Unschooling in 140 characters or less

Another great unschooling conversation, tracked in tweets:

Tweet #1
Convo in the other room: ROUSs, urination, internal organs, prophylaxis, body scans, modern surgical methods, weather patterns.

10 minutes later
The convo continues: kidney donation, stones; hydration; fuel for bodies; waste filtering; blood circulation, types, donation.

6 minutes later
More convo: shock, amputation, wilderness survival, outswimming sharks and outrunning bears, decoys, plans for the day.

Morning conversations

When people first learn about unschooling, and usually react negatively thereto, there is much that they don't understand about what it looks like and how it works. A prime example is the starring role that conversation plays in our daily routines.

Now that school is back in session, niece Emma is spending her days with us again. She arrives about 7:30, well before Frank and Chloe wake up, so she and I spend the mornings chatting, just we two. These conversations are sometimes, oh, mundane I suppose: what we did last night, what we're thinking about doing today.

Other days—many days—these conversations are simply brilliant unschooling gems. Last Friday was one of those days. In the space of about an hour, Emma and I talked about green smoothies (I was making one), multiplying 9s and all the cool patterns you end up with, the formation of the Traveling Wilburys (I started singing "Handle Me With Care" after spilling something), how the Beatles and the Stones fit into rock culture, Dr. Hook and "Cover of the Rolling Stone," and then—because of this cool story from Wikipedia:

In the United Kingdom, the BBC Radio network refused to play "The Cover of the Rolling Stone," as it was considered advertising a trademark name, which was against the BBC's policy. The song was re-released with a host of BBC DJs shouting 'On the cover of the Radio Times!' over the band's vocals in the choruses. The song was released as "Cover of the Radio Times" for the UK market. The BBC found no problem in playing the record, since they published the Radio Times, weekly. The single found real cult status after that.

—trademarks and copyrights.

This free range conversation—especially when combined with ready interaction with Google—is a core element of unschooling, since it is in exactly that type of conversation that we weave the web of learning, making connections between apparently disparate subjects (even Dr. Hook to trademark law!) and providing the foundation for future learning. Sometimes the connections are conscious—"Oh! That reminds me of..."—and sometimes they're not—I can't remember how the 9s multiplication tables fit in there—but they are always effortless and uniquely our own and fun. And that makes all the difference.

New connections

We were looking at one of the girls' old picture books today, "Animalia" by Graeme Base. It is a unique and beautiful alphabet book with dozens of starts-with-the-letter pictures to discover on each page. Today, about ten years after we first read this book, we made a new discovery. On the D page is a drawing of a Dalek. Chloe gasped and then whooped when she saw it.

It's but a small example of how our perspective and knowledge base change as we tuck more years under our belts.

Tiny tidbits: Learn Nothing Day, Part Trois

Tara commented on my previous post that she doesn't participate in Learn Nothing Day because she doesn't like failure. It made me chuckle, and then it got me wondering: Why do I participate? Why do I, in fact, look forward to this day with moderately gleeful anticipation?

Part of the answer probably stems from its being a rare opportunity for my psyche to experience failure without trauma. But more than that, I enjoy the way it attunes my brain to the learning I do just via my regular activities: tiny tidbits of learning that happen so naturally and so without fanfare, most days I am oblivious to them. I think (and the point of Learn Nothing Day is) that these tidbits are unavoidable. They happen to everyone no matter where they are or what they are doing—even kids in school!

What cannot be predicted is what those tidbits will be. Oh, schools try to control this, with their curricula and textbooks and lectures, but they can't really. Even the learners can't control learning. In many respects, our brains are the sponges they are so often compared to, and like real sponges, they will soak up pretty much anything.

In chemistry class, I learned how to disguise my papers so that I could write notes to Linda instead of taking notes on Mr. Smith's lectures. I also learned that this one nerdy kid was a pretty good friend, that I enjoyed balancing chemical equations, that clocks move more slowly in 6th period, and that the chemical name for lead can be remembered by thinking of Pencil boxes.

In the last couple of days, I learned that "stop" is not a (Merriam Webster) dictionary sense of "enough" (perhaps because MW says interjections are "usually lacking grammatical connection"). I learned that some people believe "exaggerate" is an antonym for "control." NOT. I learned that there are two ferries from Anacortes to Sydney, BC, each weekday and that a 16-year-old can walk across for $13. I learned that the yurts at Kayak Point are extremely popular and run $50 per night. I learned that the Centennial Trail runs from Arlington to Snohomish, and that they are planning to extend it farther north. I learned that Microsoft HealthVault is really pretty cool, that you can upload data from your health-related devices (pedometers, blood-pressure and glucose meters, etc.) to the site, and that some pretty prestigious medical facilities are using sites like these for remote patient monitoring.

Today, I learned that Sandra put up a temporary banner on her unschooling page for Learn Nothing Day, that there is a web site where one can set up a custom marquee banner, that I still love Pachelbel's Canon, and that at least one of my friends, Alex, visits Sandra's site often enough to have discovered the new banner. I learned that Tara doesn't like to fail. I learned that Antonio Meucci got robbed.

I also learned that I didn't gain any willpower while I was sleeping, and that I still find cruising Facebook and writing blog posts WAY more fun than working. Shocker. And I learned that Learn Nothing Day provides a fun and unique opportunity for looking at learning.

The quirks of unschooling

WARNING: Do NOT read this or any other blog post if you are participating in Learn Nothing Day. Learning may ensue.

Everything is connected, and everything counts. If I needed proof of these two maxims of unschooling, I found it this morning in this little pile of books that has accumulated on our overflowing bookshelves:

The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson - A fascinating little book devoted to correcting some common misconceptions. For example, who invented the telephone? Alexander Bell probably stole Antonio Meucci's models from the lab at Western Union.

Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman - An exploration of the evolution of the text of the Bible. For example, it appears that mentions of Jesus getting angry have been softened up or eliminated, such as the evidence that indicates that Mark 1:41 originally said that when the leper approached Jesus to be healed, Jesus became angry.

The Greek Myths: I by Robert Graves

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks - A must-have for every home.

Travellers China by George McDonald

Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things by Cy Tymony - Instructions for making clever devices from things like sugar cubes, aluminum foil, and toilet paper rolls.

How are the books in this quirky collection connected? I'm not really sure except that they all found their way into our house, and, judging by their being piled together on the edge of a shelf, they have all been used in the recent past. That's unschooling for you.

Diving In

I guess I'm part of the In Crowd. Who knew?

I could go on in some detail about how this has never been true for me before, how I've spent my whole life feeling like an outsider, and so on. But I think it's more useful to talk about how I came to be part of a group so cool and so much fun that people think we MUST be the In Crowd.

The simple explanation is one that should be familiar to unschoolers: connections. Unschoolers often speak about the organic nature of learning, and how each person's web of knowledge is made by making connections between separately attained bits of information. Well, our web of friendships has been made the exact same way: one friendship at a time.

And there's a big difference from the In Crowd you knew in high school: this In Crowd gets bigger every year. It is always open to new members, and all you need to do to belong is get started being a friend. Make a beginning.

I've written up a few examples to show how it has worked for us.

Dana Ellis. I met Dana in 2006 when a group of unschooling moms and kids (most of whom had never met before) got together at the Burlington Mall just to chat. I don't think I saw Dana again for three years. Then at LIFE is Good 2009, I played peek-a-boo with her baby and she helped me learn how to hoola hoop. Now we get together with some regularity, and she's a fun, crazy, sexy addition to my list of friends.

The moral: You just never know when the seeds of a friendship will take root.

Mary Gold. I knew Mary online, although I can't swear she knew me. She was one of the moms whose voices had convinced me to try unschooling and supported me through my deschooling. But we had never met in person until LIFE is Good 2007, our first unschooling conference. Even there, since she was very busy in her Conference Diva role, and since I felt pretty shy about meeting one of my mentors, we spent about five minutes together, total. By LIFE is Good 2008, Mary had become (and remains) one of my best friends.

The moral: There is no such thing as celebrity in the unschooling community.

Michelle Boswell and Robin Bentley. Michelle was one of the other moms at that first meeting with Dana. Robin was at LIFE is Good 2007, but we met only in passing. Later in 2007, I started STUN, our little teen group, and Michelle and her three kids and Robin and her daughter became core members. My friendship with these STUNing moms was nurtured in weekly group meetings and expanded via e-mail, individual get-togethers, and shared conference experiences. (And Robin is one hell of a backup chick!)

The moral: Sometimes you have to get things started.

Kelli Traaseth. I met Kelli in November 2007 at Mary Gold's non-con. We talked some, and our kids hit it off, so when we had a chance to get together with the Traaseths in Disneyland in 2008, we jumped on it. It was there that I discovered Kelli and I are twins separated at birth. Well, we're still separated, since she lives way over on the other side of the country, but we maintain our friendship online, and she scores big points by her willingness to host my kids whenever they get the urge to fly east. (I keep offering to return the favor, but so far, her kids haven't taken me up on it.)

The moral: Distance doesn't have to be a factor.

And here's where it gets interesting

At LIFE is Good one year, I made friends with Ginger Sabo. Ginger encouraged Beth Joling, a high-school buddy of hers, to come to LIFE is Good 2009. I met Beth there, and Beth also met Dana. Beth and Dana live in the same town north of here, so when I go up there, I usually get to see them both. Robin Bentley and Michelle Boswell sometimes go up with me, and some other friends, Shonna Morgan (another fabulous backup chick!) and Jacinta Galway, sometimes come down to join us.

Jacinta's husband, Russ Anguish, is one of the Greybeards, so he came down to San Diego last month for the show at Good Vibrations, the conference that Ginger helped to organize. Ginger's husband, Jeff, is our bass player. Jeff is good friends (some might even call them father and daughter ;->) with Kelly Lovejoy, the once-and-future diva of the Live and Learn Conferences. It was Kelly who invited me to speak at L&L 2008, where I got a chance to see the Traaseths again and where I met Ren Allen in person finally. Ren is another of my mentors, and it was she who found herself hosting a little party at LIFE is Good 2009 where I had time to speak to my new acquaintance, Russ Anguish. At that party, I also got the chance to visit with Mercedes Fulwiler, who was one of those moms who got together at the Burlington Mall all those years ago, and I got to see Diana Jenner, who is the one who first introduced me to Gillian and Craig Mayer back in 2007.

I got better acquainted with Gillian and Craig at the non-con hosted by Mary Gold in fall of 2007, and then they held a little gathering in summer of 2008 where I met the Stonebrakers, whom I got to see again at L&L 2008. The Stonebrakers are hosting MJ & Chloe next week when they all travel together to a little South Carolina gathering organized by Ben and Kelly Lovejoy. There, the girls will get to meet Faith Taintor and Elissa Cleaveland, two unschooling moms who are my friends on Facebook but whom I don't think I've met in person.

And speaking of Facebook...

Never mind. Don't get me started on that. :-)

I hope I'm making my point here. You can look at us now, happily surrounded by friends, ridiculously overbooked socially, and make assumptions about how we got here and what we feel about the people we don't know yet. But your assumptions would be wrong. When we arrived, friendless, in the unschooling community, all it took to join the In Crowd was recognizing one thing:

Everybody is welcome in the In Crowd.

An unschooler breakfast

What do intelligent design, string theory, Monk, and Dennis Franz' butt all have in common?

There ought to be a great punchline in there somewhere. The answer, though, is that they were all topics of conversation this morning as we finished off our fabulous Corvallis weekend with a quick last visit to Sunnyside Up.

Just don't ask me to explain how one topic led to another. All I can tell you is the transitions made perfect sense at the time. :-)