Talk:Sandra Dodd

Untitled
I've restored this per request of the user who first wrote it. I'll see if I can bring this up to standards in the meantime. Bear with me, OK? :) - Lucky 6.9 06:15, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Moved material
The first section could be reworked a bit and added at an appropriate place in the article; I'd hate to introduce error since I'm completely unfamiliar with the topic.

The quotes section is way too long for an article of this length. I'd say 3 quotes, tops.

The conferences setion: This isn't her calendar or a promotional site; her upcoming engagements don't belong here.JordeeBec 02:32, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Sandra Dodd is considered one of the foremost proponents of unschooling, also known as "natural learning", "child-led" learning or the more recent "whole-life learning". Speaking at conferences across the country and writing daily at several email lists and message boards, she brings the message of unschooling and mindful parenting to thousands. As an HEM columnist, she wrote eloquently and passionately about the way humans learn outside of school and sharing the lives of her own unschooled children with others. Their experiences are summarized best in her latest publication, "Moving a Puddle" which will be followed by a second book to be published this year (2006). She is a regular speaker at the annual Live and Learn unschooling conference and other events in the U.S. and Canada. She is one of the clearest voices amongst unschooling advocates. Many people believe unschooling is a pioneering effort that will eventually affect major social change and the way our country views education altogether.

Sandra Dodd quotes:
~"For those orderly folks who have life all neatly arranged in their heads, who do more accepting than questioning, unschooling is a disturbing thing."

~" The goal, for me, is that they will be thoughtful, compassionate, curious, kind and joyful. That's all. That's not asking much, is it? I think if those traits are intact in them, they will continue to learn their whole lives."

~"All the learning takes place inside the learner. None can be inserted by a teacher."

~" I think where unschooling and formality are side by side, unschooling will win out every time, because it's joyous and friendly. "

~"Deschooling means dismantling the overlay of school. Gradually (or just all of a sudden, if you have that ability) stop speaking and thinking in terms of grades, semesters, school-days, education, scores, tests, introductions, reviews, and performance, and replace those artificial strictures and measures with ideas like morning, hungry, happy, new, learning, interesting, playing, exploring and living. "

~"I've been a teacher. From that point of view the world IS most definitely revolving around years and semesters, school districts, standardized test schedules, federal title monies, school bus contracts, cafeteria funding, library cuts, parking-lot pavement... all kinds of stuff that has nothing much to do with kids, their hearts, spirits and ideas. Shuck it away. Don't live there. "

~"The best stuff is off on tangents, not on the prescribed trail. "

~"I'm completely sure of unschooling because I believe in people's desire and ability to learn wonderful things in quirky ways if they're given the opportunity."

~"I have known people who stopped playing, but I was never one of them."

~"Play with words, with ideas, with thoughts. Play with music. Play in the rain. Play in the dark. Play with your food."

~"Some people can't leave school because they're carrying it around like a snail and his shell. They live there, still. School became an ingrown, hard part of them. They still define themselves by their school failures and successes. "

~"Some people want to see unschooling while they're still teaching and putzing and assigning and requiring. They have to stop that first. And then they have to be still. And then they have to look at their children with new eyes. "

~"I'm an unschooler. Lessons are never over. On the other hand, lessons never really begin. Children's question are answered and an atmosphere of learning is created so that questions are constant and answers are never far away. "

~"No matter how your children learn, take a few more opportunities to share wonder and discovery with them. "

~"Here are my goals for my children: I want them to learn something every day. I want them to greet the morning with joy. I want them to see strangers as potential friends. I want their lives to be adventures without a map, where there are innumerable destinations, and unlimited opportunities for 'success.''

~"The really good thing about happiness is that it’s portable. It’s cheap. It doesn’t need a safety deposit box or an inheritance."

~My children have never asked, "Do we have to learn this?" They don't have to learn anything. So everything is equally fun for them. The joy of unexpected discovery is the substance of a typical unschooling day. "

~"Each little experience, every idea, is helping your child build his internal model of the universe. "

~" How you live in the moment affects how you live in the hour, and the day, and the lifetime."

~"Many unschoolers want to preserve their child’s journey to adulthood unmeasured, uncompared, and whole. It might seem crazy from the outside, but the disadvantage of testing is real. "

~"Because my children learned to read without having been taught, they have no doubt whatsoever that they could learn anything else."

~"We can live in the light of our shared knowledge and ideas, in freedom and with confidence, at the cutting edge of education’s future. "

~"Unschooling begins with a choice between going to school or not. How many millions of people are never given that choice? "

~"I really believe unschooling works best when parents trust a child's personhood, his intelligence, his instincts, his potential to be mature and calm. Take any of that away, and the child becomes smaller and powerless to some degree. "

~"Neediness expresses itself differently with different kids. Abundance expresses itself similarly in all. "

~"One who has freedom won't begrudge freedom in others. "

~"An abundance of love, of confidence, of self and of freedom will create a flow of respect from and toward a person. "

~"The most to be accomplished from punishing or sending bored kids away is that the kids will learn not to go to that parent for advice and ideas. "

Her "Certificate of Empowerment" can be found here: http://sandradodd.com/empowerment

The author's words about her book "Moving a Puddle": ~"The overall theme is how learning, parenting and everyday life can be in the absence of school, viewed from different vantage points over a dozen years. I hope there are ideas to help every reader, whether homeschooler or not, whether unschooler or not. Any parent or anyone who loves learning for fun should find something to help thoughts form and swirl."Conferences

Radical Unschooling
Does anyone working on this page know how to clearly define "radical unschooling" and differentiate it from other sorts of unschooling? The unschooling article needs someone knowledgeable about the subject to add a section about it.

It might also be a good idea to add a definition of the term on this page. Amillion 05:16, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Author of first American David Bowie fan letter
Should this be noted? Birth date adds up though not sure if a better citation is needed.

http://sandradodd.com/bowie Good enough. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.14.130.60 (talk) 00:19, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/my-real-name-is-david-jones.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.14.130.60 (talk) 23:51, 8 January 2013 (UTC)