radegund | (no subject) (Reply)

I'm at home with a sick baba. He has a urinary infection, complete with high temperature, and he's currently sleeping off his first dose of Augmentin. (Shout-out to

glitzfrau: this doesn't affect our weekend plans!)

So I did that LJ interests meme.

child-led learning:
I believe that people learn best, most effectively and most enjoyably when they are allowed to follow their curiosity wherever it leads them. Indeed, I'd go so far as to question whether it's possible to force people to learn against their will. We can coerce them into choosing to commit a limited set of data to memory as a means of avoiding punishment - indeed, this is what our mainstream school system is based on - but unless there's some basic interest in the topic to start with, the information won't stick. The phrase "child-led learning" is self-explanatory: the child leads the learning. It's about providing a safe, interesting space for children to explore, rather than dictating to them what they will and won't focus on. See also "Sudbury Valley School" and "Unschooling", below.

doing things badly:
I'm a perfectionist. I'm trying to learn to do things badly, because I think not being able to is sometimes a handicap. (Ooh, look, I'm the only person on LJ with this listed as an interest. Care to join me, anyone?)

dressmaking:
I absolutely love making clothes. I've been doing it since I was about five, when I made a pair of shorts for my stuffed toy kangaroo (well, I knew they were shorts). Over the years I read everything I could find on the subject, and tried out every technique I encountered (see "child-led learning", above). I got really into drafting my own patterns when I was in college, and made many fine glad rags. I haven't made anything in far too long, and I really want to start again.

ivan illich:
He wrote Deschooling Society. Read it. It's important.

knitting:
I've been knitting since my grandmother taught me, when I was around six. My first attempts were dire, naturally, but I'm pretty handy now. Knitting is good for toddler parenting, because it's more puttable away than a big sewing project.

parenting:
I'd like to point out that among the things I'm trying to learn to do badly, parenting does not feature. I love being Oisín's mother. I love how it's changed me, and I love how he teaches me about the world and about myself. The past thirteen months have been the hardest and the best of my life.

reading fiction:
The first book I read all on my own was Alice in Wonderland. Then I read Through the Looking-Glass, in the same volume. Then I closed the back cover, flipped the book over (with some difficulty - it was a big hardback, and I was four), opened the front cover and read them again. Fiction fascinates me. I understand stories better than most other forms of information. I hope to be still discovering great fiction on my deathbed.

sudbury valley school:
My views on education have been growing more and more radical since late 2001, when I stumbled across the website of the Sudbury Valley School in Massachussetts. When I first found the site I cried a lot. I still get all sniffly reading bits of it. I find it hard to discuss schooling in general without getting very emotional.

unschooling:
School is bunk. No, really. You spend four years doing everything you can to encourage your child to walk, talk and socialise, then you sit her/him in a class full of other children and forcibly prevent the very things you've been trying to foster. IT MAKES NO SENSE. Unschooling is ... the opposite. See this site for some interesting reading.

vegetarian cooking:
Vegetarian cooking is great. You can do so much with textures, colours, flavours, and you don't have to worry about undercooking or gristle or choking on bones. My favourite food writer, at the moment, is Denis Cotter, proprietor of the Cafe Paradiso in Cork city (Ireland's best vegetarian restaurant) and author of two cookbooks. Some of his stuff is way too elaborate for everyday, but he also has some simple, excellent dishes that feature regularly on our menu.