Unschooled a film by Jason Marsh. Review; by B. E

What do kids do all day if they don’t go to school and they don’t follow a curriculum? People want to know.

Unschooled, a film by Jason Marsh (who himself was not unschooled) is a portrayal into the lives of 3 unschooling families. The children in the film range from ages 8 to 22.

The movie presents the essence of unschooling philosophy; self directed, interest based learning.

Kids in the movie display thoughtfulness, a sense of humour and sometimes a sassy attitude in response to the way society views them and how they view what they themselves are doing.

Learning is by following one's natural curiosity; hence a plethora of extraordinary pursuits and interests such as two brothers whose interests include metal -smithing in the back yard, chain mail making, crafts, Scottish dancing, hawk watching and so on (the bird lover is at University of Berkley for those who wonder if unschoolers get into university). A 12 year old who creates funky wallets out of playing cards and who roller blades around the house getting breakfast!

The parents are part of a group of people who have really though about what education means and who continue to question their decisions. In the interviews many express satisfaction with how their children are turning out, their capacity to develop and attain what their children set out to achieve. The honesty is encouraging; ‘parental panic’ is something all too familiar amongst unschooling parents (“will my child turn out completely ignorant?”)

In conclusion, I was delighted with the movie because I think it was a fair portrayal of what unschooling is about –the families are interesting, creative, close and they are engaging in life in a joyous and autonomous way.

Kudos to Jason.

wrong show!

Well, I managed to upload the wrong show last night - people downloading prior to this moment would have been getting the 30th show from year one and not the 30th show from this year. Fortunately Jason Marsh noticed and mentioned it in an e-mail, so we've fixed the mistake.

To err is human...

waiting on the web

We've actually got the show done (early), you can download or podcast it here.

The show will air tomorrow on cfmu 93.3 fm at 12 noon (if you want to listen on the web from the cfmu web site)

Here are the show details:

wednesday, february 28/07
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interview - Jason Marsh, Unschooled: A documentary
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music - Rush, "Lessons", "Something for Nothing;" 2112
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movie review - Unschooled reviewed by Bronwyn, Randy, Beatrice and Evelyna
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more info - http://www.unschooledfilm.com/
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download the show - http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21998
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The effort to channel the process of growing up according to a preconceived curriculum and method discourages and wastes many of the best human powers to learn and cope....Schooling isolates the young from the older generation and alienates them. (Paul Goodman, 1971)

That time of year...fundraising for CFMU

Campus and Community radio station CFMU 93.3 fm is once again about to launch into it's annual fund raising drive.

Radio Free School, as an all volunteer show airing on the station, is part of that fund-raising effort.

This is our once a year chance to ask for your support.

Community radio is a place for voices you won't hear elsewhere: Radio Free School is the only program that we know of that's all about alternative education and learning, and one of the only programs that actually feature children's voices.

Commercial-free radio relies on volunteer programmers doing weekly shows: we've been at it for five years now. Regular listeners know and appreciate what we do: we ask you to support Radio Free School on CFMU by pledging a donation on behalf of Radio Free School.

So, please, if you can, pre-pledge before Friday, no amount is too small. Suggested pledges are $20 but any amount is welcome. You can pre-pledge by contacting us at radiofreeschool@gmail.com or pledge during our live show, Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 12 to 12:30pm on 93.3 fm. The number for on-air pledges is 905-528-9888.

If you are in the Hamilton area - drop by the station during our live show and make your pledge in the flesh, on air. CFMU is located in the basement of the McMaster University Student Centre.

with many thanks

the rfs folks.

open source

Just in case this type of news fascinates your fancy and tickles your toes, the latest show was put together using new (for us) open source programs - editing was done on Audacity, MP3 conversion on Razor Lame then uploaded to www.radio4all.net on FileZilla - we check the results here on Firefox and then I go to our rfs library page to post a link the the show. For that I used (for the first time this morning) the Web Editor Nvu - we send the radio free school announcement to a small list of subscribers on Thunderbird
I really had fun skirting the commercial world, and want to give a big shout of THANKS! to all the programmers and open source developers out there.
Group Hug...

Black and White Reading

Black history month finds us exploring the fantastic DVD by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove: Readings from Voices of A People's History of the United States, available from AK Press (a gift from our amazing friend, activist Matthew Behrens).

Here's what you'll hear this week on Radio Free School:

reading - John Lewis (pictured), Original Text of Speech to be Delivered at the Lincoln Memorial (August 28, 1963)

music - I'm on my way, Alabama Christian Movement Choir led by Mamie Brown, Voices of the Civil Rights Movment: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966

reading - Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968)

music - We Shall Not Be Moved, SNCC Freedom Singers led by Rutha Harris, Voices of the Civil Rights Movement

reading - Young Frederick Douglass, Freedom Fighter, by Andrew Woods, read by Marquesa Kierstead

music - Freedom Medley, Freedom Singers, Voices of the Civil Rights Movement

reading - Frederick Douglass, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro (July 5, 1865)

music - Wade in the Water, Fannie Lou Hamer, Voices of the Civil Rights Movement

book review - Who Was Harriet Tubman by Yona Zeldis McDonough, reviewed by Madeleine Kay

tech - Randy (all on new freeware)

radio free tattoos

The devil made her do it. Medium: Pen on flesh.

much math-merrily

So flash cards hey? Well they have traditionally been utilized in a very gross way (competitive maths in the classroom, the teacher flashing the card in the poor students face while the rest of the class sniggers away appreciatively). Which is why I surprised myself doubly yesterday. First by entering the dollar store (I recently vowed to boycott cheap ‘made in China’ products as far as is humanly possible) and secondly by buying multiplication flash cards for M ( plus a rubric cube for E and sizzling magnets, a weird clicky toy and an activity book for Br).

I thought this is not a bad way to expose M to times tables- she likes to have her own stuff and I think she is likely to use them.

It might seem that it's not unschooling to use these. But the thing is I'm not imposing them onto her. I think traditional tools can have their role too- It's what and how you use them- how the learner uses them that is! She"s interested so that suits me.

It’s been a sort of ‘mathy’ time around here these days anyway. We’ve been playing yahtzee, chess. Br asked for more subtraction and addition problems. Today, some one sent a really cool link to a math site http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/suel/maths/reallife.html. It was a photo gallery of math in nature- fascinating stuff. I got the kids to gather around the screen and see.

Later E got interested (at my suggestion) in construction a spiral using the Fibonacci sequence (Fibonacci rectangles and shell spirals)- a lot of fun.

http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html

She plans to cover an entire bedroom wall with this drawing- and she plans to embellish it with more infinite series, geometric designs etc. “Interesting wall paper,” she laughs.

Br worked on geometric designs from this book I rescued a few years ago, in the garbage. It’s called The Story of Mathematics by Hy Ruchlis and Jack Engelhardt. She made a gorgeous design using a protractor and compass-and we are going to do more of these. M even got interested! Which is saying much because right now all she wants to do is play solitaire on the computer! Eek!

By BE

snow radio

hi - seems radio4all.net is temporarily down, so as soon as they are back online we will post a link to the latest show (see below) - and leave you to wonder with me: are servers susceptible to snow squalls...?

UPDATE: Still snowing here, but radio4all is back online! Go there now and download the Don Cohen Math Man show!

math flash back

I am somewhat astonished to admit that I am finding math far more interesting now than when I was in school. With some pretty amazing math shows under our radio free school belt, I feel much closer to the world of mathematics than I ever did stressfully facing down flash cards in elementary school, or trying to make sense of sin cos and tan in high school while under the influence of strange herbs or the math teacher's noxious breath.

So this week's show with Don Cohen the Math Man was a treat for me to listen in on. Calculus for kids...who'd 'a thought?

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interview - Don Cohen "Math Man" http://www.mathman.biz/
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insights - radio free school kids
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music - Rachmaninoff, Allegro molto, The Piano Sonotas (Robert Silverman)
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tech - Beatrice
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listen -download the MP3 or Podcast at www.radio4all.net
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counting down

On a particularly uneventful evening, after a glass of wine or two, radio free school researchers delved into the radio4all site to explore download statistics.

With almost five years of shows, there are currently a total of 180 radio free school shows available. All the shows get into double digits, but what shows were generating the most online action?

Let's start with the century club:

100 to 200 downloads: Aaron Falbel, Susannah Sheffer, Architects, Wendy Priesnitz, Brent Cameron, Jerry Mintz [from year three]
201-300 downloads: Naomi Aldort, Paul Krop, John Colaruso, Joseph Pearce, Matt Hern [from year two]
301-400 downloads: National Film Board, Naomi Aldort (again), Pat Feranga/[John Holt]
401-500 downloads: Grace Llewellyn, Roald Dahl, Wendy Priesnitz (again)

So far so good. There are all kinds of reasons why various shows get more attention than others I suppose. Some shows have been up on the web longer than others, perhaps the show title helps or hinders, but all in all, each show is getting decent amount of action. Each week a few of the downloads go to the various pirate and campus/community stations that broadcast radio free school, each with their own range of listeners.

OK, so now we go to the shows with the highest numbers of downloads:

600-700 downloads: Sandra Dodd
701-800: [na]
801-900 downloads: Lee Hoinacki/[Ivan Illich]
931 - Pat Farenga

and then into the "Grand" club:

John Taylor Gatto got over 1,000 downloads on each of the three shows on radio free school: 1,059, 1,131, and 1,683.

And the single show with the most downloads?

Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes with 2,844.

Of course these numbers will change. Especially if you go to www.radio4all.net and type in "radio free school" in the search engine. You can then see a list of radio free school shows (going back to our first ever show in May 2002), choose a show, and then download, stream or podcast it.

That's what it's there for.