Replies to '11/24 Great School Debate'

I have been reading your posts and I do see your point.  I don't feel the slightest bit agitated by anything I am really seeing on this board.  Although my stating that I won't apologize for unschooling may have appeared a little defensive, that wasn't my intention.

I don't know how familiar with my posts in particular (realistically, the posts are all flying by and I don't expect any one person to read everything I specifically write), but although I unschool, I'm not particularly interested in whether some people feel one way of education is better vs another.  For me, if a child is thriving and growing and confident in who they are and prepared to take on new challenges, it's ALL good.

Our family's needs simply didn't fit the structure of the public schools, and so we started homeschooling, then gradually made the drift into unschooling, as the children were learning much more outside the curriculum than in it anyway.

When talking to people in our off line life, we do use the term "homeschooling" though, because while it is still in the realm of "different", at least people have stopped with the blanching of their faces.  To outright say "unschooler" would be a big kick-me sign at this point, and for us, we pick our battles.  Sometimes, after a full day, we want to pull the buzzer when the bus gets to our stop and go home :-)

Doesn't mean we avoid opinions contrary to our own (otherwise I'd not be here and my children wouldn't be also reading this board), but there is more to us than our "method of education", and it gets old after a while.  I play guitar, I am adept in (and a teacher of) fiber crafts, I sing alto, my favorite color is maroon... one of many many topics you'd find us enthusiastically expounding upon.

Best,
WW