Jane Ternavsky

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a child in possession of a good instructor must be in want of an education. Alas, kids don’t care. It’s impossible to demand inspiration, passion, or self-discipline without affinity for learning. Let me rephrase that: you can’t coerce caring. Adults try! We use grades, little statues, and ice cream sundaes to prod kids into reading, diagramming sentences, and practicing piano. Meanwhile that same child will stand in the hot sun for five hours shooting free throws to break a personal record. No reward except satisfaction. How do we get more of that into traditional school subjects?”
― Julie Bogart, The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life

“Above all, each and every one of us must keep asking questions. Why? Because in education, lives are always on the line, and it’s up to people like you—people with courage—to begin to say aloud, “The old way isn’t working.” It’s time to dive into the world of unschooling to find the leaders of tomorrow”
― Clark Aldrich, Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education

“Children need to spend as much time as possible around the adults who love them. Ideally, this means parents and grandparents. It can also mean the right aunt or uncle. This is because children need to be around adults who care about their long-term future. Not their behavior next week, or next season, but 10 or 15 years from now. The alternatives are necessarily grim. Children become pawns in systems. They are used to meet contrived short-term goals. Teachers use them to get good test scores. Coaches use them to win games. They become the recipient of shortcuts. And their time is auctioned off.”
― Clark Aldrich, Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education

“Those defending the current educational system will predictably demand that every new approach to education should meet a threshold no old approach even comes close to meeting. It is a near-perfect deflection strategy. But it is ultimately a bluff that needs to be called out.”
― Clark Aldrich, Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education