Huzzah! Meme!
Oct. 31st, 2005 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radegund[to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus]
The interview meme goes round and round,
Round and round,
Round and round;
The interview meme goes round and round,
All. Day. Long.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yonmei asked:
1. What is "unschooling"?
Oh-KAY, ranty pants ON!
Unschooling is an attempt to minimise those aspects of the traditional school model that serve to stifle or warp the natural drive to explore and learn.
In the traditional school model, adults lay down the law about what's learnt, how and when. Children (mostly) sit silently while an adult presents chunks of material that are isolated both from each other and from the children's experience. Children's contributions are permitted and judged by the adult. At intervals, the children are called upon to demonstrate that they have absorbed what has been "taught" by regurgitating designated segments of information in artificially individualised situations. There is, broadly speaking, little room for genuine input from the children, or indeed for the notion that the adults might not know all that there is to be known about a given topic. There is even less time for the idea that if a child has "failed" to "learn" what has been "taught", the fault might lie with the teaching method and not with the child.
In an unschooling model (which you can read about, among other places, here), children are given a safe, interesting space to explore, and resources are put at their disposal so that they can pursue whatever catches their imagination. Adults are available to help if they are needed, and so are peers. Children are enabled thus to develop a sophisticated view of the world over time, through experience and with reference to their own interests. There is no need to memorise abstract sets of data that have no immediate relevance to the learner - although if the learner wishes to read exhaustively on a particular subject, that's fine. The idea is that if a piece of knowledge is inherently useful or interesting to a given learner (e.g. reading, counting, measuring, knowing how to plan a travel route, why a building looks the way it does, how you can overcome practical obstacle X, what sort of books emerge from a particular society), that learner will take steps to acquire it. "Subjects" meld into one another in ways that are unique to each learner, and nobody breathes down the learner's neck screaming, "HOW can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"
This makes so much more sense to me than the traditional model that I get - literally - weepy and shaky whenever I think about it for any length of time. Eventually, I hope to be able to integrate those emotions and speak about the subject with some semblance of rationality.
*removes ranty pants*
2. Next time I come to Dublin, I'd like to meet up with you: where shall we go and what shall we do?
I think we should go somewhere for a relaxed lunch - maybe the Silk Road Cafe in the Chester Beatty Library (where the Oyster and I lunched withhfnuala in August), or Queen of Tarts, or La Maison des Gourmets. Then we could wander around a market, if we wanted, or visit a location of kulsher, or go and sit somewhere pleasant and natter. Hooray! When are you coming?
3. Describe your favourite tart.
She's about 5'8", a natural blonde, curvy and very elegant, with dark blue eyes and full lips, dressed in a fantasy-late-Victorian style, perhaps a wine-coloured velvet dress trimmed with silk ribbon, setting off a fabulous (and also natural) cleavage. She is a consummate professional. Her price-list manages to be at once subtle, eclectic, utterly tasteful and breathtakingly sexy.
Oh. Wait. You meant...
*adjusts clothing*
A really high-quality berry-and-custard concoction, French-style, with pastry that is moist but not soggy, firm but not chewy, thin but not insubstantial. And real crème anglaise. Mmmmmmmmm.
4. Is snow a good thing?
Yes! Snooooooow! (It doesn't happen very often in Dublin.)
5. Gerbils or hamsters?
Do I have to? *pouts* OK, if I pick hamsters, can I fit a small dynamo to their wheel and, like, charge my phone off it or something?
You know the deal: comment if you'd like questions!
The interview meme goes round and round,
Round and round,
Round and round;
The interview meme goes round and round,
All. Day. Long.
yonmei asked:1. What is "unschooling"?
Oh-KAY, ranty pants ON!
Unschooling is an attempt to minimise those aspects of the traditional school model that serve to stifle or warp the natural drive to explore and learn.
In the traditional school model, adults lay down the law about what's learnt, how and when. Children (mostly) sit silently while an adult presents chunks of material that are isolated both from each other and from the children's experience. Children's contributions are permitted and judged by the adult. At intervals, the children are called upon to demonstrate that they have absorbed what has been "taught" by regurgitating designated segments of information in artificially individualised situations. There is, broadly speaking, little room for genuine input from the children, or indeed for the notion that the adults might not know all that there is to be known about a given topic. There is even less time for the idea that if a child has "failed" to "learn" what has been "taught", the fault might lie with the teaching method and not with the child.
In an unschooling model (which you can read about, among other places, here), children are given a safe, interesting space to explore, and resources are put at their disposal so that they can pursue whatever catches their imagination. Adults are available to help if they are needed, and so are peers. Children are enabled thus to develop a sophisticated view of the world over time, through experience and with reference to their own interests. There is no need to memorise abstract sets of data that have no immediate relevance to the learner - although if the learner wishes to read exhaustively on a particular subject, that's fine. The idea is that if a piece of knowledge is inherently useful or interesting to a given learner (e.g. reading, counting, measuring, knowing how to plan a travel route, why a building looks the way it does, how you can overcome practical obstacle X, what sort of books emerge from a particular society), that learner will take steps to acquire it. "Subjects" meld into one another in ways that are unique to each learner, and nobody breathes down the learner's neck screaming, "HOW can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"
This makes so much more sense to me than the traditional model that I get - literally - weepy and shaky whenever I think about it for any length of time. Eventually, I hope to be able to integrate those emotions and speak about the subject with some semblance of rationality.
*removes ranty pants*
2. Next time I come to Dublin, I'd like to meet up with you: where shall we go and what shall we do?
I think we should go somewhere for a relaxed lunch - maybe the Silk Road Cafe in the Chester Beatty Library (where the Oyster and I lunched with
hfnuala in August), or Queen of Tarts, or La Maison des Gourmets. Then we could wander around a market, if we wanted, or visit a location of kulsher, or go and sit somewhere pleasant and natter. Hooray! When are you coming?3. Describe your favourite tart.
She's about 5'8", a natural blonde, curvy and very elegant, with dark blue eyes and full lips, dressed in a fantasy-late-Victorian style, perhaps a wine-coloured velvet dress trimmed with silk ribbon, setting off a fabulous (and also natural) cleavage. She is a consummate professional. Her price-list manages to be at once subtle, eclectic, utterly tasteful and breathtakingly sexy.
Oh. Wait. You meant...
*adjusts clothing*
A really high-quality berry-and-custard concoction, French-style, with pastry that is moist but not soggy, firm but not chewy, thin but not insubstantial. And real crème anglaise. Mmmmmmmmm.
4. Is snow a good thing?
Yes! Snooooooow! (It doesn't happen very often in Dublin.)
5. Gerbils or hamsters?
Do I have to? *pouts* OK, if I pick hamsters, can I fit a small dynamo to their wheel and, like, charge my phone off it or something?
You know the deal: comment if you'd like questions!
