How To Drop Out Of High School

This is for the trapped and uninspired. For the brilliant C student and the silent artist. For anyone who has ever felt the swell of stifled potential. There is a legal way to quit. There is a way to learn and travel and study what you want, when you want. There’s a path to college outside of GPAs and busy work. There’s a way to drop out of high school. For more information check out: http://howtodropoutofhighschool.wordpress.com/ var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-31930826-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[liberatingreality]

I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.

Stanley Kubrick (via liberatingreality)

[psychedelicswamp]

Save our students. because doctors say teenagers should not be awake before 8:30am and our brains are not fully functional and ready until 10 am and our schools will not listen. Save our students because some of us cry from stress every night and feel physically sick at the thought of getting out of bed and facing another day of school. Save our students because our board of education likes to pretend we don’t have other classes and allows teachers to assign us an hour of homework per class every night. Save our students because we are forced to go to sleep late because of our homework and forced to wake up before the sun does. Save our students because we tell our guardians that we don’t want to go to school and they think it’s “just us being teens” Save our students because some of us do not have time to pursue our interests or even relieve our stress because we are too busy working on schoolwork, studying, and worrying about weekly tests. Save our students because we are stressed. Save our students because we are not listened to. Save our students because we really need it.

(via spookyy-repairr-boyy)

[zenpencils]

SIR KEN ROBINSON: Full body education

[randomslasher]

I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen one of these comics that didn’t make me cry. 

[thinksquad-deactivated20190405]

Hundreds of students walked out of classrooms around suburban Denver on Tuesday in protest over a conservative-led school board proposal to focus history education on topics that promote citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority, in a show of civil disobedience that the new standards would aim to downplay.

The youth protest in the state’s second-largest school district follows a sick-out from teachers that shut down two high schools in the politically and economically diverse area that has become a key political battleground.

Student participants said their demonstration was organized by word of mouth and social media. Many waved American flags and carried signs, including messages that read “There is nothing more patriotic than protest.”

"I don’t think my education should be censored. We should be able to know what happened in our past," said Tori Leu, a 17-year-old student who protested at Ralston Valley High School in Arvada.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10411159

[howtodropoutofschool]

so-few-are-willing-to-aspiresaid: Take the blog over?

I didn't really commandeer it--Kat just vanished.  I wish I could run the blog as if it was one of my side blogs, but I'm only a mod, not an owner.

[howtodropoutofschool]

As there's been a slight surge in followers, it's time for another update.

Kat is still on hiatus, and I don't know if she'll be back.  She's the owner of the blog, so I am heavily limited in what I can do here.

Because I can't see your questions, fanmail, or submissions, please sent anything you want us to see to my personal ask box.

If you're looking to browse, there's plenty in the archives to keep you busy!  If you want a more active unschooling blog on your dash, I'd like to recommend Idzie's fuckyeahradicaled blog.

[maxlibertarios-deactivated20141]

Children are not property, they are their own individual people and the government nor their parents own them. You are supposed to provide for them and allow them an environment in which they can thrive, teach them values, and skills but no one owns any of us. We are not fucking property .. including children!

anunreliablesource explaining the right way to be a parent (via maxlibertarios)

[thinksquad-deactivated20190405]

When children attend schools that place a greater value on discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development, they are attending prep schools for prison.

Angela Davis (via thinksquad)

[absolutely-elsewhere-blog]

One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated.

St. Thomas More (via absolutely-elsewhere)

[humansofnewyork]

"His grandmother and I are raising him. I worry about putting him into the public school system. I was a teacher for many years. I’ve seen so much confidence destroyed by the standardized system. Every human is born with natural curiosity. I’ve never seen a child who wasn’t inspired. But once you force someone to do anything, the inspired person is killed. I dropped out of school myself in 7th grade. So I know. I taught a GED course for years, so I’ve seen the end results over and over. I’ve seen so many kids who have complexes and insecurities because they were forced to do something they weren’t ready to do, and then they were blamed when they weren’t able to do it. What we call ‘education’ today is not organic. You can’t take something as complex as the human mind, compartmentalize it, and regiment its development so strictly."

[explore-blog]

For Father’s Day, Kurt Vonnegut’s timeless life-advice to his kids

[debaucheryscene-deactivated2017]

I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate || Spoken Word

[just-a-scratch-just-a-scar]

The best teacher is experience and not through someone’s distorted point of view

Jack Kerouac, On The Road (via just-a-scratch-just-a-scar)

[etusc]

Just 3 months until camp!!  Join a bunch of super cool unschooling teens in the beautiful mountains of East Tennessee for a week of fun and friendship! Have you signed up yet? Registration deadline is June 1st.

East Tennessee Unschooled Summer Camp

http://www.etusc.com/

[howtodropoutofschool]

Hey there, followers.

It’s been a while. Let me update you.

Kat is on hiatus right now, and has been for a little while.  I (Renee) am elbows-deep in higher education. That means it’s been kind of quiet around here—sorry about that.

It also means there’s plenty of space for new writers and contributors!

If you’re a self-educating young person, please submit it for publication.  Nothing fancy: if you tell the story, I’ll polish it up.

Want to try your hand at graphic design?  Make us some original graphics.

Got a fascinating story to tell or some solid advice for rabid learners?  Please, message me or use the submit function.

I can’t wait to hear from you all!

~Renee

[howtodropoutofschool]

UPDATE:

I cannot receive submissions or messages to this blog, so if you’re interested in contacting us, please contact me on my personal blog.

Thanks!

[howtodropoutofschool]

SECOND UPDATE:

I've changed my personal URL to shutupcyclops.tumblr.com.

Everything else still stands!

[howtodropoutofschool]

HSLDA | Homeschoolers Need Not Apply

"NiSource, Inc., an Indiana-based energy distribution group with operations in Ohio, told the Home School Legal Defense Association that the company will not hire homeschool graduates. In response to numerous letters written in an attempt to resolve a dispute over a particular job applicant whose job offer had been rescinded because he was homeschooled, NiSource Senior Counsel Adele O’Connor told me that NiSource “disagrees with the conclusions in your letter as to the legal requirements regarding a diploma. These requirements are set forth in Chapter 3313 of the Ohio Revised Code.”

HSLDA released this story fifteen minutes ago.  If we're lucky, other media outlets will pick up the story and we'll soon have a better picture of whatever happened with NiSource.-Renee

[memos-and-musings-deactivated20]

It’s hard to trust your child to find his or her own path, especially when we’re told every day by professionals that children must fit into rigid boxes. We all want to give our kids the best opportunities we can, which is why it feels like such a disservice if we don’t push them in the ‘right’ direction. Celebrating your children’s passions rather than redirecting them, especially when those passions don’t line up neatly with a checklist for future success, can feel like jumping off a cliff. It certainly did for me. But that leap of faith is necessary if your kids are going to fly.

Kristine Barnett, The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius.

From the jacket:

Kristine Barnett’s son Jacob has an IQ higher than Einstein’s, a photographic memory, and he taught himself calculus in two weeks. At nine he started working on an original theory in astrophysics that experts believe may someday put him in line for a Nobel Prize, and at age twelve he became a paid researcher in quantum physics. But the story of Kristine’s journey with Jake is all the more remarkable because his extraordinary mind was almost lost to autism.

(via memos-and-musings)