“Flex” More Than Simple Spice

More “school is to food” analogy in response to MSNBC’s unschooling piece. From JJ’s notes —

FLEXIBILITY: The kind of thing that drives both anti-homeschool accountability standardistas AND anti-school, anti-government homeschoolers out of their minds!

Individual choice tends to find its own level sooner or later, no matter what institutional labeling confuses the issue. If you can’t beat ’em, flex around ’em?

Like joyful eating, joyful learning is not any kind of forced binary choice between this or that, yes or no, good or bad. One can apply the school-is-to-food analogy to the sentence in this story about improving personal experience and outcomes, no matter what you call the different choices or how you like them served.

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MSNBC Does Unschooling (What Controversy?)

So MSNBC is trying to understand and explain unschooling too.What grade do you give to unschooling? * 10931 responses

The story could have been worse but it’s glib and about a half-inch deep.

“Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the lead in learning . . .

Unschooling allows youngsters to chart their own educational course. So if they want to doodle on the floor instead of opening a textbook, their parents let them go for it…”

If unschooling piques you and your interest, check out Snook’s more “radical” unschooling resources. And consider that force-feeding the child’s body is considered abuse these days. Some of us see it that way for the mind and spirit too.