Chloe's school solution

"I have an idea of what learning could be like because I like to learn. I know how much fun it can be. An educational discussion is my idea of a good time. So, the fact that I don't enjoy school is an indicator of something."

Not compulsory
Smaller class sizes
More respect! "Teachers treat kids like there's something wrong with them."
Conversation-based learning
Lots and lots of resources
Teachers as resources - experts in their field rather than professional teachers
Classes would provide a starting point to explore a particular subject
No required courses - "If you say a class is required, you are dismissing somebody else's opinion about what's important or interesting... You're saying that one field is more valid than another one."
Kids sign up for classes they are interested in
Suited to every learning style - accommodate students

Background: Chloe was in school K through half of 3rd, spent a term at Summerhill (a democratic/free school in England), and attended high school last year for one 6-week grading period. All the rest of the time, she's been unschooled.

Drumroll please

Chloe is a pure unschooler again!!!!

She has completed the first grading period of semester 2, got what she wanted out of the whole deal, and is ready to return to unschooling. We are so glad to have her home again!

That damn alarm clock is going in the trash now.

Muffled enthusiasm

Two teachers today prefaced questions to the class with a variation of "Can somebody not Chloe tell me..."

We think "Somebody Not Chloe" sounds like a good name for a rock band.

Not enough words... or too many?

In science class today, Chloe's teacher described some rocks as "non-native" and asked if anyone knew what that word meant. Trying to give someone else a chance to answer, Chloe at first didn't put up her hand. No one else volunteered, so the teacher turned it around: "Okay, how about 'native'?" Still no response. Chloe finally raised her hand, and the teacher called on her.

"Indigenous," said Chloe.

"Yeees," replied the teacher. "But I was looking for something simpler."

An unschooler in school

When Chloe told us she wanted to go back to school, my reaction was mostly fear. I worried that she would be devastated by social crap and brainwashed by the school mentality, and that our unschooling lifestyle would be sacrificed on the Temple of Doom. (That's a bit of an exaggeration but not much.) I did my best to squash the worry in lieu of squashing her, but there can be no doubt that she was aware that Mom Did Not Approve.

I'm sitting here wishing I could go back in time and tell myself to shut the hell up. The experience so far has been entirely positive (except for waking up at 6:30!) and so much a continuation of our beloved unschooling lifestyle that I can hardly believe it. We have all learned SO much!

There was the day that Chloe expressed irritation because she was being required to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. She didn't mind the "stand" part of that as much as the "required" part, so we did some e-research, found state law on the subject (which says only that students who do not participate in the pledge should be quiet), and discussed ways of making it clear to the requiring teacher. I gave her a copy of the relevant RCW section, and Steph sent us a truly beautiful excerpt from the Barnette decision, which includes this gem:

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.

Chloe decided she wanted to talk to her teacher herself and we left it in her capable hands. She went in the next day and simply remained seated during the pledge. The teacher did not complain, and Chloe was able to mentally amend the teacher's spoken "everybody stand" to the "everybody who chooses to, please stand" that it should have been.

Her English teacher has been doing a long (3 weeks plus!) unit on the Holocaust, purportedly to provide context for their eventual reading of The Diary of Anne Frank. We've had discussions about why an English teacher might decide to teach history instead. They have been at least as interesting as Chloe's Holocaust research and have led to discussions about religion, propaganda, the appropriateness of compassion for oppressed people, and more.

We've had conversations about the pressures that schooled kids are under; the ways that unschoolers are free from or share the pressures; the openness of unschoolers as opposed to the social caution of schooled kids; the reasons it might take longer to form friendships at school versus your average unschooler gathering; and the possibilities that kids both schooled and unschooled see, how those possibilities are often nay-sayed by adults, and what might happen if those possibilities were instead greeted by simple acceptance as possibilities.

She's discovered that most of what we've been telling her about school for the past six years is true: she's well-suited to do well academically, she hasn't been falling behind, kids who are in school because they choose to be have a lot more fun and get a lot more out of it. And she's learned that Mom's fears about school were (way) excessive but based in reality.

And finally, she's learning a lot about herself. These discoveries are her business, so I won't go into detail, but they are all very positive, and her self-esteem seems stronger than ever.

In short, my advice about handling unschooler requests to go to school is to stay calm. Certainly explore other ways of resolving any needs underlying the request (more social time? more structure? more variety?), but don't fear school. It is just another path for your child to lead you down, just another interest to follow, just another resource to explore. And it's a damn fine strewing machine.

Some people go all hardcore and say that a kid in school is no longer an unschooler. Our experience says otherwise.

(For additional posts about Chloe's experiences in school, click the "school" label below.)

Hard to figure

Chloe's Algebra homework today:

Overnight, a huge blizzard dumped 10 inches of snow on the ground. When the sun comes out, it melts the snow at a rate of about 1 inch per hour. Write an equation for the problem situation.

The equation is 10-1h=s. Then there's a table with h and s values for Chloe to calculate. One of the provided h values is -2. Her teacher instructed the class to fill in the s value of 12 in that row of the table.

The next question asks if an h value of -2 makes sense in the problem situation.

Her teacher instructed the class to answer "Yes."

Chloe couldn't understand why she would say that. We are equally stumped. Unless, of course, the reason is that it's easier for the teacher that way.

The Doings Report

We're all tucked into what Frank calls Maier Hibernation Month. He and I have actually been mostly hibernating since we got back from New Orleans (with some notable and very fun exceptions), as evidenced by my quiet blog. We're doing lots of internal processing right now, I think, and just being together.

The notable and very fun exceptions were a couple of impromptu gatherings and one...um...promptu one...? It started with STUN Friday, a Ninja and Samurai bowling event. We had thought it would be only a small group, but then Shonna, Matteo, Gemma, Gioia, Ali, and Viola flew (almost literally) down from BC in time for a game. Later, we met them (except Matteo who went home with the Boswells for some guy time) for pizza at a surprisingly crowded, don't-these-people-know-there's-a-recession? Alfy's. Service was slow, but the food was greeted by cheers and pretty good.

The next day, Shonna and company went to Margaret's unschooler gathering on the Eastside, which we decided to forego in favor of a quiet day. In the evening, everybody met up back at our place--Boswells, Bentleys, Morgans, and Maiers--the BM crew--oh, wait, reverse that!--until the older teens and Jordan headed off to see "Rise of the Lycans" and the Bentleys had to leave. The rest of us hung out while the twins played with toys (see, Frank, I save all that stuff for a reason!). Chloe did her best not to give anybody her four-days-in-school-and-she-already-has-a-cold germs. I hope she succeeded! And Frank worked a minor miracle and put together yummy and kid-friendly dinner for 8 with very little notice.

Yesterday, we had a Super day out at Mom's, eating WAY too much, watching the commercials, and half-heartedly rooting for the Cardinals, except for the last four minutes when they provided some damned exciting football. They have our sympathy on their loss, but that Steeler touchdown pass was a thing of beauty!

Backing up a bit, Chloe's school adventure is off to a reasonably good start. She's making friends, having no trouble with her schoolwork so far, and has come home with very little homework. Drama and guitar are by far the classes she's most excited about: she's doing improv and learning Malagueña. In Algebra, they're learning about linear equations and solving for x (which leaves me puzzled about what they studied in first semester). And in science, they're learning about climate. Hmm, I wonder if they'll ask Chloe to share primary-source stories about hurricanes.

Meanwhile, MJ has been immersed in the Complete Poems of E. E. Cummings, copying out the ones she likes and leaving one at the front door for Chloe every morning. Yeats is getting some attention, too, but she says she doesn't like him as much as Cummings. She's also composing a rather lengthy letter to Harper, who is at Camp Lejeune but doesn't yet have an assigned address and is not yet permitted access to his cellphone (?!). She has very much been enjoying the Xbox 360 and peripherals he handed down to her, especially Rock Band and Left 4 Dead.

Frank is playing and practicing music a lot, especially their LIFE is Good talent show selection, which I'm not sure I'm supposed to reveal.

And I'm working on a second talk for LIFE is Good but finding myself (relatively) wordless. I might do better after some more quiet time.

The Doings Report

We are home after a good, healing visit to New Orleans. We had lots of family visiting, including a fun dinner out listening to Big Daddy O, an old friend of Frank's from his live music days. I got to dance with Molly (2) and Aidan (7 months), so you know I was loving that.

Marty's funeral was nicely attended. We were touched to see some of the guys from NOPSI, Rosie's cousins, a variety of ex-in-laws, and even a neighbor from Waltham Street who remembers Marty from his childhood.

We got in late Sunday night, and then got up Monday morning to dive right into the next phase in our life. Chloe met with a counselor at Everett High and got signed up for second semester. She calls this a sociology experiment. :-) Her class schedule is pretty cool: guitar, English, walking (PE), drama, science, and Algebra. And her first day yesterday went pretty well. She found her way to all her classes, for one thing, and seems to have enjoyed herself.

Her science teacher asked the class to fill out a survey about last semester. Chloe asked if she was exempt, since she wasn't there, and the teacher told her no, to just describe the class she was in. Chloe laughed, said, "I haven't taken a science class in six years!" and then explained that she is an auto-didact, a term the teacher hadn't heard before.

So far, we haven't received any concerned phone calls.

School quote of the day, from the attendance policy: You can't learn if you're not here.

Shows what they know.

Deprived unschoolers

If MJ and Chloe were in school, they'd have gotten TWO THREE WHOLE DAYS off this week thanks to our atypical extended snowfall. We'd have woken up at the regular time to listen to the radio (or, more likely in this day and age, to get on the Internet), eagerly awaiting the announcement that the Everett schools were indeed CLOSED. Wahooooo!! With much giddy celebration ensuing.

Instead, MJ got up about 10 and wandered out to look out the front window at our lawns of white. "No school today," she said mildly, then flashed a grin over her shoulder.