"Laisser faire does not mean: let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: let individuals choose how they want to cooperate in the social division of labor and let them determine what the entrepreneur should produce. Planning means: let the government alone choose and enforce its rulings by the apparatus of coercion and compulsion."

Ludwig von Mises 

Unschooling vs homeschooling vs government schools

There is more and more talk about homeschooling. I know of a few families now who do it. I don't do it, but oh boy am I tempted. I wish I had the means! Maybe, I can do something about it.
But anyway, check out this video about "unschooling", even more radical extreme daring!
Astra makes a convincing case.
http://www.dailypaul.com/264268/astra-taylor-on-the-unschooled-life

Student responsibility

I am working at an elementary school this time around, and have been teaching tech skills to very young students. The variety of skills is astonishing within a class, a grade and a school. Catching them all with a wide net is probably the only reasonable thing to do. To widen the net and make sure every student has an opportunity to learn (I explicitly avoid using the word "equal"; when will we stop fooling ourselves? There is nothing equal in the world, it's all very unique, and unique is anything but equal!) within the structure of the class.
First issue – technology skills can be either taught through direct instruction, lots of practice (=play) or a combination of hereof. Imagine direct instruction in a classroom of 20 K students with 2 adults present, and students are mainstreamed (or "pushed in"), often without additional support. Now imagine you are using somewhat older laptops, some of which have low battery charge. Can you see them waiting patiently for the computer to boot? Do you think they will be comfortable using the external mouse with 2 buttons (having the mouse on either side of the computer) and a wheel? Imagine that the mouse is very sensitive. What do you get? Noise and meltdowns.
Now I am not listing complaints here, but rather observations and some of the little details that I hadn't thought of right away.
I think we should create a new playbook. I think that kids need to participate more in the instructional process, I think they may have tasks they can handle at any age, which is often preferred to waiting patiently for instructions. I also believe in small group instruction. We are all social learners, but one-on-one learning is still social and is much easier to focus on. That's my next challenge, and I am working on it.

Today is the first day of school for kids in Westbrook, and now we have migrated from Saccarrappa to Canal, which probably should be reflected in the title of this blog... oops! :)
But then again, we have the same principal, secretary and guidance counselor as in Sacc, so we are very happy they moved with us!
Raining outside, kind of unpleasant. Wondering if I can make any arrangements for my son to have some supervision for 10 mins in the morning and 20 mins in the afternoon! I guess this warrants a friendly walk in the neighborhood.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf

Today Saccarappa kids (2nd graders) went to the PAC (Performance Arts Center) at the Middle School to watch the ballet.
"How did you like it?" I asked my son. "Hmmm... it was cool."
"Did you ride a bus?"
"Yup."
"So can you describe it?"
"At the end everyone who was in play came out and it was like a million people."
"And before the end?"
"What did I like?"
"Yes".
Thinking, thinking, thinking...
"I really liked the bus ride.
"I liked whoever the narrator was because she had a fluent voice."
"What about the dancing?"
"I got a little bit tired when every single thing danced."
And there you have it. My son's appreciation of ballet.

Thanksgiving

Mentors for Xmas

Put my text.

Gardening at Sacc

Last week was our turn to take care of the garden beds at Sacc. We weeded and we didn't water. I couldn't figure out where there was any water available. Well, maybe with netter diligence I would have shown up during possible open hours although not sure whom the school would be open for but anyway, the weather had mercy on me and the plants and it rained. A nice long rain saved us!
There is a compost bin, the fancy tumble kind, which wasn't full at all, so we put our weeds there. I assume it's safe to compost weeds if they have not started blooming yet and thus there is no danger of contaminating the compost with weed seeds, right?
Check out the pics!
And yes we biked over. Haven't done enough biking lately. Need to look into it.