You may have noticed that I haven’t been posting much.

Part of the reason is that we’ve been traveling and hanging out and not thinking much about our “process” or how what we do each day does or does not contribute to our learning.

But a larger part of it has to do with the fact that more and more often I find that people who I thought were in my “camp”, aren’t.  At least when it comes to particular subjects, many of them unrelated to unschooling and life learning.   Nonetheless, I find that expressing my own opinions – even in the familiar realm of unschooling – takes more courage than it once did because I am no longer assured of support from people I thought would always support me, even when we disagreed.

Then this week I found myself at odds with the views of Jon Stewart and in agreement with those of Glenn Beck.   What is happening?    Was that sound I just heard hell freezing over?

None of the “camps” to which I used to belong are sure they want me as a member anymore, and the feeling is mutual.

So I am de-camping.

My views do not fit any particular label, at least not fully, so I will stop trying to find one that fits.  I’m not vehemently anti much of anything except hatred, and even then I do my best to understand its origin.

On the unschooling front, most of Maya’s friends are going into high school this year and though I’m happy she isn’t, I find that I can’t get too worked up about the mass exodus from homeschooling.  I figure everyone is doing what they think is best and besides, my husband’s family is spending their summer break running to and from bomb shelters.   There are worse things in the world than our friends going to school.

I still believe that life learning/self-directed learning is the only true form of learning on the planet, and I will help anyone who wants to give it a shot.   I will talk about it to anyone who wants to listen, and probably to some who don’t, but I don’t have all the answers.   I don’t know how to make it available to those living in abject poverty, or to kids who don’t have a supportive home life to guide them.   I have ideas on how it might work, but in summers like these, distractions are many and I find myself drawing in, keeping close.   Are my own kids healthy and safe?   Is my family in Indiana ok and is Joshua’s in Israel out of harms way?

Revolutionizing learning around the world might have to wait.

But then again….

Over the past few years, Arlo Guthrie has ended his Carnegie Hall concerts with the song “My Peace”.   The lyrics were written by his Dad, Woody Guthrie, and set to music by Arlo many years later.   It goes like this:

My peace my peace is all I’ve got that I can give to you
My peace is all I ever had it’s all I ever knew
I give my peace to green and black and red and white and blue
My peace my peace is all I’ve got that I can give to you

My peace, my peace is all I’ve got and all I’ve ever known
My peace is worth a thousand times more than anything I own
I pass my peace around and round ‘cross hands of every hue;
My peace, my peace is all I’ve got that I can give to you

Arlo says that he believes if we take care of the little peace inside ourselves, the bigger peace will take care of itself.

Maybe the same can be said for life learning.  If every kid who learns outside of school grows and thrives in life passing their experience along, maybe somehow – eventually – learning will revolutionize the world round.

Now there’s a thought worth spreading.