Marty Morgan on fri 11 jan 02
I'd love to reach "Kelly in Ohio" for off-line homeschooling information.
Or anyone else interested in that subject. Don't have Kelly's email
address. I'm just beginning to unschool my 17 yr old son who "should" be a
junior in high school. Favorite quote at the moment: "Learning is about
listening." from Rachel Remen's My Grandfather's Blessings - a book which
has become my personal bible, to read a bit at the start and end of every day.
Thanks for any help.
Marty Morgan
Gloucester, MA
Marty Morgan on fri 2 jan 04
Anyone looking for inspiration to home school or unschool will find lots of
it in a couple of books by David H. Albert: "And the Skylark Sings with Me"
and his latest: "Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery". "Our
kids taught us that our task is to seek avenues for whatever inward
leanings they exhibit to blossom, and to find ways for our children to
become who they already are, or were meant to be."
Both of these books explore interest-based learning, which allows children
to learn in depth way beyond the little bits and pieces they are fed in
most schools. And of course this requires a tremendous engagement on the
part of parents to find mentors for their children in whatever subject
fires their imagination.
As always my thanks to Kelly for her clarity, humor, and passion,
Marty Morgan
Gloucester, MA
clennell on sun 4 jun 06
Dear Vince: I hope that Kelly hasn't been reading me of late cause I'm
advocating homeschooling. If I had a college postion I'd defend it, if I
worked for GM I'd drive a Chevy and if I taught high school I'd say down
with homeschooling.
Truth is people learn in different ways. tony F is probably one of the top
10 on this list and there is no question he is a self motivated guy. Some
need weekly paycheques, weekly crits, and I'd say he is not one of them.
At Sheridan I have seen students cry because Bruce had to go to a meeting or
go home and they hadn't had their weekly crit. What would they do for the
weekend without his feedback???? A guy like Tony with a anagama won't have
made any changes in his work in a week. Shit, he probably fires the kiln 3-4
times a year so a crit after the firing would be appropriate.
Guys like Wayne are entrepreurnial- he doesn't need a teacher to get him up
in the morning and check his homework. He knows self discipline and what it
takes to be self sustaining.
Adult students are a different breed than kids that need the teacher to tell
them they are on the right track.
At Sheridan of the 15 students in my 2nd year class I know the names of the
3 or 4 studio rats before they ever enter my class. They are the ones that
are always at the studio, the workshops, the potlucks etc, etc. the other 12
are 9-5. You know the ones that can take a ball and run. I think tony F is
one of those.
cheers,
tony
Tony and Sheila Clennell
Sour Cherry Pottery
4545 King Street
Beamsville, Ontario
CANADA L0R 1B1
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
JOYCE LEE on mon 26 jun 06
Kelly, loved your posts this morning especially the first one about what =
you
think you're writing and how others perceive what you are writing. Been
there, of course, many times .... often many times in one day.
I've wanted to tell you that you've unskewered my thinking about Home
Schooling. I sometimes send the parts of your posts about your kids
to my teacher friends who feel as I did about HS .... and, in spite of
knowing that it must ever be thus, am shocked when they continue to
spout nonsense about a process of education (of all things!) of which
they know very little. Then I recall that I was in the same place, =
for all
the same reasons, only a year or two ago. It's as if I (and they) =
accepted
the "successful" home schooled students as Far From The Norm and
only counted the poor, fundamentalist-religion-driven pale-faced, bent-
bodied, sickly, frightened kids ( who had their first experience at Real
School when they became highschool age) as the True Home Schoolers.
I guess I discounted Mishy's three children as being some sort of =
aberration,
for I admired them and their relationship with their mom from our first
meeting.... so smart, such fine manners, self-confident, loving, and
obviously well-educated. Somebody was doing a Fine Job ..... made me
wish I'd done the same for my own.
Since then I've read about and listened to those who homeschool more=20
carefully.
What a job they do! ... with emphasis on "job" as in "work" and "time =
spent."
Sure, your kids, and Mishy's and David's would star in most any =
educational
setting, but I'm finding that such results are more prevalent than not =
in homeschool
situations.
In fact, I'd forgotten that I was a product of homeschooled=20
kindergarten myself. It was the depression and my family didn't
have the $15 or so
monthly that was the going rate for kindergarten ... new twins, young =
parents,
etc. One of my earlier memories is of passing the Kindergarten building
and wondering about the mysteries being revealed to all those other =
children.....
and worrying that I wouldn't pass muster when lst grade rolled around, =
which
it inevitably did. And whatta ya' know?? I could read, write, recite, =
compute=20
as well
as any of my fellow students who all turned out to be the kids from =
church,
or our street, or the Saturday movies, or students from Mama Luce's =
piano
classes or the children who came with their mothers to be measured for
the clothes Mama Luce tailored so exquisitely, not to mention the hats
that she crafted which brought women to our home from all over the =
county.
(Hats were very big when I was little.)
So, though I'd never worried
about socialization (did worry that they'd all know each other and I =
wouldn't)
turns out that wasn't a problem either. Today, finally, I comprehend =
that I
wasn't such a genius that I just picked up whatever I needed to function =
well
in lst grade...... but that mama and daddy had a plan.... which included =
my
going to work with daddy, learning about the trains that delivered the =
goods
to his warehouses, reading on the back stoop, and playing with his
typewriters and adding machines..... turns out that to play with a =
typewriter
one must have something to write...... and to use an adding machine =
(which
did have other functions) one must Do Numbers. Thus I learned about
receipts, bills of lading, Paychecks (!), accounts receivable while =
Playing
Office .... just as I learned at home about art, music and spelling by
Playing School.... sort of like Homework, actually, now that I think of =
it.
AND, and, and ... my goodness...... I'm thinking maybe my being
allowed to participate (with my parents) in the local Little Theater
productions was .... well, you know where this is going..... another =
whole
new journey through the misunderstandings of my mind. Shoot, I knew
in their entirety a couple of Douglas's speeches in the Lincoln/Douglas
debates simply by watching daddy perform the Douglas role ..... and
Mama playing Mary Todd was an eyeopener into history that I still =
relish.
Only this time around, Mary Todd was gorgeous. Hmmmm reckon my
parents were all that clever to have figured this out
so long ago.... and I'm just now getting it?
I could go on and on about my Mind Opening, Kelly, but will spare you =
all.
This Time. Come to think of it, I'm now suspicious about that "not =
having
the money" business. Money was certainly short but I did go to daddy's
tennis tournaments as well as to the golf course to walk with him and =
try
hitting the ball with the big stick, and I did take tapdancing =
lessons.........
hmmmmm? And to the skating rink..... and swimming often at the local
lake/pool which cost money... and to the movies every Friday night with
Mama.... nine cents for her, free for me. Reckon the parents had a =
bigger
plan than I knew??? Hmmm reckon when I thought I was simply having
a very good time .... that they.... the old people.... were providing =
me with
a superior education BEFORE I ever learned to play crack-the-whip and
what it felt like to have my head hurt from the teacher's knuckles when =
I
later on didn't understand fractions as fast as she felt was appropriate =
for
my "age and ability.?" Home was better.
Joyce
In the doctor's office in Los Angeles on my new laptop while waiting for
a family member ...... had to miss my (I hope) annual Breakfast with
Vince this time around........ drat drat drat..... and I was going to =
make
biscuits with gravy for our growing boy.
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