Old Life Blog

When kids make mistakes, even a mistake as simple as being annoying around the wrong person, they are either yelled out, cursed, slapped, spanked, or caged (often a mix of several such reactions) by their parents. In other words, they are treated as second-class human beings, undeserving of unconditional love and respect by regular human beings. And yet, through it all, kids come back, again and again, to those that disrespect them like it never happened. They are so quick to forgive and forget. If I was yelled at, cursed, slapped, spanked, or caged for making a mistake toward another adult, I would probably disassociate and have nothing ever to do with that adult for the rest of my life. Adults expect respect from other adults, and when they don't get it, they go their separate ways. But children, it's not 20 minutes before they're wanting to jump and play and giggle with the one who was just violent with them. It's like it never happened. Considering this, it'...

A concern I've heard regarding unschooled kids is that "they'll be different". What is meant by this is that they won't have the same education, the same experiences, the same memories, the same cultural influences, yadda, yadda, yadda, as their "peers". In my opinion, that's just dandy. Yes, they will be different, but to what end? Will their lives be harder? More stressful? Etc.? I don't believe so one whit. In fact, I believe the inverse is true. There are all sorts of benefits with the unschooling approach to life and learning that compulsory schooling can't match. While I believe the "education" part will actually be better, as their learning is interest-based and interest-based learning is harder to forget than rote memorization, unschooled kids develop initiative and problem solving skills far greater than compulsory-schooled kids. It's self-evident. Kids that are given the freedom to explore their curiosities are pract...

From time to time, I tell someone who doesn't already know, usually extended family, that we are keeping our kids home from school. They look puzzled until I use the word "homeschooling". Like clockwork, sooner or later, they mention the social aspect of schooling and why it's important that kids play with other kids. I respond, not wanting to get into anything, that we have play groups during the week. Now, that's true, the play groups, but that's not a proper response to one's concern about socialization. Actually, I strongly believe, through logic and experience, that what kids learn in school is anti-socialization. But that's another post. What I wanted to briefly talk about here is proper socialization. From the time they're born until they're about 18, children are preparing for the rest of their lives; in other words, they are preparing for adulthood. Part of that preparation is learning to communicate with other human beings. That...