On days like I’ve been having lately, when I feel like unschooling is the craziest thing I could do with my children, it really helps me get back on track when I read other unschoolers blogs. There are so many out there and it’s tons of fun to hop on the unschooling blog ring and jump from site to site. The unschooling world is rich with textures of so many different people and I love having a window into their world. It helps me feel connected. One thing that many seem to have in common is a liberal/crunchy leaning. They are all very gung-ho on protecting the environment, la leche, wicca, and countless other things that would take so much time to mention. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things at all. Why am I talking about this? Because I feel like an odd unschooler after seeing these commonalities between blogs. I have a hard time believing that scientists can definitively say what the cause is of global warming (gasp!), tried to breastfeed my kids but found the local la leche people to be nazi-like in their determination to get me to keep breastfeeding, am very moderate in my political beliefs and don’t really have any spiritual beliefs to speak of. Not to mention I live in the South where God is a big part of life down here which means I don’t exactly fit in with the other homeschoolers either.
I told you all of that to say that I feel like a platypus in the world of radical unschooling. You know what though. I also feel like it’s ok. Other unschoolers probably will not judge me harshly for my beliefs. Do I think school-at-home homeschoolers would? I believe a good majority of them would, yes. That’s what I love about RU. While the principles and ideas about parenting are very strongly similar, the people who hold those beliefs can be as different as snowflakes. Yes, many share commonalities politically speaking, but after reading their blogs I can see that they are people rich with differences as well. And while my political views are wildly different from many of the high-profile unschoolers I share their views on parenting and feel a part of the RU family. Does this seem schizophrenic to anyone else??
A side note, the other day I mentioned that I was considering reading Rue Kream’s book aloud and recording it to a cassette so my husband could listen to it on his way to work. Well, I am happy to say that he was incredibly pleased with the effort I made to accommodate him. It was such a joy to see the look on his face when he found out what I was doing. See? Unschooling translates into all parts of your life, not just with your kids!
Scotty, thanks for your comment on my previous post! I tried to look at your blog but it was set to private. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment here, though. I appreciated it!
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