Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School, Grace Llewellyn and Amy Silver, John Wiley and Sons, 2001
School is a place where young people are fed all sorts of meaningless information and forced to give it back on equally meaningless tests. This book aims to change that.
The authors show how parents can help their children can get a real education by helping the child find something about which they are interested, and proceed from there. The process includes five phases:
OPPORTUNITY-Don't just expose your kids to life's possibilities (arts, science, history, community, etc.) without overdoing it, but the parent should stay passionate and involved in learning. The enthusiasm will be contagious.
TIMING-If your child is not progressing according to some school bureaucrat's schedule, don't panic. Not every child learns at the same speed. Early bloomers may need extra stimulation to keep them interested. Late bloomers may simply need time and extra help.
INTEREST-Honor your child's passions, even if it is something of which you disapprove. Children are here to grow into the best person they can be, not what the parent or anyone else thinks they should be. Also know when to back off.
FREEDOM-Give the child the chance to take on projects and solve problems. Make it clear that promises are expected to be kept, and also make clear the consequnces for broken promises.
SUPPORT-Be there for your kids. Supporting children does not equal martyrdom. Check to see how much support they need or want. Make sure their goals stay theirs. Well-being is most important.
I learned a lot from this book. It easily reaches the level of Highly Recommended, especially for any parent whose child is having problems in school.
Showing posts with label llewellyn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label llewellyn. Show all posts
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Teenage Liberation Handbook
The Teenage Liberation Handbook, Grace Llewellyn, Lowry House, 1991
This is a very complete look at how anyone can get a real education without going to school.
The author, a former English teacher, starts with some scathing comments about the institution of school. One of the goals when compulsory schooling came into effect in America was to create obedient factory workers who don't waste time by daydreaming or talking to each other. Schools took on the task of stamping out other cultures. Schools need you to believe that you can't learn without them. To those who honestly think that if they don't spend a large portion of their childhood sitting in a room having stuff poured in one ear, and usually going out the other, their only life path is drug addict or bum, reading this book will be a waste of time.
This is not a spur-of-the-moment decision, for the young person or the parents, so the author goes painlessly through the whole process. An important thing to do in the beginning is to get a copy of the relevant state laws and find a local homeschooling group for questions. The target audience is teens, so she talks about how to ask your parents, and what to do if they say No. Once you're out of school, work to re-kindle your passion for it, whatever it is, a passion that school has worked to squash like a bug. Talk to the local school board about staying eligible for after-school activities, and to otherwise not make an enemy out of them. As you get older, the book explores jobs, internships and how to prepare for college. It also has many quotes from people who have done it, left school or never gone to school, and become happy and successful. learning what they want to learn, not what someone else thinks they "must" learn.
This book is wonderful. It does a fine job of showing that sitting in a classroom for many years and getting a "good" education as the only way to make something of yourself is little more than propaganda. I wish this book was available when I was in junior high school.
This is a very complete look at how anyone can get a real education without going to school.
The author, a former English teacher, starts with some scathing comments about the institution of school. One of the goals when compulsory schooling came into effect in America was to create obedient factory workers who don't waste time by daydreaming or talking to each other. Schools took on the task of stamping out other cultures. Schools need you to believe that you can't learn without them. To those who honestly think that if they don't spend a large portion of their childhood sitting in a room having stuff poured in one ear, and usually going out the other, their only life path is drug addict or bum, reading this book will be a waste of time.
This is not a spur-of-the-moment decision, for the young person or the parents, so the author goes painlessly through the whole process. An important thing to do in the beginning is to get a copy of the relevant state laws and find a local homeschooling group for questions. The target audience is teens, so she talks about how to ask your parents, and what to do if they say No. Once you're out of school, work to re-kindle your passion for it, whatever it is, a passion that school has worked to squash like a bug. Talk to the local school board about staying eligible for after-school activities, and to otherwise not make an enemy out of them. As you get older, the book explores jobs, internships and how to prepare for college. It also has many quotes from people who have done it, left school or never gone to school, and become happy and successful. learning what they want to learn, not what someone else thinks they "must" learn.
This book is wonderful. It does a fine job of showing that sitting in a classroom for many years and getting a "good" education as the only way to make something of yourself is little more than propaganda. I wish this book was available when I was in junior high school.
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