tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693850266469080529.post5928438470086140477..comments2023-11-02T05:27:19.778-07:00Comments on Life Without School: My Little SecretBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17229429445882282731noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693850266469080529.post-4680539321616711562008-02-26T06:44:00.000-08:002008-02-26T06:44:00.000-08:00I was looking in your sidebar for information on y...I was looking in your sidebar for information on your consulting and saw the label tutoring. I think you and I were separated at birth or something, because I tutor kids too! And I share the same exact concerns! Wow, so great to read about someone else who knows the quandary. <BR/><BR/>What I find is my time (and their money) would be better spent if I had more time with the parents! Often, we spend an extra half hour or more standing at my front door while I find gentle ways to help them see their child for all the good things and not simply for one weakness or fault. And if I don't have that time with the parent, I do feel that at least with me a child can learn without any smothering, expectation-heavy authority looming over them. I celebrate everything they ARE with them, and we, too, play games and have fun. I also talk a LOT about how everyone learns different things at different times and give the child lots of examples of late readers, etc. Then I roll my eyes and say unfortunately, schools think they need to make everyone do it all at the same time.piscesgrrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12279344142538980436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693850266469080529.post-86987776094584652412007-11-20T11:28:00.000-08:002007-11-20T11:28:00.000-08:00Becky, Excellent article. I just wanted to say ...Becky,<BR/> Excellent article. I just wanted to say that you weren't proud of your student because he measured up to a quantifiable standard, but because he was "working so hard" as his mother put it. He was improving, not by memorizing what he's told is important, but by deciding to dedicate himself to something he felt was worthy and was motivated to do, apparently by his great teacher.<BR/> Also you're giving these children a vast gift. You're showing them that learning can be an organic process and there is no one way to do it. I didn't learn this for myself untill I was in college, and my mind shot off like an arrow from a long drawn bow. I can't imagine what kind of man I would be had I learned it 10 or more years earlier. You are giving that to your students and children at an early age and the effect is infinite.<BR/> Unfortunately industrial schooling has become much like industrial farming. One applies industrial fertilizers and poisons then tests for N, P, & K. The other applies standards and dogmas and tests for the three R's. Both reduce a precious and dynamic miracle into numbers, and the state of our cultures minds are much like our soils, sterile and delicate, a culture of hydroponic brains. Thank you so much for growing organic and your eloquant writing, good fortune.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com