“teach your own”: why take them out?

teach your own
by john holt & patrick farenca

so now i’m calling myself an unschooler
and i’m gonna teach my own.
in a series of installments
from my notes on the book,
here’s why:

introduction

“…the best reason for working might be that the work itself was interesting, demanding, and worth doing.” p. xxxii

“…the distinction between doing, ’self directed, purposeful, meaningful life and work’ and education, ‘learning cut off from life and done under pressure of bribe or threat, greed and fear.’” p. xxxiii

why take them out?

a quote from a letter from a muslim homeschooler:
“…we are obviously in total disagreement with many social and moral values (or “unvalues”) which are being propagated in schools, as well as with the limited educational approaches. Moreover, in our faith religious and other learning is not to be approached as two separate matters since Islam does not acknowledge any schism between ’sacred’ and ’secular’ aspects of life…I cannot express what a satisfaction it is to see my children growing up with stable, integrated, happy personalities, especially after the struggle of watching the harmful effects of school on the three older children…” p. 16-17

“This is where homeschoolers, in particular, have much to teach schools about, such as feeling good about ourselves and what we can do; respecting people who are different from us; working with people from different social classes and educational backgrounds; and becoming good citizens. How is school supposed to accomplish these things by pitting student against student, school against school, district against district, in a race for higher test scores? It’s striking in our day and age, where you went to school classifies you rather than equalizes you.
     ”Integrating different people into a social whole is achieved best through group activiteis, teamwork, cooperative efforts and projects, games, conversation, and sharing common goals, not by separating out the economic winners and losers of society based on tests taken in their youth and where their parents can afford to live.” p. 24