From: Julian Leviston (julian@tcp.net.au)
Date: Tue Mar 30 1999 - 23:10:58 MST
At 09:48 AM 30/03/99 -0600, Jocelyn Brown wrote:
>Have you ever heard of the concept of "unschooling?" There is a school
>called the Sudbury Valley School which has been working this concept since
>1970. There are several basic premises, but for the most part they all
>revolve around the fact that children WANT to learn and that all we as
>teachers and adults need to do is get the hell out of their way, unless they
>come to us with questions. There are no structured classes or courses of any
>kind, and learning takes place when the children are ready to learn. It is
>then up to the child if he needs help from a teacher or if he feels he can
>learn better on his own. If a child wants to learn to read at age 3, fine.
>If he's not ready until he's 7, fine. If he is encouraged to be curious and
>nutured in the the right environment, he WILL learn. And, without the evils
>of tradional schooling to break him down, his curiousity will continue into
>adulthood, and he will have the confidence to learn whatever he desires.
>
>I could go on and on about this topic, if anyone is interested.
>
>Jocelyn Brown
>jocelynb@mindspring.com
I'm interested, Jocelyn.
But - something that has struck me a bit - (because I've often thought of
freeing children in schooling) is that children don't know what their
options are - another good thing is that they don't know their limits - but
sometimes there are opposites and grey areas to this. For instance, some
children have heaps of limits and do know a few of their options. Anyway,
basically the adults and teachers (they should morph into ONE group) should
do two things: Facilitate and allow. Allow the children to be the active
part in their own education and facilitate them by ensuring that they are
not "blocked" and are free in every way and at the same time given all the
resources and knowledge about the subject that they can.
Julian.
--- Flute Fidelity Pty Limited - Everything you need to sound your very best http://www.flute-fidelity.com.au/ FREECALL 1800 644 124 Email: julian@flute-fidelity.com.au FAX 02 9428 1974
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