Nate Unschools in La Manzanilla

Before I left to see Nate in Mexico and catch up on what his “unschooling” was turning out to look like, I happened to have dinner with Susannah Sheffer. Susannah was for many years one of the primary advocates for unschooling, and editor of the newsletter Growing Without Schooling. I shared with her my concern over whether Nate was “really” unschooling, and asked her advice.

Her reply was immediate. “He is unschooling, “ she said. There’s no question about that. “The only question is whether it fits your idea of unschooling.”



Oh.

With that very helpful bit of advice, I left for Mexico just to see Nate. He and I had a wonderful time. And we had an amazing, intense week or so. Mostly free of my own idea of what I should see, I got to experience what he was making of being in a little town in Mexico rather than being in his seat in Camphill High School for the first bell at 7:40. He is learning Spanish seriously, and becomes ever-more fluent. He often declined to speak anything but Spanish with me.

I took some photographs of the kinds of “studies” he is involved in, and you’ll find them below. As usual, you can click on the small photographs to enlarge them.

This unschooling, for which my sister, Sylvia, was prime mover, has brought Nate the support of our family and friends in many ways. I felt the presence of my late friend Ivan Illich close to me.

When Nate was a baby coming along to our gatherings with me and his mom, I noticed Ivan leaning over Nate where he was lying on the carpet. He was nose-to-nose with the boy, draping his long hair over him to amuse him, and whispering to him.

Some years later I caught Ivan and told him that I now knew what he was saying to the baby Nate. He was saying:”Don’t let anybody teach you anything!”

Nate must have been listening.

In the meanwhile, another story had been taking place. In the 1960s and early 1970s Ivan had a center in Cuernavaca, Mexico called CIDOC: The Center for Intercultural Documentation. It was one of the primary centers of thinking in the world during that great social ferment. A man named John Holt, a school reformer, traveled there to spend time with Illich and others. After a few weeks conversation he returned to the US as a school replacer. He founded the idea of “unschooling.” Ivan wrote an influential book called DeSchooling Society. Rick Steven’s, Nate’s extraordinary first and second-grade teacher, read the book and decided to become a teacher.

One of the young students around John Holt in the early days was Susannah Shaffer. Through Nate and through Susannah Shaffer I could still hear Ivan talking to me, reaching to me through the years and the threshold of death. Thank you again, Ivan.

Next week Nate is assistant teacher at an English-language course for children held at Michael and Sylvia's.

David












Some academic subjects investigated:
Conversational Spanish, including current slang
Kitten Rescue and the American Novel (on ipod)
Hydraulics, with an emphasis on Wave Dynamics and surfboards
Landscape Architecture
Mayan agriculture today
Flora and Fauna of The Mexican Pacific Coast
Coastal Exploration
Band
Aunt Sylvia and other forces of nature
Spontaneous Maternal Regeneration
Family Living