From the New York Times:
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There Is No Uncaring In Unschooling
Past Report Cards:
"Today for Show and Tell, I've brought a tiny marvel of nature: a single snowflake. I think we might all learn a lesson from how this utterly unique and exquisite crystal turns into an ordinary boring molecule of water, just like every other one, when you bring it in the classroom. And now, while the analogy sinks in, I'll be leaving you drips and going outside." ~Bill Watterson (as Calvin)
"To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others." ~Jimmy Carter
It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it. ~Jacob Bronowski
"It cannot be overemphasized that no body of theory exists to accurately define the way children learn, or which learning is of most worth." ~John Gatto
"If a teacher tells me what to do, then what I've made is not really mine. Its the teacher's work done with my hands." ~Riley
"He'd fooled us. He'd been learning all along--we just hadn't been able to see it because it didn't follow from our "teaching." It came from doing, sharing, and observing, from osmotically absorbing what was around him. I recalled that he once said to Mark, who was giving him snowboard instruction, "Dad, would you stop trying to teach me and just let me learn?"
~Deborah Sutton from Three Frog Nights (Mothering Magazine, May/June 2009)
We don't make progress by denying things. ~John Pulkinghorne
I ask you now, what is a school, but a house of rules and incentives?
"Moral skill is chipped away by an over-reliance on rules that deprives us of the opportunity to improvise and to learn from our improvisation. And moral will is deprived by an incessant appeal to incentives that destroy our desire to do the right thing. And without intending it, by appealing to rules and incentives, we are engaging a war on wisdom." ~Barry Schwartz
I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities.
~Seymour Papert
~Seymour Papert
Learning About Cows
"Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family" ~ Virginia Satir
Aspire: Astrophysics Science Project Integrating Research & Education A cool looking new science resource for teachers. It is free, funded by NSF.
"I've sometimes found the Waldorf-y idea that the children play out our internal conflicts to be helpful. I do find that the more at peace I am with myself, the more at peace the kids are. Maybe some kind of wavelength thing, maybe I respond differently, maybe something else entirely." ~ Mary Margaret O'Melia
I am a mother octopus. This is my cycle - take care of everyone, put my needs last, fall apart, put myself back together, repeat. As I struggle to break this cycle, I find that I'm having to ask myself some difficult questions. Who am I besides someone's mother? What are the things I like to do, read, make, ponder? Where is the balance between caring for others and caring for one's self? How much self interest is selfishness? What will I be when my children grow up - colorless blob or dynamic person? ~ Fourmother
Learning Outside "Play is a vital part of learning. It is the rich backdrop in which children make discoveries, test out theories, explore questions, refine understandings and apply their developing skills." ~Wendy Banning, education consultant
Murdering the Innocents
THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir - peremptorily Thomas - Thomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. ~Dickens
Human beings differ profoundly in regard to the tendency to view their lives as a whole. To some it is natural to do so, and essential to happiness.... To others life is a series of detached incidents without directed movement and without unity. The habit of viewing life as a whole is an essential part of wisdom...and is one of the things which ought to be encouraged in education. Consistent purpose is not enough to make life happy, but it is almost an indispensable condition of a happy life. And consistent purpose embodies itself mainly in work. ~Bertrand Russell
There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge. ~Rodger Bacon
Studying Sustainability
- American Livestock Breed Conservancy
- Century Farm Heirloom Apples
- Dadant Bee Keeping Supplies
- Frog Pond Farm
- Growing Small Farms
- Heifer International
- Inter-Faith Council for Social Service
- Make Your Own Cheese
- Miller's Homemade Soap FAQs
- Murray McMurray Hatchery
- NC Midwifery Alliance
- NC Sustainable Energy
- Sew Mama Sew
- Solar Cooking
- Sustainable Practices for Vegetable Production in the South
- Top-bar Hives
Other Links
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"Promise me you'll always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, if we are ever apart, I'll always be with you." ~Christopher Robin
I can't even count how many times I've heard my mother say, "gracious plenty." Gracious Plenty is a good thing to contemplate these days.