From Eli Gerzon & Idzie Desmarais

Eli and Idzie are both grown unschoolers.   Earlier this month, Eli wrote a blog post titled “Radical Unschooling: The Negative Post”.    In it – and I really hope you won’t just settle for my brief synopsis but go read it yourself – he discusses some problems he has with the philosophy of radical unschooling in which, as he sees it  the main objective or distinction is a”concentration on not forcing their children to do anything or impose any rules.”

Enter Idzie, who wrote a response on her own blog titled “Critiquing the Radical Unschooling Critique”.  Her main criticism – and again, please go read it for yourself –  is that she feels Eli is generalizing and giving to the entire unschooling community traits which really only apply to a few.

I love both posts.  They are thoughtful, intelligent and respectful; qualities so often lacking in any kind of debate or discourse in which people disagree.   I might have missed Idzie’s post had Eli not mentioned it on his own Facebook page, with this intro: ” Idzie, a fellow grown unschooler who also blogs and speaks about unschooling, wrote a response to my post critiquing radical unschooling a few weeks ago.   I really appreciate that she wrote it. But maybe I’ll write a critique of her critique of my critique of radical unschooling. In the meantime, I’m curious what other people think.”

Appreciation instead of condescension?  Healthy discussion about differing points of view?

You know what I think?

I think that Eli and Idzie are both great ambassadors for unschooling.

 

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