New term. I have a desk bowing under curriculum & our umbrella school has a list of requirements that must be met. There are books to be read, maps to be mapped, diagrams & quizzes, outcomes to meet & goals that have been set & all just for Ditz but sometimes I wonder why I bother. I really do.We should be unschoolers. I can't; I just can't, ok. Unschooling is way to scary but unschooling is what we should do because in amongst all the *required* stuff there is the other agenda; the Ditz agenda. You heard me correctly. That would be the school~is~boring~I~don't~want~to do~that~do~I~have~to? Ditz.
I actually sort of like this other Ditz. This Ditz is a mini~me with a lot more sass. I gotta wonder about this child though. In the middle of church the child turns to me & goes, 'This is what I want to learn about this term.' Not the time!
Besides, I think scratching my head over her *list*, we've done Roman Numerals. However I think when we did Roman Numerals Ditz didn't have a purpose for them & let them fall through the holes in her head. She's got plenty of those so they disappeared fast. Now, however, Ditz is cross because she can't work out which chapter she's in in all those books that use Roman Numerals instead of regular ones & naturally it is all my fault because why didn't I make her learn them back in the day? Why indeed? Couldn't possibly have anything to do with my student by any chance? Hm? Hm?
OK, so we get to learn about Roman Numerals ~ again. I can do Roman Numerals. It's algebra I think is stupid & incomprehensible but then I don't want to build things where I have to guess anything. Then my beautiful, wonderful, sassy, intelligent Ditz turns to me & says, 'And gypsies. I want to learn about Gypsies.' Not a problem. I can do Gypsies. I wait. There's always a catch to these things & one day, when Ditz goes, I bet you don't know, she will be right. I won't know...but it wasn't yesterday.
'I bet you don't know what Gypsies were first called?' Egyptians. Ditz is used to me & not about to be defeated at the first hurdle. She has armed herself with spare ammunition. 'Well, I bet you don't know what else they were called?' Zyganni. Romany. [Yeah, I know. It's sad the stuff I know.] 'Well, I bet you didn't know...' but what my bright, intelligent, witty, sassy Ditz hasn't quite fathomed yet, because the prospect is just too horrifying, is that her mind is very like mine; A small matter of genetics which belongs to that other field of little interest to Ditz, science.
I can probably tell her more off the top of my head about gypsies than she'll ever want to know ~ & for the same reasons as she's interested. It the thick [very think] A4 spiral~back notebook, one of several floating around this house & marked PRIVATE in large letters & decorated with skulls & crossbones & threats of what will happen to anyone who disregards the PRIVATE warning is The Book! This is Ditz's best seller a la Harry Potter [& probably derived from that source] & about to send me broke keeping my wanna be author supplied in lined notepaper. She hasn't worked her way up to the keyboard & ink stage yet.
People, I am drowning in paper but do you think I can worm one intsy~teensy tiny bit of creative writing out of Ditz to send in with her English work? Nope! Not a one. Boring. Dull. The sad thing is I get this. I actually really, really do. See paragraph 6. Actually, sadly, I get a lot of Ditz. Why should she have to do math she will never use because it is supposed to be good for her? Why should she write book reports when she will never write another book report in her life? Mind you I'm not allowed to nab one of her CV's [that she's put together all by herself] for the non~fiction aspect of her English either. Why should she share a work in progress? She knows as well as I do sharing an unfinished work kills it deader than a doornail. Frankly, Ditz's agenda is far more intrinsically interesting than the set curriculum ~ & far more useless. That's the rub, isn't it? All the really interesting stuff is completely useless. I mean, what do you do with a lot of extraneous knowledge about gypsies & the life cycles of dragons? Oh, right, you write best sellers. *smacks head* Silly me!
12 comments:
Oh, Ditz sounds like she'll be a VERY interesting adult!
She sounds as if she'll learn what she needs to learn, but ONLY when she finds it relevant. :P
Blessings,
Jillian
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lol Jillian, this is the 2nd bright nut case I've had to deal with. It's head banging stuff. My oldest is now doing such elitist stuff only the best of the best in his field have even heard of this stuff. They run rings round the teachers in a regular classroom & goof off ~ 2 things not possible at home...well not to that extent. ☺ I can't afford to think how smart Ditz is ~ I'd cry. I just try to make sure she's got the tools to help herself when she's ready.
Isn't all we learn irrelevant until it is useful?
In my case it's still irrelevant. Why would I want to know anything even remotely useful?! lol ☺
Ganeida, you are a treasure!
Well, I knew Gypsys were Romany. In fact, I think the woman who came to my door once, selling handmade lace, called herself Romany. (The accent was pretty thick.) And I only did Algebra because my dad said I couldn't graduate unless I did. But I still have this lingering idea that some things ought to be done simply for the sake of discipline.
Like now, I should go put clothes in a closet or something. Who says they look better with creases instead of wrinkles???
honestly i'd like to do the unschooling thing too. I so see the sense in it. I think of all the material Amelia and I slogged through that she didn't remember the slightest smidgen of 6 months later... sigh. And then she up and reads something on her own and retains every last and slightest bit of info contained therein. all just because it was what interested her. It makes all of the fighting and slogging seem so fruitless, even more than that- it seems counterproductive.
But do I dare to throw all of the curriculum and grade levels and achievement testing out the window? Not on your sweet life. lol
WOW. Try sending a report to your umbrella school marked "private" and see how far it gets ya. :p
MamoO: I thought there were *suppossed* to be wrinkles!
Persuaded: You nailed it! Do Ditz & Amelia share a brain?
MrsC: Don't tempt me! I already sneak round nabbing stuff Ditz doesn't want nabbed because she won't share & it is no good telling everyone she is this brilliant shining spark. I have to *prove* it. *sigh*
Being that I was immersed in teaching within private schools for 12 years prior to homeschooling, the entire unschooling idea was shocking to me. After 8 years of homeschooling of which the past 3 years I've been so ill, I can compare my more "perfectionistic" years of teaching here to my "doing the best we can" years. Well...we got our standardized test scores in the mail last week and what I have to say is the kiddos scores have not dropped, but improved! Pass out...and to think I was feeling so guilty. Now, we have not been unschooling, but some days we border on it and we just do what we can, the best we can. I think if a child is an advid reader, they can learn about anything they need to. Math...now that's another thing....
I also meant to tell you that the photo has given me such a joy moment! Just love it.
lol That is such a Ditz pic! I love it too.
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