by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

SELF DIRECTED LEARNING & LIVING

What does it mean to be self directed? Most people consider that they are self directed. They will believe they make decisions freely for themselves and their families and that they are autonomous in their lives to a large extent. This confidence in the idea of being self directed extends to beliefs. Most of us argue that our beliefs are our beliefs because we chose them. It seems that way I know but it is not hard to understand that we are highly influenced by family background and social conditioning.

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by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

RAISING THE FUTURE – PODCAST SERIES

CLICK TO PLAY A fascinating and uplifting conversation with Professor Peter Gray to start our new podcast series Peter Gray, Ph.D., research professor at Boston College, is author of Free to Learn (Basic Books, 2013) and Psychology (Worth Publishers, a college textbook now in its 7th edition). He has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental, and educational psychology. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Rockefeller University. His current research and writing focus primarily on children’s natural ways of

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by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

What is learning anyway?

An excerpt from ‘Jump, Fall, Fly’ written by Anthony Eldridge Rogers One of the main focuses of unschooling is related to learning. And out of this come many of the insecurities about alternative learning lifestyles like unschooling. It revolves around our beliefs and experiences of learning ourselves. So first of all let us get clear about learning. I love dictionaries and for this section I decided to look again at how the Collins dictionary defines learning. It is worth reproducing here as you will see. So first Learning is defined

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by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

UNSCHOOLING – A MESSY AND BOISTEROUS WAY OF LIVING

I like order. I like planning, arranging and having things just so and in their place. This way I can feel more in control, more able to measure outcomes and anticipate events. I should say that only a part of me is like that, as other parts of me resist it. Somehow, as soon as it is all ordered I feel something has lessened. Something vital. Something that is trying to get out. Like a trapped breath. Eventually it does. We have to breathe, as breath is life. And as

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by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

Where are all the men then?

If you look around at the debate about unschooling and alternative education it can seem as if it’s a debate and discussion that involves more women than men. When you look at the people who influence and decide policy at government level it seems that we have more male voices together getting everyone’s attention and making decisions that we may or may not like. More men in positions of power right? It’s important that, as we look at how to abandon the industrial revolution ship of education and strike out

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by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

What Unschooling has taught me about Coaching

This talk by a 12 year old is, well, simply, inspiring. My main take away is how much I can learn from children… For many of the reasons (that the video illuminates) about the wonderful way the young human being, kids, are naturally in the world, we have decided that we would pursue Unschooling as a way of life while our children are young. As you might have guessed our children don’t go to school. It’s a decision we came to as a family over the course of a long

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by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

Chocolate, betrayal and a morning after headache

Two things happened this week that on first glance appear unrelated. But then, as we know, when we look a little closer and reflect on it we see that everything is connected and related. So first. In my professional life this week I found out that someone close to me could not actually be trusted. Real bummer. I have had all the feelings that seem to arise in these situations. Anger, sadness, resentment, perplexity, self-blame, blame and so on. And yes, I felt very betrayed. But then trust is high

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by Anthony Eldridge-Rogers in

The Importance of Ignorance

Ignorance is one of those words that has a bad reputation. If someone is called Ignorant it means stupid, or something similar. And it can be used to insult people. It is a primed word and has what we call ‘baggage’. But as I have become older I have had that dizzy, exciting and surprising experience of realising that I am amazingly ignorant about an almost infinitive number of things in this world. The realisation that the more I know the less I know I know might be considered a

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