Sylvie Martin Rodriguez on Unschooling in France

French homeschoolers fight to defend their... by Sylviemartinrodriguez

French original:


Des parents menacés par l'éducation nationale by Sylviemartinrodriguez

Class Dismissed: Education and the Rise of Homeschooling in America

Trailer and press release below:



Just Released!
First Look at the Groundbreaking Documentary Class Dismissed: Education and the Rise of Homeschooling in America.

Announcing the first look at the upcoming documentary, Class Dismissed : Education and the Rise of Homeschooling in America, which will shatter preconceived notions around homeschooling and the families that choose to educate their children outside of the traditional school system. Visit www.3StoryFilms.com and be one of the first to view the preview trailer, read more about this compelling new film, and find out how you can be involved.

About the film:

Class Dismissed will be the first full-length documentary devoted to exploring homeschooling as an alternative to the industrial school model. This film will show how homeschooling is not only rapidly growing in popularity, but how it crosses all social and economic boundaries and covers a wide spectrum of the population. It will answer the questions that many people have about homeschooling and break down the myths that surround it.

From home study and kitchen table math, to perpetual recess and park days, Class Dismissed follows the stories of three ordinary American families in their quest to educate their children outside the school system.

As they each struggle to discover what path is best for their children, the social ramifications of their choices come to light, family dynamics are revealed and they come to realize that homeschooling is not just an educational choice, but also a lifestyle choice that affects the very heart of the American family.

Class Dismissed will challenge its viewers to take a fresh look at what it means to be educated, and offer up a radical new way of thinking about the process of education.

About 3StoryFilms:

3StoryFilms, was founded by long time film editor Jeremy Stuart as a vehicle to bring compelling, untold stories to the screen. Jeremy has been working in the film and television industry for over 20 years; editing and producing hundreds of music videos, commercials, award winning documentaries and corporate projects for many notable clients, such as National Geographic and Lucasfilm.

The Unschool Bus (Halldorson family) in Georgia recently

RadioFreeSchool

I wanted to catch up with Beatrice Ekoko, of RadioFreeSchool.

Beatrice, tell me about your grown unschoolers series, please, and about what's new on your site.

I'm always interested in hearing from grown unschoolers and so exactly a year ago, I started a focused, ongoing piece on the subject for the radio free school project.

I've had the opportunity to interview or receive guest posts from at least 18 grown unschoolers/ parents of grown unschoolers and have more lined up for the new year.

You can read the interviews on the blog by clicking on the Grown Unschoolers link under Popular Posts.

Most recently I've spoken with Kate Fridkis of http://un-schooled.net/ and you can read the interview at the blog at
http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com/2010/12/grown-unschooler-kate-fridkis-embracing.html
or listen to it at
http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/48260

I have interviewed quite a few and always looking for more!

What are you learning from these grown unschoolers?

That they are mostly all pleased with their education; that they continue to love learning; that they are not afraid of being different or weird, that they are as 'well rounded' as anyone else is, that they are passionate about what they do and that they continue to be self-directed in their lives.
I've learned that many of them are deeply engaged in their own communities—in creating community and basically living lives that they feel are full and interesting and pleasurable.

Tell me about your other projects. What's new on your site?

Radio Free School:
Tantrum space for people who eschew factory learning in favour of unschooling, open source learning, community based, learning without school.

Our family produced this weekly radio show ('for by and about home based learners') for seven years. After a year's hiatus, we are back every so often, but using a 'strictly interview' format only now.

You can listen to up to 220 past shows etc at http://radio4all.net/index.php/series/RADIO+FREE+SCHOOL

Radio Free School blog was started by the un-schoolers at radio free school. We continue to blog about all things pertaining to freedom in learning. http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com/

Please continue to visit our blog and add your voice to the comments that help spark new posts that we can all learn from, on our journey to make life and learning one.

Here's an interview Beatrice did with me in 2005: http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/11724—Sandra

Spanish Constitutional Court says "No."

Home schooling is not legal, rules Constitutional Court

The ruling states that "the right of parents to choose for their children an education outside the compulsory education system for reasons of pedagogy does not fall within any recognized constitutional freedoms."

I think there will be another gavel coming.

The article reports that the children in question "spoke five languages, knew music and were taught math, science and language, and ethics education."

Part of the ruling: "The court added that the exclusion from the formal system can generate in minors "serious problems in their future development" both in academia (in reference to the difficulties of access to university) and in the social and integration with other children their age."

That was a tactical error on the court's part, to clarify. Their "clarification" can be refuted pretty easily, with statistics from other countries, if they'll accept any outside information.

No doubt this will be overturned before long, but for now Laura Mascaró, the author of Educatíon y libertad (lower right on this page) wrote "I'm thinking of moving to another country or something..."

Laura's article on this ruling is here, in Spanish: El TC contra la libertad educatvia

Links from Laura's notes:

La verdad siempre vencerá, por Julian Assange en La Jornada

Controlar a los controladores, por Francisco Capella en Expansión

Pero qué malo es Google, por Antonio José Chinchetru en Libertad Digital

Beneficios de educar en casa (XXIII edición del carnaval de blogs de homeschooling), por Ketty Sánchez en Mariposas Multicolores

The most dangerous place in the world, por Priscilla Hill en Preserving the torch

Update on Christer, en Friends of Domenic Johansson

A homeschooler's commentary on six weeks in high school

One of the unschooling moms on facebook posted this introductory note:

Here's a video by one of the unschooled boys in our homeschool group. He talks about his six weeks of high school and explains why he stopped going. It's definitely worth watching!

A little story with big meaning

Hazel Mae Donovan wrote on facebook:

On our first midterm, there were only 4 As in our class of about 40 people. 3 of the 4 As belonged to homeschoolers (myself included). Surprising? I think not.

These stories are heard quite often. I have a son taking his first college classes. English 101 (which he tested into without preparation, after unschooling) isn't going as well as the math, but he's like his dad, who also had some English 101 problems, after 13 years of public school.

Study finds no advantage to early reading

Unschoolers (and others) have known for decades that late reading has no effect on learning, nor does it show when they're older, but now those who prefer statistical analysis to anecdotal evidence can share this as needed:

http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/research-finds-no-advantage-learning-read-age-five/5/33888

"At the end of the study, the data was analysed using Hierarchical Linear Modelling, which is commonly used in longitudinal studies, and a particularly robust way to analyse data, and estimated the point at which the early starters and later starters of learning to read met - and it came up with 10.89 years - between 10 and 11 years of age," he says.

"It was very exciting and unexpected - one of those science moments. The results concurred with the results of the other two studies and there were no differences in the abilities of the early and later readers by 11."

Unfortunate title, but decent article

'Unschooling' Lets Children Dictate Their Learning


'Unschooling' Lets Children Dictate Their Learning
CBS4 Miami Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:53 PM PDT
Who needs textbooks and lesson plans? Some parents say children should decide what they learn, not teachers. That's the basis of a controversial educational philosophy known as "unschooling", a movement that's gaining traction across the country.

Changing Paradigms

Wonderful animated illustrations to Sir Ken Robinson's talk: