Life Learning: Lessons From the Educational Frontier

Hello Sandra,

I thought you and your unschooling contacts would like to know about a new book that will be published just in time for the holiday gift giving season.

Life Learning: Lessons From the Educational Frontier is a collection of 30 essays first published in Life Learning magazine. Details can be found here: http://www.lifemedia.ca/altpress/LL.htm

On all pre-publication orders placed before December 1, we will pay the shipping.

I think that homeschoolers will find this collection to be inspirational and reassuring, as well as a useful tool for helping others understand the unschooling lifestyle.

Please feel free to share this message. Hope all is well with you and yours. Thanks!

Best,
Wendy

Wendy Priesnitz, Editor
Life Media
www.LifeMedia.ca
www.WendyPriesnitz.com

Unschooling in the New York Times

The Anti-Schoolers

By PENELOPE GREEN
Published: October 15, 2008

"A version of this article appeared in print on October 16, 2008, on page D1 of the New York edition."

Live Science article on World of Warcraft and Unschooling

Kelli Traaseth and Jill Parmer were interviewed by Jeremy Hsu for an article for LiveScience.

http://www.livescience.com/technology/081003-school-games.html

Schooled (Indie Film About Alternative Education)

I'm sharing this e-mail in case anyone who didn't get it is interested. To respond to the author, it's a gmail address and the first part is themusiclives4

Hello,

My name is Erin Umstead, a graduate of Fairhaven School in Maryland,
which is based off of the Free and Democratic model of Sudbury Valley.

I'm writing because I think your community
would be interested in knowing
about a film written and directed by Brooks Elms
called "Schooled."
www.SchooledTheFilm.com

It's played at education conferences all over the world
because it challenges viewers to fundamentally re-think
the way they connect with children in the classroom
as well as the living room.

If you agree the film's message seems aligned with
the interests of your community, let me know and
I'll give you the details about how they can see it
at a special discount.

Thank you very much for your time!

All the best
Erin Umstead
Community Connections Team
"Schooled"
www.SchooledTheFilm.com

John Holt on boingboing.net

(all quotes, no comments:)

How Children Learn: classic of human, kid-centered learning
POSTED BY CORY DOCTOROW, SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 6:50 AM

Earlier this year, a reader sent me copies of John Holt's classic books on children's education, How Children Learn and How Children Fail and tonight, I finished the first of them (and will be reading the other next). It was one of the most profoundly moving books I've ever read, the truest account of how I remember my best learning experiences as a child and an adult.

Holt was a dedicated teacher and a very, very keen observer of children from babyhood up. Most of How Children Learn takes the form of notes from his diaries, his later reflections on his failures and successes, and letters and feedback from other parents and educators.

Holt's basic thesis is that kids want to learn, are natural learners, and will learn more if we recognize that and let them explore their worlds, acting as respectful co-learners instead of bosses and it continues...

Open Education

Sugata Mitra and Minimally Invasive Education - Confirmation for HomeSchool and UnSchooling Proponents

This could be an excellent link for skeptical relatives, or for new unschoolers who wonder about natural learning. Many of you probably knew about the "Hole in the Wall" project, but this has follow-up and expansion on what was learned then.

World of Warcraft and Unschoolers

15 Minutes of Fame: Horde of Unschoolers, and interview from January 2008, in WoW Insider. I'm sorry I didn't know about it sooner, but now it has 101 comments. Many of them are predictably lame and tacky, but the interview itself is very nicely done.

One of the quotes is:

Are unschoolers actually succeeding in college and later in life? According to Sarah Spooner, senior admission counselor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, they most assuredly are. "These students are really well motivated, have done their homework and done their research," she affirms. "They're the type of students who excel when they get on a college campus because they can keep themselves in check and make sure they're doing well and succeeding."

I would like to have seen it sooner so I could say my unschooled son works at Blizzard Entertainment, but I can say it here.