In most live shows (improv, radio, skit shows, etc), they teach you that the main rule is “yes, and”. What this means is that when working with other people you work off of each other, build off what the other person does, never contradict the other person (some exceptions are…
Category: Topics
The Socialization of Children
From time to time when asked, I tell someone who doesn’t already know, usually extended family or new acquaintances, that we are keeping our kids home from school. They look puzzled until I use the word “homeschooling”. Like clockwork, sooner or later, they mention the social aspect of schooling and…
Why Our Coercive System of Schooling Should Topple
Originally published on PsychologyToday.com at my blog, “Freedom to Learn“. I’ve been called a crazy optimist, a Pollyanna, a romantic idealist. How can I believe that our system of compulsory (forced) schooling is about to collapse? People point out that in many ways the schooling system is stronger now than…
The Culture of Childhood: We’ve Almost Destroyed It
Originally published on PsychologyToday.com at my blog, “Freedom to Learn“. I don’t want to trivialize the roles of adults in children’s lives, but, truth be told, we adults greatly exaggerate our roles in our theories and beliefs about how children develop. We have this adult-centric view that we raise, socialize, and educate children. Certainly…
Action, Life, and Learning
It is my understanding that the greatest contribution made by Ludwig von Mises to economic theory is his formulation of the study of human action, or praxeology, and the subsequent discovery of the action axiom. Paraphrased, the action axiom states that people “purposefully utilize means over a period of time in order…
Why Don’t Students Like School?
Originally published on PsychologyToday.com at my blog, “Freedom to Learn“. Someone recently referred me to a book that they thought I’d like. It’s a 2009 book, aimed toward teachers of grades K through 12, titled Why Don’t Students Like School? It’s by a cognitive scientist named Daniel T. Willingham, and it has received rave…
Education in The 21st Century
Originally written in September 2011, when we first began our unschooling journey. Updated a few points and links. A study published in July showed that people have become less likely to remember things that they know are only a click away on the Internet. In other words, our selective memory has expanded…
The Wisdom of Hunter-Gatherers
Originally published on PsychologyToday.com at my blog, “Freedom to Learn“. For hundreds of thousands of years, up until the time when agriculture was invented (a mere 10,000 years ago), we were all hunter-gatherers. Our human instincts, including all of the instinctive means by which we learn, came about in the…
Learning to Drive Informally
My son, who was unschooled from the age of seven until he was 16, turned 20 earlier this month (2015). A week later, he passed his driving test at the first attempt. About a year ago, when my son was approaching the end of Year 12, as it’s called here…
Unsolicited Evaluation Is the Enemy of Creativity
Originally published on PsychologyToday.com at my blog, “Freedom to Learn“. In my last post I wrote of evidence that children’s creativity has declined over the past two or three decades, a period during which children’s lives, both in and out of school, have become increasingly controlled and regulated by adult authorities. Here, now, is…