The article was unusually irritating for me- first it cited an article as it’s source- then it doesn; tell you WAHT the article or where to find it.
The tone of the article is also sarcastic and condescending. Also clearly author has no clue what unschooling is- saying that unschooling is about letting child pick there own curriculum. ARGH.
Monday, January 29, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
It’s not exactly a brand-new ideal; in fact some theorists claim it was the original method for educating children. Whatever the case, the phenomenon of “unschooling” has seen a rebirth recently, as more and more parents lose faith and patience with the effects of conventional education.
According to a story in the Tennessean, focusing on several local families engaged in this homeschooling variation, the emphasis on making the child the primary, and often the only, decision-maker in picking curriculums. Whereas conventional schooling involves strictly regimented classes, timeframes and topics determined by outsiders, and even homeschooling often implies parent-developed curricula, under the unschooling model a child does pretty much whatever he or she desires to, with the stipulation that it involve some type of learning activity.
Some alleged “education experts,” the story notes, along with more than a few homeschooling advocates, are reportedly concerned that the methods might lead to “learning gaps.” However, at least in the cases of the families interviewed, the fears seem unfounded. As one unschooling mother is quoted as saying, “Honestly, what do children really need to know when they graduate from high school — to balance their checkbook, change the oil in the car and check the tire pressure, real-life things. I think those things are just as important as history, math and reading.” - ST
Staff Reports - Free-Market News Network
To view article :http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=32685
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as General Homeschool and Unschooling, Homeschool in the Press and Media at 12:00 PM EST
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A very thorough and balanced look at unschooling- again in The Tenneesean. One of the better articles I have seen in a long time.
Sunday, 01/28/07
‘Unschool’ parents: Kids can be own best teachers
Many educators fear free-form style leaves learning incomplete
BONNA de la CRUZ
Staff Writer
It’s midday on a Friday, and 9-year-old Miyana flips through a book about dragons before her attention turns to making Valentine’s Day cards at the kitchen table.
Her sister, Aeyah, 7, across the table, expertly threads a needle and sews a tiny cape for a clothespin superhero.
While other children their age are quietly sitting in a classroom, the Fisher-Miller children have the freedom to pass the time without order and doing as they please in their pursuit of knowledge.
Younger brother Ocea, almost 2, drops marbles into the bell of a trumpet. “He’s using it as a funnel,” says their mother, Suzanne Fisher-Miller. Brother Khai, 5, plays noisily with two friends, the back door slamming shut as they run in and out.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as General Homeschool and Unschooling, Homeschool in the Press and Media at 12:24 PM EST
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Article in The Tennessean on the estimates of how many familes are unschooling:
Sunday, 01/28/07
Exact number who unschool hard to know
Across the country, 200,000 to 300,000 children are unschoolers, national experts said.
That’s about 10 percent to 15 percent of the 2 million children home-schooled in 2006, said Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Salem, Ore., that studies home-based education.
The latest government numbers estimate a much smaller number of home-educated children, just 1.1 million in 2003.
In Tennessee, there is no way of knowing how many unschool because they are lumped in with others in home-based education, said Cindy Benefield, who oversees home-schooling for the state Education Department.
The state says 5,331 children are registered to home-school in Tennessee. But the number of home schoolers could be as high as 30,000 because some families affiliate with private school satellite programs that are not counted as home schools and other families may not report they are home-schooling at all.
National experts believe that unschooling is growing in popularity at the same rate as home schooling.
— BONNA DE LA CRUZ
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as General Homeschool and Unschooling, Homeschool in the Press and Media at 12:10 PM EST
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Dropped Threads: What We Aren’t Told
by Carol Shields (Editor).
This is wonderful book, DROPPED THREADS - What We Aren\’t Told: Starch Salt Chocolate Wine; What Stays in the Family; Notes on a Piece for Carol; Lettuce Turnip and Pea; Casseroles; Hope for the Best - Expect the Worst; Tuck Me In - Redefining Attachment Between Mothers and Sons , featuring works by Canadian women. and one of the best books I have read in a long time. If you are able to buy or borrow please do! With writing that is reflective, often amusing, poignant, emotional and profound, Dropped Threads is the first book to tackle the lesser-discussed issues of middle age and is the first anthology the editors have compiled together.
From the publisher:
The idea came up over lunch between two old friends. There was a need for a book that, eschewing sensationalism and simplistic answers, would examine the holes in the fabric of women’s talk of the last thirty or forty years. The contributors, a cross-section of women, would be asked to explore defining moments in their lives rarely aired in common discourse: truths they had never shared, subjects they hadn’t written about before or otherwise found a place for. What Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson wanted to hear about were the experiences that had brought unexpected pleasure or disappointment, that somehow had caught each woman unawares. The pieces, woven together, would be a tapestry of stories about what women experience but don’t talk about. The resulting book became an instant #1 bestseller.
“Our feeling was that women are so busy protecting themselves and other people that they still feel they have to keep quiet about some subjects,” Carol Shields explained in an interview. Dropped Threads takes as its model the kind of informal discussions women have every day – over coffee, over lunch, over work, over the Internet – and pushes them further, sometimes even into painful territory. Subjects include work, menopause, childbirth, a husband’s terminal illness, the loss of a child, getting old, the substance of women’s friendships, the power of sexual feelings, the power of power, and that nagging question, “How do I look?” Some of the experiences are instantly recognizable; others are bound to provoke debate or inspire readers to examine their own lives more closely.
The book is a collection ofshort, engaging pieces by more than thirty women, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island. Many are mothers, some are grandmothers, and many are professionals, including journalists, professors, lawyers, musicians, a corporate events planner and a senator. Readers will find the personal revelations of some of their favourite authors here, such as Margaret Atwood, Bonnie Burnard, Sharon Butala, Joan Barfoot, Joan Clark and Katherine Govier. Other contributors include:
• Eleanor Wachtel, CBC radio host, talks about her early fears of speaking in public.
• June Callwood, journalist, social activist and a Companion of the Order of Canada, at the age of seventy-six is surprised at her failure to find answers to the imponderable dilemmas surrounding human life, and of her lack of connection to the “apparition” in the mirror.
• Isabel Huggan, short story writer, muses on what she considers the impossibility of mothers passing on knowledge to their daughters, and on her own feeling that “we are girls dressed up in ladies’ clothing, pretending.”
A second edition, Dropped Threads 2: More of What We Aren’t Told has also been recently published.
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as General Homeschool and Unschooling at 9:35 PM EST
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Toronto Unschooling Conference May 19-20th 2007
This is the second annual Unschooling Conference hosted in Toronto. It is scheduled for May 19-20th and cost is from 55.00 ( if you register early) for adults and 25.00 per child (over 3 )and 120.00 for family with 2 adults and all their children 
The Toronto Unschooling Conference will be held at
Delta Toronto East
2035 Kennedy Road
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M1T 3G2
Toll-Free : 1-800-663-3386
Which is the very east end of Toronto. For more info or to register please visit http://www.livingjoyfully.ca/conference/
Do you know of an unschooling conference in your area? Please share with us a post in comments section.
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as General Homeschool and Unschooling, Unschool Conferences- Unschooling Events at 9:18 PM EST
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