We have found the internet to be invaluable in our unschooling and parenting adventure. When making choices out of the mainstream, the ability to connect with and draw from like minds across the world is such an amazing gift.

I personally have found a number of egroups to be essential in keeping on track and even getting opinions on challenges or problems. Obviously you should explore them yourself to establish what “works for you” but i hope that this rough, incomplete, impressionistic guide might help.

If i just read two it would be Always Unschooled and Consensual Learning… but depends on my needs at the time.

DISCLAIMER – the nature of egroups is that they vary depending on who is posting, lists grow and subside and change all the time. This is just my experience of some of them as of early April 07, consider this as a very subjective snap shot. Again find out for yourself by visiting them!

UNSCHOOLING

• Always Unschooled – “in which Radical Unschooling can be seriously discussed as a lifestyle that begins at birth”.
  This is one of the largest RU lists with over 1600 members. It is very active. It is also perhaps my favourite list with some very wise & experienced participants. I generally like the tone and the culture of the list which is generally compassionate and respectful. It is just hard to keep up with the posts and it moves so fast that it seems too hard to respond to anything. Still its a great one to lurk (just read) on.
  Some of the most active participants on the list also have young children and discussions often take up issues facing younger families.
• Always Learning – “It’s an idea group and is intended to lean more toward pure unschooling than neutral, general homeschooling discussion”.
  I have a love hate relationship with this egroup. I love the way it cuts to the chase and gets to the point so fast. BUT I also hate the way often this is done at the expense of some poor shmuck who goes and posts an innocent question. The answers are often reasonable but the tone can be quite unforgiving. I often read it wishing that the posters could spare the same compassion for the people they are replying too, as they seem to have for their children.
  That said it is interesting and very thought provoking if you can put up with the “unforgiving” nature of it.
• Crunchy Unschoolers – “A list for unschoolers who are interested in moving towards a sustainable lifestyle. “.
  I was so happy to find this list as it seemed to combine two quite disparate interests of unschooling and living green. It has a lot of potential but at this stage is still growing and has relatively low traffic.
• Unschooling Basics – “A list designed for those new to the philosophy of unschooling”.
  A good beginners area for people exploring the area and wanting to ask those basic questions. However occasionally heated debate initiated by people seemingly not interested in unschooling at all posting all sorts of stuff. Some very experienced and interesting unschoolers on this list though, so it is a regular haunt for my lurking.
• Unschooling dot com – “There is no one way to unschool. On this list, in this forum, we’ll explore what that means and help you find answers to your own unschooling questions. “.
  Tries to be a relatively pluralist and open list, based as a companion for www.unschooling.com.
• Unschooling Dads – “This list is a place for UNSCHOOLING Dads. “.
  I was impressed to find this list but having been on it for 4 months, there has not been a single post! A sad sign for unschooling dads!
• Free Thinking Unschoolers – “This is a place for people who are living life both without school AND without religion to talk openly in an uncensored forum. “.
  Interesting idea although I have rarely seen a post on this group on unschooling, or even parenting. If you are into off topic stuff, then this is the place to be.
• Unschooling Unschooling – “We prefer a kind and gentle tone to our discussions… a non-judgemental atmosphere of cooperative learning.”.
  Perhaps a reaction to the tone and culture I mentioned on lists like Always Learning, this list is quite new and yet to gather pace but aimed to be more compassionate.
• Australian Unschoolers – “This group welcomes all ‘home’ educators but focuses in particular on ‘natural’ - child controlled - learning and help with government ‘requirements’ for those living in N.S.W., Australia. “.
  Perhaps a little misleading to call this list “unschoolers” as it is quite broad with most participants having elements of natural learning but perhaps fitting more under a broader “homeschooling” banner. That said it is a lovely community of people and an important place for Australian homeschoolers to network and discuss all sorts of issues.
• Unschooling Around the World – “Would members of your unschooling family get a kick out of sending and receiving postcards from other unschooling families around the world? “.
  Not so much a discussion list more an opportunity to do the post card thing with unschoolers internationally. Cool idea

PARENTING

• Consensual Living – “Consensual living is a process, a philosophy, a mindset by which we seek to live in harmony with our families and community.”
  I love the mission statement and tone of this list. It is not an unschooling list at all but has much value to anyone trying to live in a non coercive relationship with their children.
• Mothering Discussion Board – “serve an online community of parents considering, learning and practicing attachment parenting and natural family living. Our discussions on the boards are about the real world of mothering and are first and foremost, for support and information. “
  Based around Mothering Magazine so it generally involves conscious mums but from a very, very broad perspective. My favourite sub categories are “learning at home” which has unschooling stuff which is less ‘purist’ than other lists and “gentle discipline”. There is a dad section but it does not get much discussion… so i mainly lurk here
• Unconditional Parenting – “a list about sharing how the book Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn has inspired us.”
  Based on Alfie Kohn’s work it is quite proscriptive about what the list is not. At the time of posting had quite low traffic.

======

also for you egroup junkies… this was posted to one of the lists and i just had to reproduce it here (it refers to motorcyclists because that was the egroup it was originally posted too, but substitute for any topic and it still works):

How many motorcyclists does it take to change a light bulb?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been
changed

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the
light bulb could have been changed differently

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs

6 to argue over whether it’s “lightbulb” or “light bulb” …

another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term
is “lamp”

15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that “light
bulb” is perfectly correct

19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please
take this discussion to a light bulb forum

11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light
bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum

36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where
to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for
this technique and what brands are faulty

5 People to post pics of their own light bulbs

15 People to post “I can’t see S$%^!” and their own light bulbs

7 to post URL’s where one can see examples of different light bulbs

4 to post that the URL’s were posted incorrectly and then post the
corrected URL’s

13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including
all headers and signatures, and add “Me too”

5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they
cannot handle the light bulb controversy

4 to say “didn’t we go through this already a short time ago?”

13 to say “do a search on light bulbs before posting questions about
light bulbs”

1 to bring politics into the discussion by adding that George W.
isn’t the brightest bulb.

4 more to get into personal attacks over their political views.

1 moderator to lock the light bulb thread.

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and
start it all over again.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS