I did a recording of my talk Against The Current, for the wonderful website The Unschooler Experiment, about a month ago. The Unschooler Experiment sets itself apart from pretty much all other unschooling sites in that it focuses on the stories and experiences of grown unschoolers themselves, instead of parents, and seeks to share information that's interesting and relevant to both grown unschoolers and parents of unschoolers (and grown unschooled parents of unschoolers, of course!).
And now I'm incredibly honored to be featured this whole week on that site, during The Week of the Idzie! My talk has been broken up into 7 essays, which will be followed by my reading of those essays in a podcast on day 8. I'm truly flattered, and also just can't help but be extremely amused by that title. "Week of the Idzie"... It sounds very much like something I'd declare dramatically and with great silliness to my family. "I declare this to be the Week of the Idzie!!" Anyway, a big thanks to Peter Kowalke and other awesome folks over at The Unschooler Experiment.
See all the Week of the Idzie posts here:
And read today's essay Against the Grain (Day 1 in the Week of the Idzie. It seems egocentric to get such a kick out of that title, but I can't help it!).
Remember the talk I did at the Toronto Unschooling Conference? It's posted in written format on this blog already (see part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4), and the recording of the talk is now available for download (it costs $5).
You can buy it at either The Unschoolers Emporium or through Lulu. It feels pretty cool though definitely weird that I talk I gave is for sale! Anyway, just thought I'd let you guys know.
I'm leaving for the Toronto Unschooling Conference tomorrow, along with my mother and sister, and will be back on Monday. As I've mentioned before, I'm going to be presenting a speech there, Entitled Unschooling is Forever. After the fact, I'll be posting the various sections of the speech on this blog over the next couple of weeks. Until I get back from Toronto, I wanted to give you a bit of a teaser: let you know the posts you'll be seing in the near future. The sections/points of the speech are as follows:
How I Became An Unschooler (modified from old post of that name)
"How Do You Learn?"
How Did My Parents Support Me?
Changing Parental Roles and Relationships in the Teen Years
The Teenage Years
Letting Go of Fear
Isolation and Socialization
Dealing With Doubters (slightly expanded version of old post Unschooling Questions)
The College and University Years (will probably become an article in Life Learning magazine, so will take longer to appear on this blog than the other subjects)
Where Do I Go From Here?
The Power of Life Learning
I hope everyone has a good weekend, and if you're going to be at the conference, I look forward to seeing you there! Also, feel free to send me some good luck vibes, because doing this speech is nerve-wracking!!
On the 25th, the day after tomorrow, I leave for the Northeast Unschooling Conference (along with my mother and sister). And I'm very excited for it!! I get to see so very many terrific people, I get to hear Peter Gray (author of the Psychology Today blog Freedom to Learn) speak, and meet Erica Goldson, the woman who did the wonderful and now famous anti-school valedictorian speech:
It should be a blast! My sister's birthday even happens to fall while we're there, so we'll be celebrating that as well. :)
After we arrive back home on the 31st, we're only here for a little while before we leave for the Toronto Unschooling Conference on the 9th! This is our first time going to this conference, and I'm looking forward to it! I'll also be speaking at that conference, doing a talk called Unschooling is Forever:
Unschooling is the realization that life and learning are not two separate things. Yet even with this realization, sometimes end-points start sneaking in. But in a philosophy such as this, can unschooling (life=learning) really end neatly, can you just unschool grade school or highschool, finish up with unschooling, then move on? Unschooling is to me, as I continue through what are usually considered the college years, not only the realization that life and learning are not separate, but also the realization that unschooling can be a lifelong process of growth and discovery. Learning is everywhere. School, be it elementary, high school, or institutions of “higher education”, is optional! I’ll talk about my lifelong journey of unschooling, my feelings on learning and education, and about what happens next for an unschooler when those "high school years" have finished.
I've done brief into then answer questions type talks several times now, and they no longer stress me at all really (actually, I really enjoy them!). But since this is more of a "real" speech, I was totally freaking out about it for a while, and panicking that I hadn't finished it yet (or, if I'm to be honest, started writing it at all...). However, as of last night, I just stopped stressing. And, surprise surprise, now that I'm more relaxed about it I've moved beyond having just a list of points and am now actually writing it! I just hope it goes well.
Then, after being home for less than a week, I'm off again on the 20th for Not Back To School Camp with my sister! I'm SO looking forward to this camp this year!! It's my last year as a camper, as I'll be "graduating", and I'm going to get as much goodness out of this last time as I can. It's a great camp!
For all three of these events, I plan to bring along my small point-and-shoot camera that also happens to record video (of not great quality, but good enough for YouTube!). Because I was thinking, since SO many unschoolers have such awesome things to say, but don't talk much online, people are missing out on hearing their insights and thoughts. So I figured it would be a really cool project to record short (5-8 minute) interviews on unschooling with as many people as are interested in being a part of this! I'm not making any type of documentary or anything: I'd just post the interviews, individually, on my YouTube channel and this blog. So if you're going to be at one of these events and are interested in being a part of this, come find me and let me know!
Also, whether or not you want to be interviewed, if you're going to be at one of these places, come say hi! I love meeting new people, and since it's been nearly a year since my last paralyzing bout of shyness (at Northeast last year, I kind of flipped out for the first couple of days and was just really really shy), I'll probably even be really outgoing and talkative! ;-) Looking forward to seeing many old friends, and meeting many new ones...
As the early registration deadline comes closer, I wanted to tell my readers about the Toronto Unschooling Conference. Happening in September, it's the only Canadian unschooling conference (conference, not gathering) that I know of, and I'm excited to be going for the first time!!
I'm also both excited and totally terrified that I'll be speaking there, not just attending. I've done talks on unschooling before, but only introductory ones, where I give a short speech then answer lots of questions. But this time I'm doing a *real*, non-introductory speech. A LONG one (minimum 45 minutes). I can't help but find this slightly terrifying. Also exciting, though, so I'm just trying to look at it as a challenge and have faith that I can manage it!
I haven't written up a proper description yet (I need to, and will, very soon, at which point I'll link to it on my Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as the Speaking At page on this blog), but basically what I'll be talking about is unschooling in the teenage and college years, not going to college, and stuff like that... I have some scattered ideas, they just need to be drawn together and fleshed out to create a proper talk!
In other interesting news, a past article/post of mine that you may remember, The Necessity of Shakespeare, appears in the July/August issue of Life Learning Magazine, a terrific online magazine about all things life learning/unschooling. It's edited by probably my favorite big name unschooling advocate, Wendy Priesnitz, and I'm thrilled for my article to be included in an issue that also includes an article by a marvelous author (of 101 Reasons Why I'm an Unschooler) and online friend Peggy Pirro, as well as awesome unschooling mom, writer, and Twitter friend Kelly Hogaboom. Yeah. Lots of cool people!
Annnd, that's about it for updates, at the moment. I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed and drained lately (not to mention emotionally volatile), so I can't promise there will be all that many posts in the near future, but, as always, when inspiration strikes I will write!
I hope all my lovely readers are enjoying the (extremely hot, if you happen to be in certain places) summer weather!
