Video Games and Parenting, by an unschooled teen

Zachary Sanders interviewed me recently, and has written up something extraordinary. For parents to write these things isn't bad, but it all comes to life from the point of view of one whose game time was once measured and monitored.

First, the intro by Zach's mom:

This two-part essay was written by my unschooled teen son for his Composition I college class. Zach has been radically unschooled for the past five years and relaxed homeschooled prior to that. He's never been to school except to play clarinet in a band and beginning this last January he decided he wanted to enroll in a writing course at our local community college. Video games are his number one passion with writing a close second.

In his essay, Zach writes about how it felt to be a child who wanted to please no one more than his mother but also a child who's passion I did not value or respect. Parts of Zach's essay were difficult for me to read but I knew the truth of it already and I knew that he had an important message to communicate to the mothers and fathers of the world. The sting of reading about the damage my old ways inflicted on my child were soothed in the knowledge that I've seen the error of my ways and have worked hard to repair our relationship I now know the beauty, peace, and extraordinary amount of learning, embracing his interests has brought to both of our lives. (http://zamunzo.blogspot.com/2008/04/problem-and-solution.html)

Zach's article is here: http://zajosa.blogspot.com/2008/04/problem-when-parents-think-childs.html