Life Learning
January/February 2012
At Ease With All Ages
How Much
Screen Time?
Dealing
With
Doubts
Librarians
As Our
Learning Allies
Challenge our society’s assumptions
about children … and reaffirm
why you have chosen unschooling!
Why and how to demolish
the industrialized model of
processing students…
whether it looks like a public
school, a charter school, a free
school, or a home school.
We assume that:
•
Education is something that is done to you
•
Knowledge belongs to a cult of experts
•
Others know best what children should learn
•
Schools provide effective education
•
Schools have a noble purpose
Challenging Assumptions in Education
by Wendy Priesnitz, editor of Life Learning Magazine
“I heartily recommend this book!”
~ John Taylor Gatto
www.NaturalLifeBooks.com
better educated
socially aware
trusted
happy kids
Inside
Life Learning
January/February 2012
4
Editorial
Wendy Priesnitz
The gifts we give to children who live without school.
7
Mental Disorder
Or Survival Mechanism?
Enrico Gnaulati
What we call ADHD can be seen as one of a number
of traits that have helped kids adapt for generations.
10 Sara Schmidt
At Ease With All Ages
Growing up free from age segregation is one of the
motivations and benefits of life learning.
The Ladder of Doubt
12 Marnie
Black
Doubt is just part of the life learning
journey, to be dealt with one rung at a time.
17
Will Computers
Warp Their Brains?
Wendy Priesnitz
Considering the assumptions – both pro and con
– about kids and electronic media usage.
21
Screen Time
Christy Severn-Martinez
How one mother began to accept her daughter’s
enjoyment of screen time.
“Video games teach children what
computers are beginning to teach adults –
that some forms of learning are fast-paced,
immensely compelling, and rewarding. The
fact that they are enormously demanding of
one’s time and require new ways of thinking
remains a small price to pay (and is perhaps
even an advantage) to be vaulted into the
future. Not surprisingly, by comparison School
strikes many young people as slow, boring,
and frankly out of touch.”
~ Seymour Papert, 1993
22
I Believe in Libraries
Cara Barlow
Your public librarian is your autodidact ally and
can provide access to a wealth of information.
26 Focus on Media
Resources about alternatives
in parenting and learning.
28 The Back Page
Learning as a form of growth in which
children add, flexibly and organically, to their
understanding of the world around them.
A father’s inspiring memoir about trusting
children to grow and learn with respect and
without coercion. Home birth, natural
parenting, and unschooling are woven
throughout journal entries describing a
year in the life of a family that lives and
learns on a small, organic farm.
“This book is the best of its breed!”
~ John Taylor Gatto (who also wrote the foreword)
“This is a sometimes witty, always wise potpourri of
inspiration and advice about respectful parenting sprinkled
with a lively description of life on a bucolic small
homestead.” ~ Wendy Priesnitz, editor, Life Learning
The first title in Natural Life Magazine’s Natural Parenting Book Series
www.NaturalLifeBooks.com
Life Learning
Lessons from The Educational Frontier
Edited by Wendy Priesnitz
A book of thirty compelling essays from the first six
years of Life Learning Magazine. Written by academics,
parents, and young people who have learned without
school. Demonstrates how and why people can learn
without attending school and without being taught, and
the transformative intellectual and social benefits of a
self-directed education. A great introduction to this progressive style of education and a reassuring resource for life learners and their extended families. A
must-have for anyone who enjoys reading Life Learning Magazine.
Available in both print and e-book formats directly from the publisher. Order today.
www.NaturalLifeBooks.com
4
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
From the Editor
I recently spoke with a reporter who was writing
an article about “unschooling.” True to her training,
she was poking around trying to find a clue to the
negative aspect of learning without school, as if life
learning parents were subjecting their children to some potentially dire
experiment. “Nothing’s perfect,” she told me assuredly. “What about
the lack of structure, the lack of exposure to diversity, the socialization….?” The assumption she had about children who are not attending
school was that they lead boring, empty lives, bereft of stimulation,
structure, learning, and other children.
Life learning is not deprivation, of course. It is the very opposite,
with children filling up their own lives with a wealth of positive social
and intellectual experiences that flow from real-life – both solitary pursuits and interaction with people of different ages. The reporter’s common misconception about non-school-based education results from
the assumption that a child is clay to be shaped rather than an independent, self-managing human being; that the brain is a vessel to be
filled; that children are all the same and all learn in the same way and at
the same pace; that school procedures are the “gold standard” of education and anything else is somehow lacking and, therefore, risky.
In truth, Western society is adultist, hierarchal, consumerist, and academically elitist. And that results in education being forced on children by “the system,” with much research time being wasted on
inventing better ways to artificially motivate kids to be receptive to the
force-feeding. Seldom do adults consider that children would learn
without the teaching...and would learn better, in some cases, without
what amounts to interference masquerading as helping. Adults also try
to force and control the process of learning because it is thought to be
difficult, a belief that is reinforced by most school experiences.
However, as we life learners know – and as the articles in Life Learning Magazine regularly remind us – children who have the opportunity
to live without school learn about academics and about life effortlessly
without adult interference when the time is right – meaning the motivation is present – and usually without being aware it is happening.
Then, even inherently difficult information is mastered in the absence
of planned pedagogy or professional organization.
But more importantly to my way of thinking, life learners get to retain and/or nurture their dignity, self-respect, curiosity, love of and joy
in learning, thoughtfulness, self-reliance, and enthusiasm for being
alive. That’s quite the gift, but one too seldom considered by those who
are looking for the downside.
Read Editor Wendy Priesnitz's blog at www.WendyPriesnitz.com
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
Life Learning
January/February 2012
Editor: Wendy Priesnitz
Publisher: Rolf Priesnitz
Contributors:
Cara Barlow, Marnie Black,
Enrico Gnaulati, Harriet Pattison,
Wendy Priesnitz, Sara Schmidt,
Christy Severn-Martinez,
Alan Thomas
Published by
Life Media
www.LifeMedia.ca
ISSN 1499-7533
HST Registration number 118403385
Copyright © 2012 Life Media
Published six times per year
in digital format
Cover Photo Credit:
© Michael Jung / ShutterStock Images
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
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5
Two veteran homeschool advocates
discuss what learning is really all about.
What Really Matters
by David H. Albert & Joyce Reed
Foreword by John Taylor Gatto
“Experience is the best teacher.
Problem is: it doesn’t teach until you’ve had it.”
~ David Albert
“Experience is something that authors David Albert and Joyce
Reed both have: experience parenting and homeschooling their
own kids (seven in total and now grown), and experience talking
about or working with other people’s kids. In addition to experience, they both love to tell stories. That combination is a very
good thing for us, the readers of the essays in this book.”
~ From the Introduction by Wendy Priesnitz,
Editor, Life Learning Magazine
Praise for What Really Matters:
“Veteran homeschooling parents and a delightful pair of writers play off each others’ experiences with
homeschooling and ruminations about society, schools, children, and learning. This is wonderfully
thought-provoking stuff: engaging, enlightening, and encouraging!”
Helen Hegener, Co-Publisher, Home Education Magazine
“Reading What Really Matters is like sitting under the kitchen table and eavesdropping on a conversation
about the true essence of learning and education. If you want to get a deep feeling for the essence of schooling and homeschooling, read this book!”
Jerry Mintz, Director, Alternative Education Resource Organization
“Magnificent, profound beyond words, and a delight to read...This book is David’s apex (so far).”
Jeffrey L. Fine, Ph.D., Co-Author, The Art of Conscious Parenting
“What Really Matters shows us that we have overlooked the obvious: that if you institutionalize education, you
subvert it, the child serving the institution rather than the institution serving the child; that if you take the home
out of the child’s education and the child’s education out of the home, you take the child out of both.”
Bernie Schein, Author, If Holden Caulfield Were in my Classroom
“I devoured this insightful and remarkable dialogue between two supremely experienced and deeply thoughtful homeschool parents as they reflect on the evolution of parenting, culture, and educational norms.”
Barb Lundgren, Producer, Rethinking Everything Conference
www.NaturalLifeBooks.com
Mental
S
Disorder or
Survival
Mechanism?
What we today label as
problem behaviors can be
seen as ancient traits that
have helped kids adapt
for generations
Photo © Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock
By Enrico Gnaulati
hortly after my son’s twelve-year-old birthday, we
hopped in the car together and took a jaunt to the
Spider Pavilion on the south lawn of the Los Angeles
Museum of Natural History. I had a hidden agenda for
going. Since an early age, Marcello was prone to become emotionally undone at the sight of spiders. It was
seriously interfering with him completing the chore my
wife and I had added on his twelfth birthday: taking out
the trash. He complained bitterly that there were spiders in the garage where the trash cans were kept and
that this was an unfair chore. I, miffed, assumed this to
be a ploy to get out of performing a family duty. No son
of mine was going to shirk his chores! The test, and
possible cure, would happen at the Spider Pavilion.
Marcello stood back from, but still ogled, the Brazilian
tarantula housed in a brick-size, thick-glass container.
However, when we parted the plastic curtain flaps to
enter the garden where spiders were dangling freely
from myriad leggy plants and wooden rafters, Marcello
became petrified and scurried to the exit. To ask him to
shake it off and return would have been the equivalent
of asking a person in the throngs of a seizure to put
their tongue back in their mouth.
Why are so many kids deathly afraid of spiders,
snakes, the dark, open spaces, enclosed spaces, and
during infancy, strangers, and sudden departures by
parents? Should they not be more afraid of guns, cars,
saturated fats, and cigarettes – real potential modern
sources of mortal harm? Evolutionary psychologists
would say these fears are more innate and carried huge
adaptive value in ancestral environments. Dr. Robin
Fox, best known for founding the anthropology department at Rutgers University, has written widely on how
our biosocial make-up as humans is designed to respond best to hunter-gatherer conditions that existed
for over ninety-five percent of human history. Not our
contemporary automobile filled, crowded, noisy, artificially-lit, city life. In fact, many human characteristics
that are currently classified as psychiatric disorders
have helped us survive and cope as a species.
Take ADHD. Thom Hartmann, the US radio host,
caused a mild stir some years ago with his hunter vs.
farmer theory of ADHD. In a nutshell, he proposed that
ADHD traits such as distractibility, impulsivity, and aggressiveness bolstered the survival of pre-agricultural
humans. Hunters “think visually,” he explained, “and if
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
7
8
outdoor, green spaces and places.3
We should not be shocked when on the grassy knolls
our ADHD-hunter type kid’s pretend play gravitates toward chasing and being chased, as well as succeeding
at and eluding capture.
Anxiety also is a human trait that has offered and
still offers people an adaptive edge. We may be endowed by Nature to be irrationally anxious, to see danger where it does not exist, until the evidence is to the
contrary, rather than the reverse. It is easy to forget
how down through history catastrophic loss due to disease, war, famine, and predatory and climatic events
was a way of life. As recently as the Middle Ages,
one in five women died in
childbirth.4 Perinatal infant
death rates were about the
same.5 The bubonic plague
in the fourteenth century
wiped out an estimated
seventy-five million people, give or take.6 The influenza epidemic of 19181919 killed off more than
the Great War—an estimated twenty to forty million.7 The average life expectancy until the early
twentieth century hovered
around age forty.8 In classical Greece and Rome, you
were lucky to live until you
were thirty.9 Worrying
about and anticipating the
worst made it less painful
when it was more highly likely to happen. Now, our
brains are designed with this protective anticipate-danger response, even though, in actuality, the
probability of catastrophic loss is far less.
For kids, psychological health and well-being does
not entail an anxiety-free state of mind. In ancient environments, an unanxious kid was at risk for serious danger. Better to automatically interpret that a twig blown
by the wind was possibly a poisonous spider and flee,
than to idly stand around during one unfortunate moment and be mortally bitten. Being psycho-physiologically prepared for danger is always preferable to being
unprepared. This anxious energy exists in all kids, in
some more than others. When we view anxiety as written into the human genome in this way, it should make
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
© Cartoonresource/Shutterstock
you see a flash in the darkness, or an object move from
the corner of your eye, it is likely potential food or a predator.” 1 Restlessness, constant visual scanning, and being
amped up for quick and aggressive action happen to be
attributes of fine hunters. If Ritalin had been around
150,000 years ago and taken in mass quantities, our survival as a species might have been in question. Traits such
as patience and a flare for organizing and planning are
more becoming of farmers. ADHD children, Hartmann resolved, had ancestors with these hunter-enhancing traits
in abundance. By implication, ADHD children do not have
a mental disorder but are accidently endowed by Nature
with traits of their ancestors
that make them good hunters, but not particularly adept at sitting for long
periods of time in a chalkand-talk classroom.
The notion that ADHD
produces better hunters is
backed up by genetic science. A few years ago, Dan
Eisenberg, an anthropology graduate student from
Northwestern University,
curried favor with various
nomadic and recently settled Ariaal tribesmen in
Kenya and drew their
blood. He discovered that
the tribesmen with the
DRD4 gene, associated
with ADHD, were more
physically nourished in the
nomadic population, but
less so in the settled one.2 It turns out being ADHD in
actuality gives you a leg up under nomadic conditions
when you have to forage and hunt but act as a hindrance when you have to slow down and plow the soil.
ADHD traits might make kids effective hunters, but
the modern classroom is surely no African Savannah.
What is the solution? At the very least, it seems to me,
during periods of the day all young children, and those
manifesting ADHD traits in particular, need to have access to open green spaces and be given permission to
run wild. This is no romantic proposition. Dedicated
professors at the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois have shown how
ADHD children can undergo enhancements in attention
and concentration after being able to romp around in
and say, “I think my way of parenting has harmed my
us more tolerant of and patient with kids who worry
kid.”
about what lurks in the dark, what physical harm might
(but probably not) be due to weird bodily sensations,
Enrico Gnaulati is a psychologist in Pasadena, Califorhow being away from the protective presence of loved
nia. In his book, “Emotion-Regulating Play Therapy
ones during times of perceived danger can be highly upwith ADHD Children: Staying with Playing,” he is critical
setting, and how actual and imagined creepy-crawly
of medical approaches to the
things send them into a frenzy.
sort of behavior that gets laRather than talk about
beled ADHD in children. Inmental disorders in kids, as if
“Rather than talk about
stead, he views ADHD
they embody some disease enmental disorders in kids, as
phenomenon as rooted in chiltity, we always need to condren’s difficulties containing
sider how kids are put in a
if
they
embody
some
and expressing intense emostate of dis-ease by environtion, and he offers a model of
mental conditions they endisease entity, we always
active play therapy to healthcounter. Educational practices
fully intervene. In his forthand family lifestyles that stress
need to consider how kids
coming book, “Back to
kids by putting them well outare
put
in
a
state
of
Normal: Common-Sense Exside their cognitive masplanations for Kids’ ADHD,
tery-zones and emotional
dis-ease
by
environmental
Bi-polar, and Autistic-Like Becomfort-zones can make normal human traits and behavconditions they encounter.” havior,” he strives to lay out
the normal human meanings,
iors appear problematic.
motives, and developmental
Sometimes, even small
glitches
behind
kids’
troubled
and troubling behavior.
changes in a kid’s environment can have a big pay off.
This essay is drawn from his new book. Visit Enrico at
We tend to lose sight of how environmentally sensitive
his website, dr.gnaulati.net.
- LL kids are, especially younger ones. On any number of occasions in my practice over the years, I have witnessed
how an anxious or ADHD-like kid can be transformed by
seemingly ordinary changes to his or her life situation—parents declaring a renewed commitment to be
References
more predictable in their availability, a change of
1. Thom Hartmann, “Hunters in Our Schools and Offices: The
Origin of ADHD,” Jan. 1, 1994, www.thomhartmann.com/artiteacher, a different school placement, signing up for a
cles/1994/01/hunters-our-schools-and-offices-origin-adhd
sport, a reduced homework load, a summer abroad, a
2. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080609195604.htm
front-of-the-class seating arrangement, a month living
3. Andrea Faber Taylor, Frances Kuo and William C. Sullivan,
away from home with an even-tempered aunt, or any
“Coping with ADD: The Surprising Connection tp Green Play
of a host of other everyday steps.
Settings,” Environment and Behavior 33 (2001): 54-77
An evolutionary perspective on children’s “problem
4. Barbara A. Hanawalt, Growing up in Medieval London: The
behavior,” funnily enough, should ease the guilty conExperience of Childhood in History (New York: Oxford University
science of any parent who believes they’re all to blame
Press, 1995), 56
for their kid’s difficulties. There are always ancient
5. Ibid
causes for a kid’s ADHD or anxiety built into the human
6. See Suzanne A. Alchon, A Pest in the Land: New World Epigenome. We have our ancestors to blame, or rather to
demics in a Global Perspective (Albuquerque, NM: University of
New Mexico Press, 2003), 21
credit! Calling ADHD behaviors and anxious traits a
7. See Niall P.A.S. Johnson and Juergen Mueller, “Updating the
form of a disease is extremely disrespectful to our anAccounts: Global Mortality of the 1918-1920 ‘Spanish’ Influenza
cient ancestors who got better and better over the milPandemic,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 76 (2002):
lennia honing their ADHD behaviors to take down big
105-115
game, and anxiously anticipate danger, so those that
8. Oded Galor and Omer Moav, “Natural Selection and the Evocame after them had more of a shot at survival. Having
lution
of
Life
Expectancy,”
Nov.
17,
2005,
http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/dg09102006.pdf
this profoundly historical perspective makes me sit
9. www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/393100/mortality
back and smile when parents come to me in my office
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
9
Cover Story
At Ease With All Ages
Living life without school means growing up
free from age segregation
By Sara Schmidt
W
hen we first considered ourselves to be
unschoolers, my daughter was four, and I knew
dozens of reasons why we were choosing this path. In
fact, it seemed that we had already chosen it before it
bore any kind of label. But a friend and fellow life
learner opened us up to the idea that traditional
schooling enforces the very unnatural practice of age
segregation, and when I first heard that, I thought it
sounded a little strange.
“Well, sure,” I thought, “But doesn’t it make sense
for her to play with children her own age?” Like everything else in life, my answer soon manifested itself simply enough through our day-to-day living.
I began to notice how my daughter would learn from
a middle-aged person at the grocery store, or from a
baby we visited. The understanding that we once, as
highly social creatures, raised our young in this collective community setting, that living and growing with
your neighbors – perhaps even apprenticing with them
eventually, or caring for the babies, infirm, or elderly –
slowly glowed in my mind, and, once again, like anything else in life, I started to see it everywhere.
A baby throws her binky down at our indoor play
place. It is carefully picked up and returned to her with
a smile, and my little girl quickly learns that this is a
game she is now playing with the infant. The twoyear-old we babysit one summer is a fast lesson in sharing for my only child, as well as one in helping and
10
teaching. Once shown how to be nice to the cats, or to
stay away from their litter pan, now it was her turn to
demonstrate these concepts – and learn them all the
more.
Death and dying were lessons frankly learned from
the passing of loved ones, the talk of wrinkled faces and
medical equipment other elders carried. So, too, were
the tales of long ago, when radios took the prominent
places of televisions, laundry machines were futuristic
fancies, and one knew exactly where dinner came
from, since it was usually in the garden. My little wood
sprite now naturally wants her own farm, and to expand our tiny patch into a glorious full-grown garden
for daily meals. We have also made our own butter,
bread, and other foods inspired by such stories, which
she eats with joy and pride.
The exuberance of the youth and the drive of the
technologically advanced generations are also not lost
on my girl. Her aunts and uncles have shared their passions with her – whether they include manipulating a
new cellular phone or a computer program, taking photos, or singing into a microphone. These cyber-savvy
singles have much else to share with her, too, from a
passionate love of Tolkien or Cardinals baseball to hiking the Missouri trails in search of fossils and frogs.
Watching her quietly step into the shadow of several tween girls who she admires in one of our
homeschool groups, I can’t help but grin. Though she
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
may copy their movements and
mannerisms, they copy her in turn,
playing her wild, imaginative
games without the self-consciousness many would possess at their
age. They do not bat an eye when
she asks to build a castle from her
banana peel, moss, sticks, and
whatever else they find at the playground, and when she wants to
play alien invaders or monsters attack, they growl and chase with
zeal equal to her own.
I am inclined to believe that
these people learn just as much
from my wood sprite as she does
from them.
When I count my blessings,
having the freedom to live life
without school is one of the highest on my list, each time, without
fail. I don’t know how many of
these incredible life concepts,
how many vivid life experiences,
she would have obtained from sitting in a classroom for the majority of her day next to the same
children of the same age for
twelve or thirteen years. I often
feel so strongly that she knows so
much more than I did at her age
that I find myself pitying the little
girl I was – scared, detached, an
only child used to being around
We once, as highly social creatures, raised our young
older adults and teenagers. That
in a collective community setting, living and growing
little girl would have thrived in a
life learning setting, as I believe
with our neighbors – perhaps even apprenticing with
many other children would, as
them eventually, or caring for the babies, infirm, or
well.
elderly.
But I shouldn’t pity that little
girl, because she grew up to follow her own passions, to live authentically and lovingly.
Sara Schmidt is a writer, artist, activist, and
She was blessed with her own little one who would get
unschooling mom from Missouri. The former editor of
to have such adventures of her own, who is already
YouthNoise, she has written for The Whole Child Blog,
able to find herself at ease with infant or elder, and all
Teaching Tolerance, The Institute for Democratic Eduin between.
cation in America, BluWorld, Ecorazzi, and dozens of
Even if every one of the reasons we chose to
other blogs, printed materials, and nonprofit organizaunschool were suddenly swept away from the equations. She loves mythology, fantasy and YA lit, and gention, would this reason not be enough to make that
erally making messes with her family. Visit her blog at
choice on its own?
http://sarajschmidt.wordpress.com.
- LL www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
11
Ladder of Doubt
Dealing with
life learning
doubts
one rung
at a time
By Marnie Black
12
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
Photo © Fred Fokkelman/Shutterstock
O
ur family withdrew our eldest two sons, Anthony
and Mitchell, from school back in 2000. What a
leap of faith that was! We had to get out of the system
after the havoc it had wreaked on our boys. Even our
pre-schooler, Jeff, had been negatively affected, as
most of his life had been lived in a family under stress.
We agonized over the decision. Homeschooling
looked so risky, radical, and unproven. I wasn’t sure I
was ready to take the full responsibility for educating
our children.
Would they learn?
Would they have friends?
Would they behave?
The school situation just got so bad that we had to
do “something drastic.” The decision was researched
and carefully considered but was also a matter of desperation. The boys weren’t learning at school, they didn’t have friends, and their behavior was atrocious. To
be honest, so was mine – my parenting style resembled
John Wayne subduing the enemy as I battled the boys
out of the house and off to school each day. After
school was an endless round of tears, tantrums, homework, “time outs,” and bed battles. I took the Parent Effectiveness Training course but initially it just made me
think I was a failure.
Life was awful.
Homeschooling was the other side of the fence.
Even if it wasn’t as great as we hoped, we figured life
couldn’t get any worse. I was reasonably confident on
the learning front; the two boys had both spontaneously read before starting school, and their math was
above grade level. My time spent in the classroom had
convinced me they weren’t being taught much they
didn’t already know. I was sure they could learn more
interesting stuff at home.
We took a deep breath and pulled the boys out.
The initial adjustment phase was tough – all that
bad behavior that we’d endured in out-of-school hours
now had all day, every day to expand into. I met some
other homeschoolers and envied the relaxed relationships and lifestyle they had. Life wasn’t yet any better
for us, but I began to think it might be. Doubts lingered.
Was I up to it?
Would the kids adjust to school again if it was all a
big mistake?
Would Mitchell regain his love of learning too?
Would Jeff learn to read?
Would I ever get through a day without a battle cry?
Why did I think I could do better than the system?
Other homeschool mothers seemed to have it together. Their kids actually listened to them – their families even seemed to like each other! I spent all day trying to get my guys settled so I could have five minutes
away from them. Every time I tried to get away, I had to
come back with all guns blazing to try and restore order.
Had I given up my life?
Would I ever get five minutes to myself?
Why did parenting have to look like a bad remake of
How the West Was Won?
After a couple of months, the boys actually played
together without incident for up to an hour at a time.
One of them joyfully announced that he was making
friends with his brother again. The neighbors commented on how much healthier they looked. Wow, this
was bliss! We were all happier, but.…
Were we just avoiding reality?
Would they learn?
Would unschooling work?
When I looked back at how my boys had learned before they started school, unschooling made sense and I
really wanted to give it a try. Our first priority on leaving
school had been to settle everyone down and hope
that learning would kick in later on. The homeschooling
literature said to allow a month of recovery time for every year children had been in school. I was reluctant to
jeopardize our new-found peace by introducing a
school-at-home regime but my husband was very
doubtful about unschooling. I held my breath and
waited.
Right on cue, four months after leaving school, Anthony expressed an interest in learning about the planets. Off we went to the library, and he began a huge astronomy project. Wow, life learning works!
Would Mitchell regain his love of learning too?
Would Jeff learn to read?
Would I ever get through a day without a battle cry?
We settled into the life learning lifestyle. We went to
exhibitions and homeschool activities, watched documentaries and movies, and talked endlessly about everything under the sun. I became less bossy and more
understanding. My Parent Effectiveness Training
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13
started to pay off. I stopped flip-flopping between model
parent and John Wayne and talked to the boys reasonably. I learned to stand back respectfully and let them
play and learn. I watched them learn through play every
day from the moment they got out of bed. Through play,
both they and their toys took on roles from fiction and
history and coped with earthquakes, wars, family upheaval, and everyday life. We joined the local
homeschool group and the boys found playmates there.
They were learning, I was enjoying my part in the process,
and we weren’t alone on the journey, but….
Would they ever produce anything?
Did we need some structure?
How would they move on in life with knowledge and
skills but no qualifications?
Life and learning went on, and I was reluctant to
rock the boat by changing anything when things were
going so well. The years slipped by in what I now look
back on as the glory days of
homeschooling. Most of our week
was spent at home in days of endless play. We had a weekly shopping and library trip, homeschool
group fortnightly, and trips to the
city for homeschool activities once
a month. At home, we read lots and
we cooked, played board games,
and messed about with science activities. The boys’ endless imaginative games had developed into
what they referred to as “the episodes.” Each of them had a game in
which the three of them had a role
to play, and they took turns to play
an episode of each game. Whole
days were spent in this way. At
some stage, they decided to develop the episodes into books and
board games. Around the same
time, they started family newspapers and magazines. To begin with,
Mitchell’s spelling was really odd
but gradually that corrected itself –
I guess from all the words he absorbed visually through having so
much time available to read. Life
was good, they had become a unit,
they were producing work, but....
Would they ever have friends
beyond home school group?
Should we have some structure?
Would Jeff ever learn to read?
There were twenty children on
our street, and – because I was a
mum at home – after school, on
weekends, and on school holidays
our house was full of kids. Either I
was minding them, or they just
“I continue to climb my ladder of
doubts. Old doubts are left behind,
and new ones crop up all the time.
I’ve come to accept that doubt is
part of the journey. I just deal with
one rung at a time.”
14
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ended up here because there was always something happening. The whole tribe came to our place, played games,
dragged out the dress-up box, and made movies. The
movies became more complex, and the boys started
script writing and story-boarding. There was still the
reading worry about Jeff, but everyone I respected in the
homeschool world said, “Don’t worry. Just wait, it will
happen.” But….
What if he had missed some essential preparation
while we were all stressed out?
How would I know if there was a problem or if he
just needed a bit longer?
What if it was too late?
As it turned out, Jeff didn’t read spontaneously as
his older brothers had. Maybe he would have done so if
we’d waited long enough, but he got sick of waiting and
asked me to teach him. We used the phonics approach
from Why Johnny Can’t Read by Rudolf Flesch, and Jeff
was reading independently five weeks later. So now
they could all read, they were all happy, they were all
learning. All my worries were over – except that as the
neighborhood friends started high school, one by one
they stopped coming to play and our house was much
quieter. The boys still had each other, they still played
long and complex games, wrote books, and were working on fabulous movie projects based on their books,
but…
How long could we go on like this?
They were getting older. Should we do some math
lessons?
Were we just avoiding reality?
I found some math tests and persuaded the boys to
complete them. I discovered that they could easily do
what was expected for their respective grade levels. I
toyed with the idea of getting more formal, although
we were all too busy learning to follow through. To ease
my worry about math, we agreed on an hour of math
per week but found it hard to stick to.
How long could we go on like this?
They couldn’t learn by playing for ever, could they?
What about higher math and science subjects?
A cousin introduced the boys to computer games. I
worried that it would be the end of everything. For several months, all they wanted to do was play those
games, and much of the lengthy imaginative play that
had been the hallmark of our homeschooling went by
the wayside because one of them was always on the
computer and the others were just filling in time,
awaiting their turn.
Would this be the end of effective home education?
Would their eyes, brains and fitness be permanently
damaged?
Without computer time would they fall behind
schooled kids?
I set time limits and insisted on hourly screen breaks
and that they get some exercise. The computer game
obsession passed, but computer time became a regular
feature of their days. After a while, I did notice the
learning involved. They learned history while playing
Carmen Sandiego, and computer time also developed
Would they learn?
Would they have friends?
Would they ever produce
anything?
Did we need some structure?
How would they move on in life
with knowledge and skills but no
qualifications?
How long could we go on like this?
They were getting older. Should we
do some math lessons?
Were we just avoiding reality?
Had I given up my life?
skills in typing, file management, word processing,
desk top publishing, spreadsheets, presentations, and
movie production. I began to realize that they will
spend their adult lives in a world in which computers
are much more prevalent than in my generation and
that their computer time prepares them for that. Perhaps it contains more learning than people of our generation appreciate. We tend to think of reading time as
valuable and educational but computer time as frivolous. Back in the 1700s, reading novels was considered
frivolous but the recommended alternatives, reading
Fordyce’s Sermons, for example, have certainly fallen
from favor these days.
w
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15
“Doubts are useful. They help us
to consider, examine and
re-examine our
homeschooling
and assess
whether
something
needs to
change.”
Gradually, the boys’ writing projects became more
ambitious and sophisticated. At the same time, Anthony’s interest in science became more serious, and
let loose on the Internet he found science websites,
blogs, and podcasts from all over the world. He made
long lists of science books he’d like for presents. Okay,
higher subjects didn’t seem to be an issue, but…
What about moving on to university?
Should he try Open University?
How would he go with a schedule that discouraged
exploring interesting tangents?
He was too busy learning so we let the idea simmer
for a couple of years. In the meantime, he began writing a history of astronomy, a book which grew to gargantuan proportions. He was visiting astronomy
websites daily and often knew astronomy news before
it hit the mainstream media.
His brothers continued to play for hours, but one of
the team was far less available. They still planned and
wrote movies together, but their projects were so ambitious (for example, a three-hour murder mystery),
and filming days so infrequent and complex, that they
aged noticeably between scenes. Mitchell expressed
an interest in doing a writing course and, after I had to
talk his way in because he was “too young,” the tutor
was astounded by his maturity and the quality of work
he turned in.
In the meantime, Anthony decided to start on some
subjects with Open University and excelled. The most
difficult part was adjusting to deadlines and resisting
16
the temptation of interesting tangents. So university
level work didn’t seem to be a problem, but…
What about getting in to a traditional university?
How many open uni units would be necessary and
with what results?
How would he have time to study other interesting
things while doing a degree?
Getting in to university turned out not to be a problem. Two open uni units with excellent results were
enough, and Anthony solved the non-assessed study
time problem by going part-time. He has spent this year
getting excellent uni results with time left over for his
voluntary job and to study science and politics in the
self-directed way he always has.
Meanwhile I’ve moved on to my next set of doubts:
How do you encourage teenagers to get more sleep
and exercise?
How educational is Facebook?
How do kids who aren’t keen on university move
into a job they actually want to do?
I continue to climb my ladder of doubts. Old doubts
are left behind, and new ones crop up all the time. I’ve
come to accept that doubt is part of the journey. I just
deal with one rung at a time. The next rung on the ladder is sometimes within easy reach and at other times
seems to require acrobatic finesse. Sometimes the ladder feels more like a spiral staircase when I revisit the
same doubts at a higher level. I’m sure you have your
own ladder of doubt to climb no matter where you are
on the home education journey.
Doubts are useful. They help us to consider, examine and re-examine our homeschooling and assess
whether something needs to change. Often we decide
to leave well enough alone, and sometimes we decide
it is time to make changes to adjust our homeschooling
to match our kids’ ages, stages, and interests. In likening the doubts to a ladder, I may have made life learning
sound like a long hard slog in mid-air. On the contrary, it
is more like an adventure playground with fabulous
lookouts, interesting challenges, cosy cubbies, and interesting spaces to explore. It is sometimes challenging
but the views have been worth the climb.
Marnie Black has been unschooling in Australia for
eleven years and continues to have doubts despite the
growing evidence that it was one of the best decisions
she ever made.
- LL -
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
Will Computers
A
Warp Their
Brains?
Exploring the
assumptions –
both pro and con –
about kids and
electronic media
By Wendy Priesnitz
s life learners, we strive to give our children the
freedom to pursue their interests and passions.
We see that they learn quickly and happily – almost effortlessly – when they are caught up in and enjoying
what they are doing. These days, pursuing our interests and passions can be assisted by the use of computers, smart phones, and various other electronics, such
as gaming devices, e-readers, and tablets. However,
many life learning parents are still concerned about
their children’s use of electronic media.
These concerns are largely fueled by the studies appearing in the media about children’s electronic media
usage. Those studies usually concentrate on the number of hours spent in front of a screen in relation to the
amount of time spent playing outside, reading, or
studying. Since most kids attend school or daycare, the
studies reflect the institutionalized lives of those chil-
dren. It’s true that when children are in front of a computer, they are distracted from interaction with caring
adults, from active play, from hands-on lessons, and
from direct experience of the natural world. But since
life learning children have an infinite amount of unstructured time at their disposal, as well as the ability
to self-regulate and actively follow their curiosity, the
research studies don’t seem to apply.
The Alliance for Childhood released a report almost
a decade ago entitled Fool’s Gold: A Critical Look at
Computers in Childhood. It claimed that a heavy diet of
ready-made computer images, programmed toys, and
drill-and-practice computer programs actually appears
to stunt imaginative thinking and creative idea generation. Indeed, much of the available educational software would bore anyone, let alone active, engaged life
learning kids! What isn’t recognized is that this is a fail-
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17
“As soon as you accept that just about everything in our created world is
only a few generations old, it makes it a lot easier to deal with the fact
that the assumptions we make about the future are generally wrong,
and that the stress we have over change is completely wasted.”
~ Seth Godin, author of Linchpin
ure of the institutional mindset, which has taken a potentially useful tool and dumbed it down, or used it to administer curriculum, rather than of the technology itself.
So let’s challenge the assumptions about kids – especially self-educating ones – and computer usage.
Let’s examine whether or not the conventional wisdom
is really wise or if it’s merely become ossified into accepted truth.
In fact, the tools, techniques, and applications of
technology can support integrated, inquiry-based
learning and engage people in exploring, thinking,
reading, writing, researching, drawing and designing,
creating films and making music, inventing, problem-solving, experiencing the world, communicating,
and collaborating.
Seymour Papert, a critic of conventional schooling
and considered the world’s foremost expert on how
technology can provide new ways to learn, contends
that problems arise with educational computer usage
only when the machines are isolated from the learning
process and from life, rather than integrated into the
whole, as they are for unschooled children.
Another supporter of computer usage by children,
and video gaming in particular, is former game designer
and professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison David Williamson Shaffer. In
his book How Computer Games Help Children Learn, he
points out that when children play games like Sim City
or The Oregon Trail, they learn about urban planning or
the American West as a byproduct of the play. But this
is just the tip of the iceberg; Shaffer describes how
games give children the chance to creatively manipulate a virtual world, and how they can teach creativity
and innovation, abilities that are more important than
ever in today’s competitive global economy.
Renowned game designer and futurist Jane
McGonigal agrees about the potential of video games.
In her book Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us
Better and How They Can Change the World, she notes
18
that video games provide the rewards, challenges, and
victories that are so often lacking in the real world (especially the so-called “real world” of school). She believes that the power of games shouldn’t be used for
entertainment alone but that their collaborative power
can be harnessed to solve real-world problems and to
boost global happiness. To that end, she has helped pioneer a fast-growing genre of games that aims to turn
gameplay to socially positive ends, such as fighting depression and obesity, and addressing important
twenty-first century challenges like peak oil, poverty,
and climate change.
The kind of game is definitely important. In an article in the December 2011 issue of Nature Reviews/Neuroscience, Douglas Gentile, a researcher who runs the
Media Research Lab at Iowa State University, describes
studies in the U.S., Japan, and Singapore, which found
that playing pro-social games led to more subsequent
“helping” behavior in users. In one longitudinal study,
the researchers found that children who played more
pro-social games early in the school year demonstrated
increased helpful behaviors later on.
Entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and
gamification thought leader Gabe Zichermann believes
that games are making kids better problem solvers,
even smarter. In a TED talk earlier this year in Belgium,
Zichermann asked, “Do kids these days have short attention spans, or does the world just move too
slowly?” He thinks that we should get over our fear of
change and embrace the gamification of education,
business, and everyday life.
The Potential Downside
But what about the nagging question about possible
negative effects of violent video games? We don’t
know the answer to that for sure. Much of the research
on both sides has been conducted by or for those with
preconceived notions of the outcome or using incorrect assumptions or flawed methodology. And, like a
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non-peer reviewed study entitled Violent Video Games Alter
Brain Function in Young Men
that was recently presented at
a Radiological Society of North
America conference, they are
reported unquestioningly by
the media. Twenty-two males
were studied playing violent
computer games for ten hours
spread across one week. The
researchers found that “a sample of randomly assigned
young adults showed less activation in certain frontal
brain regions,” adding that “these brain regions are important for controlling emotion and aggressive behavior.” However, there is no indication that the individuals
involved actually demonstrated any violent or aggressive
behavior. The study was paid for by something called the
Center for Successful Parenting, whose web presence is
vehemently anti-gaming but lacking any information to
identify the people behind it.
In his Nature Reviews/Neuroscience article, Gentile
cited the most comprehensive meta-analysis conducted to date – led by his colleague and ISU Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Craig Anderson –
which included 136 papers detailing 381 independent
tests of association conducted on 130,296 research
participants. It found that violent game play led to increases in desensitization, physiological arousal, aggressive cognition, and aggressive behavior. It also decreased pro-social behavior. However, Gentile says that
the evidence that playing video games induces criminal
or serious physical violence is much weaker than the
evidence that games increase the types of verbal, relational, and physical aggression “that happen every day
in school hallways.” Of course, that everyday aggression and its institutional triggers are why many parents
choose homeschooling!
The use of computers is also controversial in terms
of literacy. Many people – including Canadian author
Margaret Atwood – believe that the Internet (and in
Atwood’s case Twitter) is a literacy driver, with even the
most minimal amount of screen-based reading contributing to cognitive and literacy development. However,
some researchers worry about “Twitter brain” because
brain cells have been demonstrated to wither in the absence of certain kinds of in-depth stimulus.
For instance, University of Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield has warned that Internet-driven “mind
change” rivals climate change as one of humanity’s
greatest threats, “skewing
the brain” to operate in an infantile mode and creating “a
world in which we are all required to become autistic.”
She and other scientists
agree that more research is
needed.
Cognitive neuroscientist
Maryanne Wolf, director of
the Center for Reading and
Language Research at Tufts University in Massachusetts, warned of the Internet’s threat to literacy in her
book Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the
Reading Brain. She is concerned because the
hyperlinked, text-messaging screen shapes the mind
quite differently than reading a book. “It pulls attention
with such rapidity it doesn’t allow the kind of deep, focused attention that reading a book ten years ago invited,” she says, while admitting that today’s world requires a new kind of thinking.
Some publishing companies are experimenting with
turning children’s books into apps. The result is more
like an animated movie or game than a book, and some
reading experts worry that the immersiveness of the
technology can replace the shared experience of a child
learning to read with a parent, turning it into an isolated pursuit, in the same way that some parents use
television as a babysitter. Technology shows promise in
increasing the interactivity, although building that into
an app may not be cost-effective for publishers.
There are other valid concerns, such as video gaming being addictive in some individuals. There are now
studies claiming to show that the pattern of problems
pathological gamers face are very similar those of people with substance abuse or gambling addictions.
Joseph Chilton Pearce, the author of Magical Child
and Evolution’s End, proposes that children should not
begin using computers until they have reached the
stage that Piaget referred to as “Formal Operations” at
eleven or twelve years of age. It isn’t until that age,
Pearce contends, that children have a strong enough
sense of self to avoid being unduly influenced by the
experience of the computer itself and the effects of the
information they will receive through the computer.
Perhaps the bigger question involves the longer
term effects of computers on people. Undoubtedly,
electronic media is changing us in many ways. When
author Nicholas Carr asked, in an Atlantic Monthly
cover story “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he tapped
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19
into a well of anxiety around whether or not Internet usage is negatively affecting our ability to read and think
deeply. His subsequent book The Shallows: What the
Internet Is Doing to Our Brains describes how human
thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools
of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing
press, the clock, and the computer. He explains the neuroscience behind how the technologies we use to find,
store, and share information reroute our neural pathways, with, as Maryanne Wolf wrote before him, the interruption and distraction of following hypertext links
impeding the sort of comprehension and retention “deep
reading” creates. Although this reconfiguring of our
brains can have both positive and negative results, it is a
configuration that children will need to live in an electronically-based world.
Given the lack of consensus about benefits or
harms, parents must make up their own minds about
how much electronic media their families are exposed
to. If your family uses electronic media, here are some
things to consider.
• Since life learning parents are, among other things,
mentors for their children, don’t be hypocritical about
it. The same principle applies to other things that some
parents might feel are harmful – from junk food to
television: If you want it in your life, you should be
comfortable with in your child’s life. In fact, you might
find that your life learning child is better able to
self-regulate her computer usage than you are!
• Parents should participate in their children’s screen
time. Invite your kids to play video games with you –
understand how the games work, how your kids interact with them, and the thought patterns they involve.
• Jane McGonigal says studies show that games benefit
adults mentally and emotionally when we play up to
three hours a day, or twenty-one hours a week. After
that, the benefits of gaming start to decline sharply.
We don’t know the saturation point for children’s usage.
• Playing computer games with others can strengthen
social bonds. Playing with real-life friends and family is
better than playing alone or with strangers. And playing face-to-face with friends and family beats playing
with them online, says McGonigal.
• Quality is important. The best games are collaborative,
with strong, complex story lines. A great game challenges and entices the player to move beyond their
current competency.
• Cooperative gameplay has more benefits than competitive games. Many games have a co-op mode.
20
• Look for games that encourage or require players to
design and create as part of the playing process. Or
work together as a family to create your own games.
• If you want to avoid games with realistic violence,
guns, and gore, look for ones about sports, racing, music, adventure, strategy, or puzzles.
• Help your child understand ergonomics and best practices for computer use to minimize eye strain and
other physical problems associated with computer
over-use.
• Stop reading research studies about the effects of
electronics on kids. Instead, with your kids, observe
how using electronics affects you and them, and adjust
your usage accordingly.
Writer Pico Iyer recently wrote in a New York Times
essay: "The central paradox of the machines that have
made our lives so much brighter, quicker, longer, and
healthier is that they cannot teach us how to make the
best use of them; the information revolution came
without an instruction manual." I suspect that our life
learning children can help us find our way to the best,
most balanced use of computers and other electronics
in our lives.
- LL -
Learn More
“Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Video Games” by
Pamela Laricchia, Life Learning Magazine, September/October
2004
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They
Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal (Penguin, 2011)
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr (WW Norton, 2011)
The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap by
Seymour A. Papert (Taylor Trade Publishing, 1996)
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading
Brain by Maryanne Wolf (Harper, 2008)
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee (Palgrave Macmillan; 2nd edition, 2007)
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is
Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson (Riverhead,
2005)
www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/gabe_zichermann_how_games_ma
ke_kids_smarter.html
www.gamification.co
www.co-optimus.com
Wendy Priesnitz is Life Learning Magazine’s owner and
editor, a home education pioneer, author, and changemaker: www.WendyPriesnitz.com. She is the mother of
two daughters and the grandmother of two.
- LL -
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
Screen Time
W
hy do I feel the need to limit my daughter’s
screen time, whether it is TV, video games, or
computers? I love a lazy morning on my computer
checking e-mails, Facebook and writing a little about
our days. So why do I cringe every time I see her with a
screen in front of her face, absorbed in a virtual world?
My stomach lurches the minute I see her lying motionless except for her fingers moving anxiously around.
But yet when I really think about what’s going on inside
of her brain I feel a little more at ease, because I know
deep down inside there is an exorbitant amount of
learning going on in there.
It is a constant battle with me though. How can I
truly be unschooling my daughter if I set limits or,
worse, force her to do something she really doesn’t
want to do? I read anything I can get my hands on that
has to do with screen time to help me with this anxious
feeling: the feeling of if I were a better mother she
would be outside playing, being more active, talking to
me, instead of sitting in front of that screen!
Then the other day, I had a flashback to my childhood, of my sister and me sitting around the house all
summer watching television. We didn’t go outside and
play much because in Arizona it was way too hot to be
outside in the middle of the day. The thing is, we didn’t
get to watch educational shows like they have today.
No, we watched game shows and tried our hardest to
figure out how much something cost on The Price is
Right. We didn’t pay attention to what my mom was
buying at the store. My daughter Brianna, on the other
hand, goes to the store with me almost every trip. She
asks questions, looks at pricing, wants to know why it’s
taking me so long to pick out one item.
When I was a kid, we didn’t have a gaming system,
but our neighbor friends did and occasionally my sister
would play Pac-Man with them. I wasn’t much into
video games but I loved to watch. So I had boring summers filled with TV and when we’d actually get the
chance to play with friends we’d play video games!
We’d go hiking occasionally with our parents and visit
the few museums in town, but other than that it was
pretty much limited to TV.
So how does my childhood really differ from
Brianna’s? Sure she watches her share of TV, which is
much better content than The Price is Right and even if
she did watch it she’d probably do a pretty good job at
By Christy Severn-Martinez
getting the prices right. The video games she gets to become absorbed in are much more challenging with
graphics that are almost realistic. She’s also reading,
talking with friends about video games, making new
friends because of an interest in video games, helping
others by showing them how to perform a certain
move or win a level, asking for help when she’s not sure
what to do next, and (what I believe to be the most beneficial parts of playing video games) learning how to
lose, get back up and keep trying.
There are many mornings I come out to the living
room and there she is already set up on my computer
playing Roblox, which is a massively multiplayer online
game (MMOG), virtual playground, and workshop designed for kids. She is able to play games with multi
players with whom she can be friends and chat (more
reading and spelling). She is also able to build her own
games in which she will receive Robux (Roblox money)
for those who come into her game and then she is able
to spend that money on virtual items. I don’t know all
the ins and outs of Roblox, but I’m sure Brianna does.
Since Brianna was using my laptop so much, we decided that it was high time she saved her money to buy
her own. She made sure most of her allowance went
into her savings. This was a great experience for her. I
could see those wheels turning when she would see
something she really wanted (such as Pokémon cards).
Her decision was to spend only one week’s allowance
and then keep saving for the laptop. She is now the
proud owner of her own Netbook. She also got it for a
good price due to holiday sales. Saving, spending, and
getting a good deal: lessons learned by living life.
Now that I’ve written this, I feel much more at ease
about her screen time. Sure, she may like to play video
games, watch TV and use her new computer, but she is
also learning many valuable life lessons through these
things I once deplored. I should have just listened to my
husband when he said technology isn’t going anywhere
and she might as well learn as much as she can about it.
Christy Severn-Martinez is an unschooling stay-athome-mom, wife, sister, and daughter. She runs a small
business – www.thebabyfeettee.com – from her home
and loves to read, cross stitch, and learn life all over
again with her daughter. She lives in Tucson, Arizona
with her daughter, husband, and pets.
- LL -
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
21
I Believe
In Libraries
Your librarian as your
autodidact ally
By Cara Barlow
22
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
“Libraries raised me,” Mr. Bradbury said. “I don’t believe in colleges and universities.
I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I
graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I
couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
New York Times, June 19, 2009
I
n 2009, the time of that quote, science fiction writer
Ray Bradbury was eighty-nine years old. I’m pretty
sure if he had been born fifty years later, he’d have said
that he believed in “libraries and the Internet.”
Libraries have changed dramatically in the past fifteen years. The medium-size public library I work in today has computers with Internet access, wi-fi available
for patrons, online databases that you can access in the
library and from home, downloadable mp3 books and
ebooks, music on CD, and movies and more on DVD. Library resources have expanded as our world has expanded. What hasn’t changed is the over-arching goal
of libraries – to provide their public with access to the
resources to self-educate, entertain, and explore.
Libraries have long been havens for autodidacts,
and that continues to be true. Bradbury’s experience is
not unusual; I’ve seen it happen many times in the
twenty years I’ve worked as a reference librarian.
Your librarian can be your autodidact ally
Like any other group of people, librarians are a
mixed lot, but many work in libraries either because
they are autodidacts themselves or they enjoy helping
people find answers and sharing knowledge. There are
also librarians who have negative, stereotyped ideas
about homeschoolers or life learners. The good news is
most of us are not like that – we welcome everyone and
are expert at helping you. Here are some of the ways
we can help.
• Connect with geographically local resources. Librarians who have been at their jobs for a year or more
have had time to cross paths with lots of people in the
community. This means that if they don’t know the
person who can help with a chess club, or where you
can find the history of a local pond, they’ll know someone who can help you. And you don’t need to physically go to the library to ask for their help – a phone call
or an email works.
• Find resources in your library or the library community. Librarians are big on sharing. They talk with each
other, put resources online, and send materials from
library to library. Sometimes the library I’m at doesn’t
have what a patron needs, but I can get it for them
from another library or can track it down somewhere
else in the state or online.
• Offer you space to meet. Most public libraries have a
meeting room that is available for nonprofit groups to
use. If you need a place for a group to meet, libraries
are often a good option.
• Offer programs or give you the opportunity to present
programs. If you go to your library’s website, you’ll
probably find a calendar with a listing of the library’s
upcoming programs. Most, if not all, of the programs
will be free of charge. Libraries also often welcome life
learners doing programs. I know unschooling teens
who have started a Dr. Who fan club at their library
and a few years ago I ran a workshop on making
composting worm boxes.
How to find little-known online resources
that most public libraries have
Many of the traditional reference books that used to
be on the shelf are now available through the library
websites as online databases – the content is the same,
it’s just the format that’s different.
w
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
23
“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in
late charges at the public library.” ~ Will Hunting
Some of the online databases are fun. The library I
work in subscribes to a online language program called
Mango, which helps you learn over thirty different languages, including Hindi, which I really want to learn,
and today I noticed a new addition: Pirate. We also
have one called Global Road Warrior, which has current
information on traveling to other countries, and
Tumblebooks Library, a collection of animated talking
picture books, puzzles, and games for young children.
There are also online databases that offer sample
tests including SATs, Police Officer, PRAXIS, etc.; remedial math and English courses; and help polishing resumes.
This is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s available
if you have a library card and a computer with Internet
access. It’s worth it to spend some time on your library’s website familiarizing yourself with what’s
there.
n’t have it, I search the statewide catalog. You can usually find your statewide online catalog by Googling your
state library and going to their website – there will
probably be a link to the catalog from there. You will either be able to request the title online using your library card number or should call your local library to
request it.
If I want to purchase the book – I try to buy the book
if I think that it will be read multiple times or if I’ll have
to pay a hefty interlibrary loan fee to get it – I go to
www.bookfinder.com. Bookfinder is an aggregator of
online new and used booksellers. You enter the title
you’re looking for and your zip code. Bookfinder will return with a list of new and used copies for sale, sorted
from least expensive to most expensive with the shipping calculated in. The downside to Bookfinder is that it
doesn’t include music and movies. For those I go to
www.half.com.
Tricks to finding books about your special
interests – at libraries, online, and through
booksellers
The short version of privacy and
intellectual freedom: know your rights
Between being a librarian and a life learning parent,
I’ve become pretty good at finding resources that I
think my children will enjoy. Here’s the process I use if
I’m looking for books. It works for music, movies and
games too.
I start off with a title that they’ve already read and
enjoyed. First I go to Amazon.com and search for that
title. Once I find it, I scroll down and browse through
the “Customers who bought this item also bought” section. I’m looking for items that would appeal to my children, have attractive cover art (I know it sounds kind of
silly, but it’s important) and ratings of four or more
stars.
I like doing this in Amazon because they have an
enormous collection of titles – larger than any library. I
also like that the books are rated by readers and many
titles have the “look inside” option. Amazon’s search
capabilities are wonderful; even if I make a typing mistake or don’t remember the exact title, it will still usually find the book for me.
Once I find a title that looks promising, I go to my online library catalog and search for it. If my library consortium (group of libraries that share resources) does24
Many life learners are rightly concerned with protecting their privacy. There are some basics that it’s important to know about your library records and privacy.
Your library should not be keeping past records of
items you have checked out. Most libraries delete your
past circulation transactions as a way to protect your
privacy. They should also not share your list of current
items you have checked out – not with the police, your
spouse, or your parent. This is also true of children’s
circulation records.
Here’s an excerpt from the American Library Associations’ Policy Concerning Confidentiality of Personally
Identifiable Information About Library Users:
“The ethical responsibilities of librarians, as well as
statutes in most states and the District of Columbia,
protect the privacy of library users. Confidentiality extends to “information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired, or transmitted” (ALA Code of Ethics), and includes, but is not
limited to, database search records, reference interviews, circulation records, interlibrary loan records,
and other personally identifiable uses of library materials, facilities, or services.”
The other thing to keep in mind is that is that par-
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
The public library is one portal, among many, to accessing the world. It’s
a nearby, low cost way for you and your family to access information
and support your exploration of the world.
ents are responsible for being aware of what their child is
reading and viewing – the librarians will not police what
your child is viewing or borrowing.
“The primary responsibility for rearing children
rests with parents. If parents want to keep certain ideas
or forms of expression away from their children, they
must assume the responsibility for shielding those children. Governmental institutions cannot be expected to
usurp or interfere with parental obligations and responsibilities when it comes to deciding what a child
may read or view.” ~ American Library Association Intellectual Freedom & Censorship Q&A
Almost all libraries take protecting adult intellectual
freedom and confidentiality very seriously. There is
some variation with protecting children’s. If this is a
concern of yours, ask what your library’s policy is toward children’s intellectual freedom and confidentiality. I’ve worked at libraries where they took children’s
intellectual freedom and confidentiality very seriously,
and at libraries where filters were put on the Internet;
book, computer, and DVD use was restricted by age;
and parents were given lists of what the child had
checked out.
The public library is one portal, among many, to accessing the world. It’s not free – it’s supported through
your tax dollars – but it’s a nearby, low cost way for you
and your family to access information and support your
exploration of the world.
Cara Barlow grew up in Michigan and Ohio, moving to
Boston when she was in her early twenties. She now
lives in Southern New Hampshire with her husband and
daughters Anna and Molly. She spends her time fostering an unschooling life for her teen daughters, working
part-time as a librarian, and enjoying the friends, adventures, and experiences that come her way.
- LL -
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
25
Focus
on
Media
Editor Wendy Priesnitz reviews books, films, DVDs, and
websites about alternatives in parenting and learning.
Online Cartooning
M
ost kids love cartoons –
reading, writing, and drawing
them.
The
website
www.MakeBeliefsComix.com is a
fun place for people of all ages to
create comic strips online. It offers
many characters, and blank talk
and thought balloons to fill in with
words. When you’re finished, you
can print and email your comics.
The site is used by everyone from
adults who just want a few minutes
of play and exploration, social
workers helping people express
their deepest feelings, and children
wanting a safe place to feel empowered to create, and to test new
ideas and ways to communicate
through art and writing.
It was created by newspaper ed-
itor/journalist and author Bill
Zimmerman who wrote a popular
book called MakeBeliefs: A Gift for
Your Imagination and who for many
years created a nationally syndicated page for Newsday newspaper
to teach youngsters about current
events, which was twice nominated
for a Pulitzer. That book pioneered
the use of interactive techniques
found in his books to encourage
young readers to express their opinions about the world they live in.
Also while at Newsday, he created a
series of comic books to teach history and current events to young
readers. MakeBeliefsComix.com is
now being used by educators and
students in more than 180 countries
to teach writing, reading, literacy,
and English as a Second Language.
(You can also write in French, Spanish, German, Portu- guese or Latin.)
Zimmerman has included some articles specifically for homeschoolers
about helping children to write,
read, and tell stories through creating comics.
In addition to the comic site,
Zimmerman has another website –
www.billztreasurechest.com
–
which features excerpts from his
eighteen books in the form of interactive journals, doodling, and such.
Fun!
- LL -
Linking to Information
There is a massive amount of information about unschooling on the
Internet. In fact, there’s so much
that people have problems sorting
through it, finding what’s credible
and what’s current. Providing high
quality information is the purpose of
this magazine, and curating the flow
of other resource information is the
Visit Life Learning’s Editor Online.
Blog, selected writings, bibliography, calendar, and biography from Life
Learning’s founder and editor, author, activist, journalist, changemaker.
www.WendyPriesnitz.com
26
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
function of this column. Unfortunately, like the ‘Net itself, much of
the online material is fleeting, as
people start and abandon blogs,
compile lists of links that go bad, and
so on. We have temporarily given up
on keeping the Life Learning website
list of blogs current for that reason.
But we plan to revive it later this year
in a more carefully filtered and anno-
tated format, behind a subscriber
firewall. So please continue to send
us your favorite links for that purpose. Meanwhile, here are two lists
that you might find helpful, although
they’re not necessarily comprehensive or completely current:
http://enjoylifeunschooling.com/
resources
http://sandradodd.com/world - LL -
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com
Contribute to
Life Learning
You don’t have to be a professional
writer to share your family’s learning experiences with Life Learning
Magazine’s readers!
www.LifeLearningMagazine.com/write.html
27
Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison
How Children Learn at Home (Continuum, 2008)
28
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photo © Sparkling Moments Photography / Shutterstock
I
f we begin with a child’s eye view of the learning situation, asking what
attracts children’s attention, why, and how they then go about exploring
these things, we begin to be able to see learning as a form of growth in
which children add, flexibly and organically, to their understanding of the
world around them. Such a view further enables us to see how learning is
structured by the child’s day-to-day environment and is accomplished as
an ongoing facet of the things that children do.
Green, healthy living
from pregnancy
through birth and early
childhood
Natural Child
From Life Media,
publishers of Natural Life Magazine
since 1976 and Life Learning Magazine since 2002.
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creating a green, healthy home
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feeding your child organically
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Magazine
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and much more . . .
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Read online or on your
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Information and inspiration
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Books to change your world
from the publishers of Natural Life Magazine
Natural Life Magazine’s Green and Healthy Homes
by Wendy Priesnitz
Make your home greener and healthier, and save money too. Includes avoiding dangerous
household chemicals; making your own cleaning supplies; green renos and energy
retrofits; water conservation; avoiding mold, radon, and plastic; eco gardening; organic textiles; and more.
Life Learning – Lessons from The Educational Frontier
Edited by Wendy Priesnitz
Thirty compelling essays about life without school, by academics, parents, and young
people. How and why people learn without being taught, and the transformative intellectual
and social benefits of a self-directed education. A great introduction to this progressive style
of education and a reassuring resource for unschoolers and their families.
For the Sake of Our Children
By Léandre Bergeron
Translated by Pamela Levac, Foreword by John Taylor Gatto
An inspiring memoir about trusting children to grow and learn with respect and without
coercion. Home birth, natural parenting, and unschooling woven through a series of
journal entries describing a year in the life of a family living and learning on a small farm.
John Taylor Gatto says this book is “the best of its breed.”
Challenging Assumptions in Education
By Wendy Priesnitz
A challenge to the most common assumptions about conventional schooling. A passionate
plea for a revolution in education that will demolish the industrialized model of processing
and warehousing children and replace it with a community based, respectful, self-directed
learning society. John Taylor Gatto says, “I heartily recommend this book!”
What Really Matters
By David H. Albert & Joyce Reed
Foreword by John Taylor Gatto
Two veteran homeschool advocates discuss what learning is really all about. In a
conversational style, the writers play off each other’s experiences with and ruminations
about society, schools, children, and learning to provide an engaging, enlightening, and
thought-provoking look at education and parenting.
Bringing it Home: A Home Business Start-Up Guide for You & Your Family
By Wendy Priesnitz
How to make money at home while parenting. Secure your financial future in an economic
downturn and after. Embark on an eco-friendly second career. Hundreds of tips on how to research, start and run a family-friendly home business, including integrating family and working lives. Written by Natural Life Magazine’s editor and co-founder.
School Free – The Home Schooling Handbook
By Wendy Priesnitz
Answering all your questions about home-based education: socialization, how to avoid
using curriculum, adjusting to school after learning at home, dealing with relatives,
assessment (or not) and much more. Priesnitz is a pioneering advocate for independent
learning, with over thirty years of experience advising life learning families.
www.NaturalLifeBooks.com