You can do it! (Maybe).

My brother- in-law shared with me a concern of his that comes up every now and again.
He wants his daughter to grow up believing she can achieve anything she sets her mind to. "Reach for the stars," he urges her. "You can do it."
The problem is, he confesses, there's that niggling feeling that keeps tainting his enthusiasm. What if she can't?  What if she just doesn't have the talent or the imagination?
He tells her that if she works hard she will become a famous pianist, or a great mathematician, or a movie star. But what if she doesn't have what it takes?
We can sympathize. Nobody wants their child to be devastated by 'failure.'
But let's consider: what is the worse thing that can happen? Even if she is 'devastated' at least she tried. At least she went for it with all her heart. It's better than never having tried at all. Besides, who are we to predict what will come of a passion?

I think we don't give our kids nearly enough credit. In our desire to protect them, we act like they are frail and unable to cope with reality. But it's our job to help build their resiliency, their ability to be able to judge themselves fairly. It's up to us to not destroy their self confidence by useless praise or promoting in the child a sense of entitlement.

Brother-in-law tells me a story he heard from a colleague. This colleague's daughter, a teen who has always heard that she can do it, and has had no reason to doubt otherwise, decided she wanted to play chess. "Daddy. Teach me," she asked her father. And he did. Habituated to believing in herself, she then asked to enter a prestigious competition. The Daddy worried that there was no why she could even come close to winning a tournament with   kids who had been at it for years (taught by a Master, besides).  He cautioned her but she insisted. She entered. She played.  She won.

I said to my brother- in-law, "Here lies your answer." Do not be afraid to encourage your child. We also don't need to be so 'invested in' or 'take over their' projects by being overly focused on them (the children). What you need to be able to do is to trust your child's ability to make sound judgement. As a parent you do not  need to take on that role- all you need to be doing is nurturing that child's inner voice and confidence by providing the opportunities...and then staying out of the way.

It will be as it will be. Supporting your child's ambition is not the same as making empty promises to her. She herself will learn to evaluate her abilities. Encourage your child's healthy view of herself by helping her approach the thing with a sense of adventure and good challenge rather than with arrogance and feelings of superiority.

What will you do for John Taylor Gatto?

Here's to you too John!

John Taylor Gatto! A hallowed name to those of us interested in liberating learning from the monopoly of compulsory, institutionalized schooling. Gatto- Great Gatto! Champion of freedom in learning.
"You don't get an education. You take an education."
"Genius is as cheap as dirt. "
Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist."
And more. Much, much more.

Now Gatto needs our help.
Jerry Mintz at AERO is doing something grand for Gatto and I hope that after you read this note Jerry has sent around, you will be doing something too. I know I am- just as soon as I've published this post!

Here's what Jerry writes:
As many of you may remember, educational visionary John Gatto had two serious strokes nearly a year ago and has been hospitalized off and on since then. He is now at home trying to recover. His economic resources have been depleted and he needs our support right now. When we first announced John’s plight we had hundreds of people send get well and thank you messages through us. Many spoke at length about how John’s talks, books and personal intervention had impacted their lives. Many asked if there was something they could do to help. Now there is. John needs funds for medical needs and personal rehab that his depleted insurance no longer covers. I’ve visited John and his wife, Janet, in their New York apartment and can tell you that his mind is as sharp as ever. He even thinks he has another book in him.

To facilitate support for John Taylor Gatto, AERO has organized a fundraiser.

All proceeds will go to his support. They are tax deductible as this is an AERO project. Donations can be made for any amount. For donations in amounts not listed on our site, please call the AERO office to make payment arrangements at (516) 621-2195.

If you donate $50 you will get, as a premium, a copy of John’s latest book, Weapons of Mass Instruction.

If you make a $100 donation you will receive a signed copy of one of the last hard cover versions of Dumbing Us Down.

If you make a donation of $150 or more you will receive the beautiful, just released, five DVD set of Gatto interviews called The Ultimate History Lesson.

We are hoping to raise $3000 this week.

Here are some excerpts about the DVD set by Monica Perez:

"If you’ve never heard of John Taylor Gatto you are really missing something. John Taylor Gatto was New York City Teacher of the Year three times when he worked in Harlem. He quit his job, while still holding the title of Teacher of the Year, in an oped article in the Wall Street Journal saying that he no longer wished to hurt children. Gatto is one of those very rare people who have the intelligence, character, drive and interest to pursue the truth for its own sake, to actually succeed in uncovering some of it and to share it with those of us ready to recognize it.

Although Gatto is a wealth of information, insight and revelations, he is also a joy to watch. Witnessing his honesty, curiosity, intelligence, sanity and good judgment are testaments to what is finest in man and I doubt I would tire of listening to him ever–so rich, broad and deep is his wealth of knowledge.

But beyond the general joy of learning I get when I listen to Gatto, I find that his contribution is most relevant to me in two specific ways: First, Gatto lays out a comprehensive, novel (nowadays anyway) and scrupulously thought-out and tested approach to education. Second, Gatto explains the history of modern schooling and how and why we moved away from his traditional, intuitive approach to educating our young to what we have today, which he clearly distinguishes as schooling as opposed to education…"
Do it. Donate right now before you forget!

Happy!

Happiness Now!

My unschooled daughter tells me her good friend finds her ‘intimidatingly happy.'
"You are always so content, so relaxed so..happy," the friend complains. Yes, complains.
This is a friend who has seen the world; she has traveled the seven seas and visited a crazy number of countries. She has private tutors and her family is heavy on culture.
She is enrolled in a prestigious high school program this fall and her future looks bright. But she is not happy. She never feels good enough. She feels compelled to compete and to continuously prove just how much she knows. My daughter is happy. She tells me that it is important to her that she enjoys her life. “I like to enjoy my life,” she says. It is a worthwhile goal.  

She is happy she tells me, because she is pursuing the things that make her happy- be they difficult or challenging they are her personal interests and that spurs on happiness. Intrinsic motivation is what compels her to push herself forward and ‘up her game.’ 

Too often I hear my other daughters' friends bemoan the fact that they do not have the time to do the things they love to do. School keeps them so overworked.
These are the lucky ones. So many young people no longer believe in their dreams. They have become shy or even apologetic and furtive in what they want. Others have no idea of what moves them.
In the last few months, some of their closest friends have confessed to struggling with depression and feelings of worthlessness and even suicidal thoughts.
I can only wonder at what part compulsory schooling is playing to contribute to such a dismal picture of the world young people will inherit. With all the hussle, stress, competition, constant messages pertaining to scarcity of jobs and resources, it's not an inspiring picture. Kids are told in no uncertain terms that high school is their one and only shot at a ‘good life.’ Of course unschoolers know that is not true. My kids know it’s a lie. High school is not the ‘be all end all’ for a bright future.

When it comes to happiness, it almost feels like there is an unspoken taboo around being happy. 
It begins when we are young and we are indoctrinated into believing that happiness must be earned. It is not a question of contentment being our natural birthright.  Rather, we must not be permitted happiness until we have completed such and such a chore or done our homework etc, etc.
No wonder that to many of us, being happy feels....wrong. We feel guilty if we are happy, shielding our joy from those who might find it offensive. Seems to me that what is socially acceptable is being ‘en route’ to happiness; getting there, almost there, will be happy when this, that or the other is taken care off.
Only the rich and famous are exempt: they deserve happiness. The rest of us should act miserable.
How rotten is that? I find that people who unschool actively work towards refusing this view; instead try to claim for themselves, happiness now. Maybe it’s because unschooling leans towards pursuing what you love to do-right now-rather than, someday, somewhere down the road?
Comments welcome!

What you want to know.

'If you meet a scientist, don't ask her what she knows, ask her what she wants to know. It's a much better conversation- for both of you.'

That's the concluding sentence to Stuart Firestein's 'Forum' piece, in Scientific American (April 2012). 

In his piece entitled 'What Science Wants to Know,' Firestein suggests that 'an impenetrable mountain of facts can obscure the deeper questions."

Welcome to a too familiar world- the world of 'Compulsory Schooling.' 

In school, you will certainly cover topics, you with undoubtedly gather facts (how many your remember is another issue all together). The truest fact though, is that you will not have the opportunity to ask those deep questions. Too busy going after more facts for that.

The other day, my daughter opened up a new notebook  purchased at the Dollar Store. She laughed. "It's the American schedule on the inside. They have 8 periods a day."

I sighed because again and again, the folly of dividing learning into compartments that you cover over the course of the day seems so unbelievably inefficient and brain numbing to me.

Now it's French. 30 minutes later, now it's Math. Now it's Art. Now it's Sociology. 

The mind being forced to switch gears at the sound of a buzzer is so radically in opposition to the the way we actually learn. How much depth of learning can actually happen?

Firestein agrees, "You have to know a lot to be a scientist." But that's not enough. "Knowing  a lot is not what makes a scientist. What makes a scientist is ignorance," he believes.

That's right. Ignorance. 

He says, "That might sound ridiculous, but for scientists the facts are just a starting place." 

Every new scientific discovery raise new questions, so ignorance will always grow faster than knowledge. Firestein, observes that one crucial outcome of scientific knowledge is to generate new and better ways of being ignorant: "not the kind of ignorance that is associated with a lack of curiosity or education but rather a cultivated, high-quality ignorance."

Firestein continues, "If scientists would talk about the questions rather than boring your eyes out of their sockets with reams of jargon, and if the media reported not only on new discoveries but the questions they answered and the new puzzles they created, and if education stopped trafficking in facts that are already available on Wikipedia-then we might find a public once again engaged in the adventure that has been going on for the past 15 generations."

Natural learning and unschooling  is one way to keep the asking of deep questions at the fore of education.

Begin with questions. Begin with interests and passions. Facts do follow-appropriately, necessarily, welcomely.

Quebec Student Strike: It's a good thing.

If they can, so can you!

I can't be a blogger about education and not say anything about what is going on in Quebec!

Whichever way you look at it, those students have guts. Some people are saying they need to get real- the rest of the country is paying double what they pay in tuition.

They say, Stop whining and grow up." But I agree with the students. 

" It isn't fair. It isn't fair," they complain. That's right. A wise guy (my husband actually) said, "Innovation isn't fair."

What those kids are doing will result in fairness in the long run. The students in Quebec are pushing for more: more opportunities for education, more democracy for everyone.  

This is a good thing. So what's up with the rest of Canada? Why aren't more students out there- pushing for free or cheaper education?

Free education (funded through taxation rather than tuition) is no new thing. Many countries have free or at least super cheap, higher education that in some cases is even extended to foreigners! These countries include the Northern European nations- Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and Germany and Austria. 

Scotland has free tuition and many EU kids flock over there. Argentina, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Cuba are some more examples of countries that make it possible for everyone to access higher ed if they want it. 

Then there's the fact that 'open source' has become a reality. If you still haven't heard about the 'open source movement,' now is a good a time to do so.

'Open source' means that more and more, education is going to be cheaper-not more expensive.This extends to higher ed. Easily, readily accessible, colleges and universities are starting to offer their course materials for free; to whomever wants it. 

That is the way the world wants it to be. Collaboration, contribution, innovation.

---------------------------

People are writing about the student strike (one of the biggest in Canadian history by the way) as being more that a student strike- but an actual social movement.

Naturally, the government has tried to squash their efforts by quickly passing Law 78, a radical legislation making all protests inside or near a college or university campus illegal! 

Additionally the law makes any spontaneous demonstration across Quebec illegal, forcing all to seek discretionary police permission to protest. Huge penalties apply for those who do not conform.  Some Quebec groups are arguing for the adoption of a bank tax, starting at 0.14 per cent and increasing to 0.7 over five years, as a way to raise public funds for post-secondary educational institutions. Here's what one writer reports:  

At a time of financial crisis, banks in Canada and Quebec are securing record profits, over $22.4bn in 2011, a 15 per cent increase from the previous year. Given record bank profits in 2012 and recent reports outlining a secret $114-billion bailout at the height of the financial crisis, the Quebec student proposal to create a relatively tiny tax on financial institutions to benefit education is gaining public traction.

Seems like a good idea to me.