By Gail Higgins
Posted on the Unschooling
Information Forum
Recently, Brenna (15) and I were
at our vet's and the vet was "grilling" her a bit about homeschooling. She (the vet) was asking if Brenna was taking trigonometry or calculus yet. Knowing this
woman's mindset (she's making her 6 year old flash cards so he will learn
phonics and she has already competed in two triathalons
this month) we chose OPTION # 1....and Brenna said,
"I've explored math in lots of different ways and I have the New SAT Study
Guide for Math to help out if I decide to take it in the fall. How did you do
in the Triathalons?"
I started thinking about how I really wanted to respond to
someone truly interested in Brenna's life right now
and open to listening a bit about unschooling. This
is part of what I'd want to say.
Brenna became interested in
politics during the 2000 elections and when we became unschoolers
she immersed herself in reading books about politics that she enjoyed. The past
couple of years I've heard both loud laughter and "other comments"
and as she read Al Franken, Michael Moore, and even
the more conservative set like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. I'm not hugely
political but last fall she and I both
volunteered for the Kerry campaign. I worked a bit but Brenna practically lived at the headquarters and walked
endless miles both registering and canvassing voters in our area.
John Edwards came to speak and the people at the democratic
headquarters made sure that Brenna had a front row
seat. (They also called us with tickets for John Kerry but we didn't quite make
it in time because I got lost!!). Following the election, this same group of
people asked her to be the youth representative for a new political action
group they were forming and she spent weekends working with them on mission
statements, goals, and logos.
They asked her to speak at the inital
meeting last Sunday. Over 100 people and they asked her to talk about how her
interests in politics
developed, why she volunteered and why she thought it was
important for youth to be active in organizations such as these. I was there,
of
course ,
and was just in awe of my 15 year old daughter speaking to a group of mostly
over 40 to 70 year olds about something she was so
passionate about.
I would say this to someone who really wanted to know about Brenna's unschooling life. No,
she hasn't taken trigonometry or calculus but she's pretty busy right now doing
all these other really cool things.
No, she hasn't taken social studies or government but she
just spent a couple of years reading all about the political process in the
No, she hasn't taken any English classes in high school but
she did just spend several weeks helping draft mission and goal statements for
a political action group.
No, she hasn't taken public speaking but she did just write
a speech and spoke in front of 100 people with incredible confidence and
passion.
There's someone who posts with a signature line from their
son who is six I believe..."It’s a small world but a big life." No,
she's not taking trigonometry or calculus right now. Too busy living a
"big life".