Archive for April, 2003

Competition: a negative force in education?

By Fred McArdle
[This article was written when I was a lecturer in a teacher education course, and before we undertook home education. It still makes sense to me].

Competition is normally interpreted as competing in some sort of race to win, usually for self-centred reasons and to “prove” something.
Climbing a mountain or going bushwalking, on the other hand, is working together with somebody to see the scenery and to feel the achievement, to smell the scents, to breathe the air, and to present oneself with a challenge, to stretch one’s horizons. The walking or climbing is most often done in a group, where each member has the duty to support each other member, and each has the right to expect to be supported in the challenging environment, so that in the end all members have achieved and can enjoy the view with a sense of satisfaction and joy. …

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Eclectic Heretic Homeschooler

By Lisa Donnelly
I read with great interest the article in a recent Home Education Magazine defending unschooling to structured schoolers. In my neck of the woods, the shoe seems to be permanently on the other foot. I can’t count the times I’ve heard my fellow homeschoolers, most of whom unschool, utter conventional proverbs such as, [...]

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So He Drew

He always
He always wanted to explain things,
but no one cared,
So he drew.

Sometimes he would just draw and it wasn’t anything.
He wanted to carve it in stone or write it in the sky. …

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