Something's in the air, and it's not just the sneezy pollen of springtime.
aside: Tree-sex is what Bit Boy calls pollen - I was going to correct him (his attitude, not his accuracy), but then I thought - he's right. Pollen is tree-sex, and it's kind of funny that we breath it.
Don't do that - agree with your teen - it just encourages them.
Now he's calling our goose's eggs goose periods. It kind of shines a different light on breakfast.
The last two days I've had long talks with 3 different people about education and homeschooling. AND (drum roll) every single one of them was about how beneficial homeschooling is, despite the fact that all of the people I was talking to had kids in public schools, and 2 of the three are educational professionals. I was sad they were not familiar with the works of John Holt, and happy that I could share his work as a resource for them. I was pleased to find that they were familiar with the more recent writings of John Taylor Gatto. These two touchstones could inform a lot more educators about where the future of education is going.
One thing all professional educators seem to know is that their profession is changing. School has always been a mixed bag, a necessary evil, the attempt to make the best of a perceived necessity. Standardized testing, class room management, and shifting parental and teacher roles have made public school a far different place than it once was - and even what it once was wasn't really all that stupendous. Changing modes of communications - first books, and now the internet - have changed the roll of teachers. Teachers are no longer the gate keepers to knowledge and skills. Just about anything you want to learn to do has books, Youtube videos, several websites, and enthusiastic open source gurus waiting to help you. Waiting to help you learn for free. For. Free.
You don't have to pay for an education anymore. You don't have to pass a test to get into the right class. You don't have to be in the same country, much less the same room, as your teacher anymore. The internet provides limitless access to the accumulated knowledge of the modern world. Firelord taught himself to play Irish whistle using Youtube videos. Bit Boy taught himself binary by reading an essay by Isaac Asimov. Lego Kid is working through an online Python book. I was looking for a welding teacher for Bit Boy last year and a friend who welds asked "Have you looked for some tutorials on Youtube?" (Seriously. I kinda didn't go there. Something about the thought of my teen with a tube of flaming gas in his hand having only had a video tutorial for his training made me nervous.)
Today you can work at your own pace, whether that pace is quick or slow, focused or distracted. You don't have to have anyone tell you whether you're ready or if what you want is appropriate for you. You want to learn a new skill? Do it. Want to get better? Practice. There you go, now you know something new. It's the ultimate education in a democratic meritocracy.
Is there a place for teachers in this new paradigm? Is there a place for a brick and mortar school?
Yes, but it's a very different role than before - or perhaps it's a very old role. We admire those who do what we want to do, people who make things, who have useful skills. We still benefit from mentors. We still like to hang out with people who have similar interests and abilities. We are still social animals and so there is still a place for something we might call a "school." But it's a very different place than what we think of school today. It's not a place you are forced to go and told what to do once you're there. It's a place you may choose to go (or not) and where there are people who have intellectual and physical resources you wish to access. I see the future of school in Maker Spaces, Hacker Spaces, libraries and the Sudbury model.
Some would argue that you still need a college degree to get a good job,
a real job. For the moment that is still mostly true. To be a
physician, a lawyer, and most types of an engineer, yes, you still need a
degree. However, there are signs that the value of a degree is lower than it has been for generations. And signs that the lack of a degree is not the hindrance it used to be.
Becoming a teacher in the future will mean first following your own passion, and if your own passion excites another enough for them to ask "how do you do that?!?" then, and only then, will you have the opportunity to be a teacher.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
April's Books
- The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
- To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis
- Door into Summer, by Robert Heinlein
- Healing the New Childhod Epidemics, by Kenneth Bock, M.D. and Cameron Stauth
- Positive Psychology, by Miriam Akhtar
- Meaningful Differences, by Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley
- The Maker Movement Manifesto,by Mark Hatch
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
That Awkward Stage
I'm at an awkward parenting stage. (Well, I'm pretty much always awkward - parenting or otherwise) This is one of those times when I'm constantly questioning myself and my decisions.
Bit Boy at almost 16 seems nearly independent - making his own schedule, making (pretty good) choices, and generally acting like he's nearly an adult. Is it appropriate to let him be so independent? I think so, I think it's good for him to make decisions and live with the consequences - especially since they're fairly non-lethal at this point. But I feel guilty for it to be so easy to parent him right now. (Dear Universe, please don't take this as a challenge)
Hot Dog is an impish 9 year old, thrilled with his soccer team (undefeated, thank you very much Coach Joe!), his various lessons and classes, and generally a happy kid. I worry that I don't give my youngest all the attention that he deserves, but I comfort myself with Firleord. He was the 5th and last kid in his family. I think his parents were tired by the time he came and they basically let him alone. He turned out pretty damn good.
Lego Kid .... is a bundle of contradictions. He wants to go to school next year, but not leave the house today - or ever. He wants me to make him do things, but he doesn't want to do anything. We unschooled until he was 11, at which point he told me "You're too easy on me. You should make me do things." So I asked him what I should make him do, we made a list, and now I "make" him do it. ( I'm confused. Is it still unschooling if it's at his request?) He gets mad at me if he doesn't get his academics done, but resents when I make him do them. I suppose I need to remember that he's 13. This isn't personal. If it's this hard for me to deal with him, how much harder is it for him to deal with himself?
But... it does make it more challenging for me to know what the right thing to do is. My parenting philosophy has always been radical - I treat my children as rational people who know themselves better than I know them and so should have a fair say in their lives.
I have to admit that sometimes it's a mistake to assume they are rational, and that this may be one of those times.
Bit Boy at almost 16 seems nearly independent - making his own schedule, making (pretty good) choices, and generally acting like he's nearly an adult. Is it appropriate to let him be so independent? I think so, I think it's good for him to make decisions and live with the consequences - especially since they're fairly non-lethal at this point. But I feel guilty for it to be so easy to parent him right now. (Dear Universe, please don't take this as a challenge)
Hot Dog is an impish 9 year old, thrilled with his soccer team (undefeated, thank you very much Coach Joe!), his various lessons and classes, and generally a happy kid. I worry that I don't give my youngest all the attention that he deserves, but I comfort myself with Firleord. He was the 5th and last kid in his family. I think his parents were tired by the time he came and they basically let him alone. He turned out pretty damn good.
Lego Kid .... is a bundle of contradictions. He wants to go to school next year, but not leave the house today - or ever. He wants me to make him do things, but he doesn't want to do anything. We unschooled until he was 11, at which point he told me "You're too easy on me. You should make me do things." So I asked him what I should make him do, we made a list, and now I "make" him do it. ( I'm confused. Is it still unschooling if it's at his request?) He gets mad at me if he doesn't get his academics done, but resents when I make him do them. I suppose I need to remember that he's 13. This isn't personal. If it's this hard for me to deal with him, how much harder is it for him to deal with himself?
But... it does make it more challenging for me to know what the right thing to do is. My parenting philosophy has always been radical - I treat my children as rational people who know themselves better than I know them and so should have a fair say in their lives.
I have to admit that sometimes it's a mistake to assume they are rational, and that this may be one of those times.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Windy memories
This morning as the wind howls, I found myself in the most unusual position of having a wee bit of time to myself. After doing a couple of chores and surfing Facebook, I checked on the blogs of a couple of favorite friends - and realized how very long it had been since we'd all hung out together. I have happy memories of times at the river and parks, splashing, talking, laughing. It wasn't really so long ago.
Friendships, and life, seem to go in phases. You don't always know that you're in a phase, and often don't realize when you're leaving it, but in retrospect it can be very clear. That time in my life with little babies and toddlers - gone. Most of those friends have long moved on. That space of time early in our homeschooling career when we found our local homeschooling group, hung out at the library and local parks, and had actual free time - faded away. That sturdy time of solid homeschooling, when all three boys were close enough together to do pretty much the same thing, when our schedule was our own to plan, when we had 2 other homeschooling families with kids about the same age who became as close as cousins to us, that's gone now too.
We're in a new stage, but I'm too close to really see the whole of it yet. My 3 boys are going in different directions, all at once. Bit Boy is a straight "A" high school/college student. In the fall he'll be taking 16 credit hours. While he isn't unkind to his brothers, he rarely has time for them. Although he is helpful when asked, participates in the family when requested, he is very much independent now. (Well, except for needing rides everywhere...sigh...) Lego Kid's voice keeps creeping lower as he campaigns to go to the last year of middle school starting next fall. He still plays with Hot Dog, but less often and with less patience than before. I can see he's getting his wings ready for some test flights. Hot Dog has finally found a couple of things all his own (soccer and violin, especially soccer) and is still happy to homeschool. I'm grateful for that, but I wonder how long it can last when his brothers are away in school all day. His best bud has decided to go to school next year too. With me needing to transport his brothers we won't be able to slip down to Denver or up to the mountains for all those fun field trips that are one of the huge benefits of homeschooling. I would love to keep homeschooling him as long as possible, so I guess I'll need to find a new rhythm there too.
I notice deaths and births in our social circles. In my own family now we are in a phase of looming deaths as my grandparents generation approaches their 90's and our own children are as yet too young for the rounds marriages and births to start. That makes me all the more grateful when I see the babies of young friends in life, or even on the social networks.
Melancholy - that's this morning.
Friendships, and life, seem to go in phases. You don't always know that you're in a phase, and often don't realize when you're leaving it, but in retrospect it can be very clear. That time in my life with little babies and toddlers - gone. Most of those friends have long moved on. That space of time early in our homeschooling career when we found our local homeschooling group, hung out at the library and local parks, and had actual free time - faded away. That sturdy time of solid homeschooling, when all three boys were close enough together to do pretty much the same thing, when our schedule was our own to plan, when we had 2 other homeschooling families with kids about the same age who became as close as cousins to us, that's gone now too.
We're in a new stage, but I'm too close to really see the whole of it yet. My 3 boys are going in different directions, all at once. Bit Boy is a straight "A" high school/college student. In the fall he'll be taking 16 credit hours. While he isn't unkind to his brothers, he rarely has time for them. Although he is helpful when asked, participates in the family when requested, he is very much independent now. (Well, except for needing rides everywhere...sigh...) Lego Kid's voice keeps creeping lower as he campaigns to go to the last year of middle school starting next fall. He still plays with Hot Dog, but less often and with less patience than before. I can see he's getting his wings ready for some test flights. Hot Dog has finally found a couple of things all his own (soccer and violin, especially soccer) and is still happy to homeschool. I'm grateful for that, but I wonder how long it can last when his brothers are away in school all day. His best bud has decided to go to school next year too. With me needing to transport his brothers we won't be able to slip down to Denver or up to the mountains for all those fun field trips that are one of the huge benefits of homeschooling. I would love to keep homeschooling him as long as possible, so I guess I'll need to find a new rhythm there too.
I notice deaths and births in our social circles. In my own family now we are in a phase of looming deaths as my grandparents generation approaches their 90's and our own children are as yet too young for the rounds marriages and births to start. That makes me all the more grateful when I see the babies of young friends in life, or even on the social networks.
Melancholy - that's this morning.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
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