Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Continuum Concept
What you see here is a photo of my favorite book.
It's not an unschooling book - it's more like a renegade anthropology book.
But anyway, the "continuum concept" described within is the backbone of my educational philosophy. And that backbone is a belief that children do not really learn by being taught. They learn by observation, experience, and just teaching themselves whatever interests them.
It was through discussing The Continuum Concept that I came to meet many unschoolers.
It also just so happens that the book has many brilliant insights into the psychology of humanity and childrearing as well!
I think that anyone who is interested in unschooling, or even interested in people, would do themselves a serious favor by reading this book. The problem is I get so emotional about it that I can't explain it! But here is some good information about it:
http://www.continuum-concept.org
Please note that one of my fave authors, John Holt, is quoted on the cover as saying, "If the world could be saved by a book, this just might be the book."
I'm not sure if there is time anymore for this book to save the world, but so far it's done a great job of saving thousands of families!
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In my attachment parenting/unschooly journey, I never got around to reading this book, but now I think I'll have to make time to do so. I'm especially intrigued by what you said about what the book has to say about how people learn more and better through their own observation, experience, and exploration more than being taught.
ReplyDeleteThe Strib headline from yesterday was "Obama: We Must Change Education." And my thought was, yes! But I don't think the change should be longer school hours and starting school at an even earlier age (Obama's idea), my response was "Let's immediately abolish compulsory education!"
Now c'mon over and comment on my blog so it doesn't look so deserted over there!