Thursday, November 29, 2012

Articles, Reading and writing

Some articles I've enjoyed this week:
Living and Learning as a Father
Beth Terry on "Greenwashing"
Online shopping with toddlers
Stuff we're going to try with pallets (well, some of it anyway)
Positive thinking and Global warming (thanks Connie!)

On Wednesday, for the first time in what seemed like forever, I bought a kindle book for pleasure and started reading. It's not that I haven't procrastinated, watched random downloaded shows with Eug, and had adventures, but yesterday I stepped into a book for the first time since I began my PhD, and it was lovely. It is John Holt's How Children Learn, which has a simple message:

Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple- or more difficult. Difficult, because to trust children we must trust ourselves...

I know John Holt is immediately associated with a particular parenting stance and I want to hold those ideas loosely. Noah doesn't know when I'm trying a particular parenting idea and there's nothing he hates more than my "parenting voice", or the voice when I'm trying to be the adult. Or the voice when I'm trying to get him to do things.

2 comments:

leah said...

Ahem, Jo, I'm happy for you but I still think that reading about better parenting is part of WORK not PLEASURE. At least it is for me....

I like a lot about what John Holt writes but I don't recommend Escape from Childhood because some of the ideas cross the line into craziness that crazy people would think up when they're teachers and not parents. I think maybe the one you're reading and also Teach Your Own are written after he had kids and he became a more rational human being.

Concrete Gardener said...

I can't speak to his other books as this is the first one I've read (only quotes in other books and bits here and there) , but I like that he speaks about the limitations of the scientific method and that it's very story-based so far (I'm 21% of the way through). So far it's mainly a diary of his time with a couple of kids, and what they liked and didn't like.