows.”
I suspect many homeschooled kids, especially those of the unschooled variety, are Free-Range Kids. I know ours were.
Tags: childhood, Free Range Kids, Lenore Skenazy, paranoia
I came across an interesting resource today:
The Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning
This journal seeks to bring together an international community of scholars exploring the topic of unschooling and alternative learning, which espouses learner centered democratic approaches to learning. JUAL is also a space to reveal the limitations of mainstream schooling.
JUAL understands learner centered democratic education as individuals deciding their own curriculum, and participating in the governance of their school-if they are in one. Some examples of learner centered democratic possibilities are unschooling, Sudbury Valley, Fairhaven, the Albany Free School, and the Beach School in Toronto. In terms of unschooling, we view it as a self-directed learning approach to learning outside of the mainstream education rather than homeschooling, which reproduces the learning structures of school in the home.
The founder and publisher of The Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning is Dr. Carlo Ricci, who notes in his biographical credit:
I teach in the faculty of education’s graduate program at Nipissing University and I founded and edit the online Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning (JUAL). I try to incorporate the spirit of unschooling, democratic and learner centered principles in all of my classes. Everything of value that I have learned, I have learned outside of formal schooling. I have never taken a course in school connected to what I now teach and write about. I have taught in elementary and high school. I have also taught in undergraduate, teacher education programs and graduate programs. My personal schooling experience as a student and later as a teacher has inspired me to revolt against institutional schooling. I continue to heal from the wounds inflicted on me by formal schooling. I have two daughters ages 2 and 4 that I hope will decide to be unschooled.
From JUAL’s submissions page:
We invite submissions that celebrate the successes, and challenges, of non-mainstream learning, and that help promote an understanding of how authentic alternative learning environments can inform educational policy. As well, we welcome articles that highlight the limitations of mainstream schooling.
The Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning publishes articles in a variety of scholarly forms; for example, review essays, discussions, book reviews, research notes. We encourage and support creative representational forms of work.
Tags: alternative learning, Carlo Ricci, The Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning, Unschooling
It was inevitable: People are starting to wonder if this latest health scare and the resulting closure of schools isn’t going to lead to an epidemic… of new homeschoolers. Sometimes it takes something major to shake people out their comfort zones and nudge their thinking in a different direction, and for anyone watching TV, listening to the radio, or reading the newspapers, we’ve got a real doozy going on right now!
Some interesting notes from around the Internet:
Just Enough and Nothing More:
Is the Swine Flu Causing Mass Homeschooling?
With all the schools closing across the US, where are all these kids spending their day? And what happens to all those required school hours? And how to the kids keep up with test prep?
If enough schools close for long enough, sounds like the perfect formula for a nationwide homeschooling frenzy!
Hey, it happend in New Orleans on the relatively small scale. Why not nationally?
Examiner.com:
In case of swine flu school closures talk to homeschoolers
President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are issuing advice for schools which may need to close due to the spreading swine flu virus.
YAHOO news reports that the Education Department stated more than 430 schools had closed in 18 states, affecting roughly 245,000 children.
How long can one expect the kids home should your school close?
Principled Discovery:
Homeschooling and the Great Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009
Now the Charter Schools Examiner over at Examiner.com is recommending “In case of swine flu school closures talk to homeschoolers” and I have mixed feelings about the advice. I’m all for talking to homeschoolers. In general, we are a pretty enthusiastic and helpful lot. If you’re stressing about what to do with your kids, a seasoned homeschooler will likely be able to calm you down and keep the situation in perspective while your children exchange germs in the backyard.
But whatever it is a public school family does during a flu-related school closing hardly constitutes homeschooling. I picture 60,000 students (OK, probably less than half that) fumbling awkwardly through a textbook while mom asks what the teacher normally does before she sends them off to read and answer the questions at the end of the chapter with the encouragement to “just do your best.” I picture the majority of these families walking away from the experience a little overwhelmed, relieved it’s over and reinforced in the opinion that “I could never homeschool my children.”
A2Z Homeschool
Homeschooling during the Swine Flu Pandemic
…There are probably some of you reading this who now are considering homeschooling, and this outbreak is just the final straw. First there was the bad economy, with the cuts in income and rising prices, including cuts in school programs. Now this! You may be wondering how your child can survive in more crowded and understaffed classrooms. You may be concerned that because of “complusory education” laws, sick kids have to try to make it through the school day, or be charged with truancy. Doesn’t make sense, does it?
When things quit making sense to people, they usually start looking for different approaches, and in the face of a fast-approaching pandemic increasing numbers of people are looking at homeschooling as a potential different approach to educating their children. At a time when people are being advised against gathering together in closed spaces, homeschooling suddenly makes sense even to the most stubborn nay-sayers.
If you’re one of those looking for information about homeschooling in these troubled times, welcome. We have a lot to offer, and plenty of it is free. Start with our Getting Started with Homeschooling section and progress to our HEM Back Issue Archives; after that you should be grounded enough to just poke around and see what might work for your family. Homeschooling isn’t difficult, doesn’t need to be expensive, and can open a whole new way of thinking about your children, your relationships, and your world. I think, in the coming weeks and months, we’re all going to be looking for different ways of looking at the world.
Tags: epidemic, H1N1, homeschool, homeschooling, pandemic, school closure, swine flu
