Comments on: Structure and learning in the homeschool environment http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/ If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? --Psalm 11:3 Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:44:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: JJ Ross http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-900339 JJ Ross Wed, 14 May 2008 01:51:51 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-900339 So refreshing, thanks CW! So refreshing, thanks CW!

]]> By: Crimson Wife http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-900009 Crimson Wife Wed, 14 May 2008 01:21:22 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-900009 Y'all are invited over my place for a <a href="http://bendingthetwigs.blogspot.com/2008/05/virtual-mimosas-for-all-homeschooling.html" rel="nofollow">virtual mimosa</a> in your choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic version :-) Y’all are invited over my place for a virtual mimosa in your choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic version :-)

]]> By: Dana http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-899053 Dana Tue, 13 May 2008 23:09:58 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-899053 LOTP, the Muppets and a Mimosa sound good. Maybe we could concoct something and tune in to YouTube? But the closest thing I have to Mimosa in the house would be grape juice mixed with cooking sherry. LOTP, the Muppets and a Mimosa sound good. Maybe we could concoct something and tune in to YouTube? But the closest thing I have to Mimosa in the house would be grape juice mixed with cooking sherry.

]]> By: Life On The Planet http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-898896 Life On The Planet Tue, 13 May 2008 22:55:45 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-898896 "teel"? I think that was tell! Alas, I too need to improve my editing skills. (If I'd had a Mamoosa, that wouldn't have happened!) “teel”? I think that was tell! Alas, I too need to improve my editing skills.

(If I’d had a Mamoosa, that wouldn’t have happened!)

]]> By: Life On The Planet http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-898854 Life On The Planet Tue, 13 May 2008 22:52:47 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-898854 First of all, let me say that I adore Gonzo. His performance in Muppets from Space was extraordinary! Second, I would like to teel you that I am rather hurt that you guys have been having Mamoosas without me. I thought we were buds! First of all, let me say that I adore Gonzo. His performance in Muppets from Space was extraordinary!

Second, I would like to teel you that I am rather hurt that you guys have been having Mamoosas without me. I thought we were buds!

]]> By: JJ Ross http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-898571 JJ Ross Tue, 13 May 2008 22:27:35 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-898571 Good point sunniemom, and LOL - you make me think of a Ray Bradbury short story called "October Country" in which the main character becomes convinced that his own skeletal structure is literally dissolving within his body, a life-ending problem because there will be no "him" without that definition by structure . . . which come to think of it, I used a year or two ago in a Culture Kitchen blog essay about cultural structures like factory and school schedules, that might actually connect to the ideas under discussion here? <blockquote><a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/jj_ross/story/we_the_clockkeepers_our_tyranny_of_time" rel="nofollow">"We the Clockkepepers: Our Tyranny of Time"</a> . . .If time is the skeletal dimension that supports all human experience of life, and we can feel it dissolving out from under us, then is it time to measure the rate of decline and and apportione blame and retribution even as we dissolve, or is the only accountability that counts STOPPING it somehow?! My daughter and I read a feminist mind-bending book,"A Sideways Look at Time," in which Jay Griffiths powerfully argues that both Church and State have used time ruthlessly and intentionally to enslave women and children, taking our pagan wildtime that once belonged freely to our own lives, and tightly regulating every minute of it one way or another, altering our rhythms and cycles -- insinuating lordly controls in the words of our common language, into what we're taught as fact both at home and in school, invisibly shaping how we interact as friends and partners and parents and children. In this view of "time" as a noun, it is a synonym for oppression. I'm melting, I'm melting . . . What is a prison sentence or job, traffic school, summer school, all school, the military draft or income taxes, required yard maintenance and community service, after all, but a taking of your time? The only thing that makes it less threatening to our freedom is the degree to which we give our time rather than having it taken by force, as a stay-at-home mom like me does perhaps, or the way my 12-year-old nephew Philip plays championship baseball, in the moment and temporal eternity all at the same time. . .</blockquote> Good point sunniemom, and LOL - you make me think of a Ray Bradbury short story called “October Country” in which the main character becomes convinced that his own skeletal structure is literally dissolving within his body, a life-ending problem because there will be no “him” without that definition by structure . . . which come to think of it, I used a year or two ago in a Culture Kitchen blog essay about cultural structures like factory and school schedules, that might actually connect to the ideas under discussion here?

“We the Clockkepepers: Our Tyranny of Time”

. . .If time is the skeletal dimension that supports all human experience of life, and we can feel it dissolving out from under us, then is it time to measure the rate of decline and and apportione blame and retribution even as we dissolve, or is the only accountability that counts STOPPING it somehow?!

My daughter and I read a feminist mind-bending book,”A Sideways Look at Time,” in which Jay Griffiths powerfully argues that both Church and State have used time ruthlessly and intentionally to enslave women and children, taking our pagan wildtime that once belonged freely to our own lives, and tightly regulating every minute of it one way or another, altering our rhythms and cycles — insinuating lordly controls in the words of our common language, into what we’re taught as fact both at home and in school, invisibly shaping how we interact as friends and partners and parents and children.

In this view of “time” as a noun, it is a synonym for oppression.

I’m melting, I’m melting . . .
What is a prison sentence or job, traffic school, summer school, all school, the military draft or income taxes, required yard maintenance and community service, after all, but a taking of your time? The only thing that makes it less threatening to our freedom is the degree to which we give our time rather than having it taken by force, as a stay-at-home mom like me does perhaps, or the way my 12-year-old nephew Philip plays championship baseball, in the moment and temporal eternity all at the same time. . .

]]> By: Sunniemom http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-898425 Sunniemom Tue, 13 May 2008 22:14:14 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-898425 Sometimes our instinctive reaction to the word 'structure' is to picture a solid exterior that is for containment, but I prefer to think of structure as a framework around and on which we can build....anything. So structure in that sense gives <i>more</i> freedom, less restriction, while still having form and function. Sometimes our instinctive reaction to the word ’structure’ is to picture a solid exterior that is for containment, but I prefer to think of structure as a framework around and on which we can build….anything. So structure in that sense gives more freedom, less restriction, while still having form and function.

]]> By: Dana http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-896668 Dana Tue, 13 May 2008 19:29:08 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-896668 Good points. We tend to think of "structure" in narrow terms. I was trying to show the difference between the externally applied structure of the school system other ways of maintaining structure. The school system's structure certainly serves its purpose and I'm not going to argue that it is bad or necessarily harms children. It just isn't the only way. And regardless of how well it serves certain purposes, it doesn't mean that that is the only way to achieve the same purpose, ie., a productive and engaged citizen. Who hopefully can participate in a civil discussion on the internet at the very least. Good points. We tend to think of “structure” in narrow terms. I was trying to show the difference between the externally applied structure of the school system other ways of maintaining structure. The school system’s structure certainly serves its purpose and I’m not going to argue that it is bad or necessarily harms children. It just isn’t the only way. And regardless of how well it serves certain purposes, it doesn’t mean that that is the only way to achieve the same purpose, ie., a productive and engaged citizen.

Who hopefully can participate in a civil discussion on the internet at the very least.

]]> By: JJ Ross http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-896498 JJ Ross Tue, 13 May 2008 19:09:48 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-896498 Back to the original point of home education "structure" -- we are radical unschoolers and have no school-like structure whatsoever to our days. There IS no school day, for us. Also no school curriculum or calendar or vacation, no school standards or schoolwork or homework, et cetera. Our family would look pretty traditionally structured, though. As would our house and neighborhood, civic and consumer activities, and entertainment choices. And I do believe that arguments benefit from a high degree of academic structure! :) Back to the original point of home education “structure” — we are radical unschoolers and have no school-like structure whatsoever to our days. There IS no school day, for us. Also no school curriculum or calendar or vacation, no school standards or schoolwork or homework, et cetera.

Our family would look pretty traditionally structured, though. As would our house and neighborhood, civic and consumer activities, and entertainment choices.

And I do believe that arguments benefit from a high degree of academic structure! :)

]]> By: Dana Hanley http://principleddiscovery.com/2008/05/09/structure-and-learning-in-the-homeschool-environment/#comment-896073 Dana Hanley Tue, 13 May 2008 18:34:39 +0000 http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=964#comment-896073 Mimosas. Not Mimosa's. :) Mimosas. Not Mimosa’s. :)

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