10 great books about learning from life

One of the most fun things I did last year was to sum up some cool parts of our family’s life as part of the iHomeschool Network’s 2012 10 * in * 10 series, where we shared some top-10 lists each week in the spring.

I was thrilled to take part again in 2013 with some new topics and some changes in my own mindset and experiences to share!

This week, a bunch of us are talking about 10 favorite homeschooling books.

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

In our case, as pretty radical unschoolers, our list veers more toward books about the philosophy of education – how learning happens, new (and not-as-new) ideas in educational theory, and more.

But these books about learning from life, many of them not even really “about” education, are interesting reads even if you prefer a more formal system of learning.

I hope they’ll encourage you to think about life and education in new and different ways.

Unschool Rules: 10 Great Books about Learning From Life

1. and 2. Learning All the Time by John Holt and Better Than School by Nancy Wallace

I’m totally cheating with these first two, because I blogged in depth about them before.

John Holt’s Learning All the Time and Nancy Wallace’s Better Than School are the two books that I’ve used to inform, justify and improve our family’s approach to learning.

In my previous post, I shared some notable quotes from these books that showcase how intertwined “life” and “learning” truly are. I recommend them for unschoolers and unschooling hopefuls, but I also recommend them for those applying a more formal educational approach.

I say this not, believe it or not, to change your mind, but to encourage you. One of the challenges I hear all the time from my friends who are applying more rigorous and formal standards to their homeschool is, “But what if I’m doing it wrong?”

You’re not. Honest. No matter what style of homeschooling you’re using, if you’re willing to be flexible and willing to love your child no matter what, you’re still doing it more right than a system in which love and hope and belief are excluded from the equation.

Perhaps my favorite quote in these two books, and the one that’s kind of our mantra in learning, is this:

“What adults can do for children is to make more and more of that world and the people in it accessible and transparent to them. The key word is access to people, places, experiences, the places where we work, other places we go… On the whole, kids are more interested in the things that adults really use than in the little things we buy especially for them.”

YES to all of that. Be interested and interesting! It makes such a difference, and you’ll be amazed at what your children will teach you about what they love.

3. Better Than Normal by Dale Archer

I read this book in the past year and thought it was a pretty interesting, if a little controversial, look at some of what is normally called “mental illness.”

In Better Than Normal, Dr. Dale Archer looks at things like bipolar disorder, ADHD, OCD and so on, and maps them to positive personality traits like creativity, flexibility and precision.

The very short and oversimplified version is that something is only a “disorder” by many standards if it’s causing problems. There are many people who have significant trouble focusing who, when they’re in the right positions, have used that not as a detriment but as a benefit.

Dr. Archer looks at the rise in diagnosis of these “conditions,” and the fact that we’re all on a continuum in personality. You can have a high tendency toward, say, “OCD-type behavior,” but it might make you amazingly good at your job if you’re something like a 7 out of 10 on that scale. Being a 1 might make you awful at that particular job. And being a 10 out of 10 might not be a problem, but it’s definitely an ultra-high level that might be troublesome depending on the situation.

Archer explains how to figure out where you rank on each continuum, and he talks about how to find the “square hole for your square peg” depending on your traits.

Talk about something that we should apply to our country’s educational system…

4. What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman

Before my husband and I dated, we were coworkers and, over about a six-month time before we became a couple, we became close friends.

One of his favorite things to do as my friend? Lend me books. Lots of books. And then we’d talk about them. We were like a two-person book club or something.

He really got me interested in the works of physicist Richard Feynman, who is also an amazing essayist who has just a different view of the world. I can’t even describe it.

Of Feynman’s books – and they’re all well worth reading and don’t require a science background to enjoy – What Do You Care What Other People Think? really came with the right message at the right time, and honestly, I think that’s why Chris lent it to me.

Feynman really drills down to that question. If you’re doing something differently and you’re passionate about it, what do you care about others’ opinions? Why do they matter? And if they do, what do you do about it? It’s a great thought exercise – and it’s FUNNY!

5. The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

I owe my husband for introducing me to this book as well, just like the Feynman one above.

I admit – it’s not something I’d have read on my own. It’s, well, kinda deep for me. I’m all about fluff, believe it or not.

In The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker talks about how your brain processes and learns language – and how it works no matter what the language is around the world.

This book deals with human life from an evolutionary worldview, but that doesn’t change my love for the fascinating stories and message about how 3-year-olds are essentially grammatical geniuses – knowing everything they’ll ever need to know about certain constructions without being taught.

It’s a great read and one I’d recommend to anyone who fears that their kids will never learn to read, write and speak correctly without formal curriculum!

6. Catch Me If You Can by Frank William Abagnale Jr.

This book really has very little to do with “education,” but at the same time, it popped into my mind almost immediately when I started thinking about unschooling.

Frank William Abagnale Jr. never finished his traditional high school education. Instead, he took the road, counterfeiting his way financially and professionally into positions as an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and more before being caught, imprisoned, and eventually going on to work with the FBI and in private consulting to help stop counterfeiters like himself!

You probably know the movie version of Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, much better than the book, but if you don’t mind some even more colorful language than the film, I’d highly recommend reading the story in Frank Abagnale’s own words.

Learning is dangerous. Being incredibly smart can be used to do great things – or to do pretty crazily illegal and dangerous ones. But knowing how to learn, how to adapt, and how to find out what you need to know – that’s what Abagnale showed himself to be amazing at, and it’s entirely the type of learning mindset I love (minus, you know, the stint in French prison).

7. My Posse Don’t Do Homework by LouAnne Johnson

You might know this book more from the movie that came of it: Dangerous Minds.

Honestly?

The book is way better. My Posse Don’t Do Homework is written by LouAnne Johnson, a fairly young teacher who dealt with some of the hardest-to-handle kids at an inner-city school in California.

I wanted to include either this or Ron Clark’s The Essential 55 in my list, because I remember watching both Dangerous Minds and The Ron Clark Story when I was younger and thinking, “Teaching is a HARD job!”

It is. And these stories show that teaching is, in many cases, not at all about what’s going on in the classroom and very much about the environment surrounding the child. If the soil is toxic, the plant won’t grow, no matter how much you feed it, you know?

This isn’t just true for inner-city students struggling with gang violence and more. It’s exactly why homeschooling was right for us – because removing the toxic environment has changed the attitude all of us have toward learning.

8. Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison

Oh, talk about life-changer.

A dear friend of mine across the state lent me this book in the couple of months after Ashar was diagnosed with Asperger’s. In Look Me In the Eye, author John Elder Robison shares his autobiographical look at what it was like to grow up with Asperger’s – but undiagnosed until much later in life.

The absolute best part of this book is the detail in which Robison describes the way he thinks.

It came at a time when I just desperately wanted to understand my daughter, and it helped in ways I can barely describe.

I’d say this is required reading in any family dealing with autism-spectrum issues, but I submit it’s an eye-opener about “the system” for anyone who wants to understand better how what makes us different is also what makes us pretty great.

9. Free to Learn: Five Ideas for a Joyful Unschooling Life by Pam Laricchia

This entry and the last on my list are actually “wish list” items of mine – I haven’t gotten to read them yet.

I’m including them here because they’ve been recommended to me by close friends who have read them, and because everything I’ve heard and see from them so far very much seems in line with my philosophy about parenting and life.

Free to Learn: Five Ideas for a Joyful Unschooling Life and its companion book, Free to Live: Create a Thriving Unschooling Home, are by pretty much famous unschooler Pam Laricchia, who’s been “doing it right” for years and years.

Pam was definitely one of the many resources I tapped into and read from in depth when we started thinking, “Hey, this public-school system isn’t right for us. What’s different that we can try?”

But I’ve never gotten Pam in book form yet! I’m holding out for them magically appearing at my door some day as a Christmas or birthday gift, but if not, they’ll be gracing my shelves soon!

10. The Short Bus by Jonathan Mooney

This is the other wish-list item among my book collection.

I’m including it here today because several good friends have told me how much I’d love hearing this autobiographical story.

Jonathan Mooney, the author, was the titular “short-bus rider” – a derogatory term used for kids in special education. Mooney was dyslexic and labeled as profoundly learning disabled, but later in life, he bought his own short bus and toured the country, looking for kids who had come up with amazing ways to overcome their own obstacles.

The book The Short Bus is his record of that trip and those 13 people – and proof that there is a place “beyond normal,” as the book’s subtitle describes. I am very much looking forward to reading this and having my own perspectives about learning and surviving in the world challenged!

We’re also linking up today to Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings. Whether you’re sharing your Top 10 questions people ask you, or a Top Ten list on any other topic, I’d love for you to link up and to check out the other blogs that have, too!

And don’t forget to check out my previous Top Ten Tuesday posts, if you’ve missed them.

01 Jun

A birthday celebration: Learning from Michael J. Fox with Back to the Future

On June 9, one of Ashar’s recently-discovered “favorite movie stars” will turn 52 years old.

But in Ashar’s eyes, he’ll always be 17 – young Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy, who we know and love as Michael J. Fox.

As part of an iHomeschool Network celebration of some noted June birthdays, I wanted to share today a little more about Michael, and specifically some of what we’ve learned and talked about through his first series of big hits, Back to the Future!

Unit study for homeschoolers about Michael J. Fox, advocate for Parkinson's Disease research and star of the Back to the Future series

All about Michael J. Fox

Many of the adults among us think of Michael J. Fox best as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. The funniest thing is, I was never a big Family Ties fan, so, like Ashar, I most often think of him as time-traveler Marty McFly!

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

Michael J. Fox was actually born Michael Andrew Fox, which I think is neat because I can’t imagine ever calling him anything but “Michael J.” Even Michael Fox or Mike Fox sounds funny to me! (As if I’ll ever get a chance to address him in person, so who cares, right?) He did this because he needed a unique name to register with the Screen Actors Guild, and his own was taken, so he picked the J. reportedly as a tribute to actor Michael J. Pollard.

Anyway, he was born June 9, 1961, and holds dual Canadian-American citizenship.

Most of his acting work started in the early 1980s and continued until 2000, when he semi-retired after announcing that he has Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1991; since then, he’s written three books and started a foundation to help fund and promote awareness of Parkinson’s research, and is about to make a comeback on TV with an NBC sitcom this fall.

All about Back to the Future

What if you could travel through time? What if you could see your own past – and accidentally almost erase your own future? Then,what if you went farther into the future and saw something you didn’t want to see?

That’s Back to the Future, the time-travel series of three movies that I loved when I was younger and rediscovered this year while watching them with Sarah.

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!

You’re my density!

Heavy! There’s that word again! Why is everything in the future so heavy? Is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational field?

Yes, these are things we say on a regular basis in our family.

If you’re wondering more about the movies (and the books, and the TV series, and all the other things that I didn’t even know existed until now), you could lose hours in the Futurepedia – the wiki project for Back to the Future that is almost frighteningly thorough.

I had to laugh at one thing I found while reading about the Back to the Future series. Describing his work in the films in a 2012 Parade magazine article, Michael J. Fox said “I truly thought I was terrible.” He was sure the films would never be shown, he thought he did so bad!

I guess we all do a better job than we give ourselves credit for, huh?

The Parkinson’s connection

As someone who lives with chronic illness, I’ve spent most of my adult life appreciating Michael J. Fox’s honesty and openness about his own struggles.

This interview with Ellen DeGeneres is particularly great:

One thing that Michael’s caught some hard times for is that he doesn’t always “look” like someone with severe Parkinson’s during his television appearances.

In a 2002 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, he said:

Well, actually, I’ve been erring on the side of caution — I think ‘erring’ is actually the right word — in that I’ve been medicating perhaps too much, in the sense [that] … the symptoms … people see in some of these interviews that [I] have been on are actually dyskinesia, which is a reaction to the medication. Because if I were purely symptomatic with Parkinson’s symptoms, a lot of times speaking is difficult. There’s a kind of a cluttering of speech and it’s very difficult to sit still, to sit in one place. You know, the symptoms are different, so I’d rather kind of suffer the symptoms of dyskinesia… this kind of weaving and this kind of continuous thing is much preferable, actually, than pure Parkinson’s symptoms. So that’s what I generally do… I haven’t had any, you know, problems with pure Parkinson’s symptoms in any of these interviews, because I’ll tend to just make sure that I have enough Sinemet in my system and, in some cases, too much. But to me, it’s preferable. It’s not representative of what I’m like in my everyday life. I get a lot of people with Parkinson’s coming up to me saying, “You take too much medication.” I say, Well, you sit across from Larry King and see if you want to tempt it.

I admit that’s a hard issue for me, in large part because it’s one I’ve struggled with personally related to health issues.

I did like hearing that when Michael appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in 1999 to talk about research funding, he purposely did not take his medication. I think that’s fair and relevant, and I think I support his decision to potentially “overmedicate” under high-pressure situations as well!

Other Michael J. Fox movies in our collection

Teen Wolf: We got a big kick out of finding this movie on Netflix and watching it. Ashar thought it was hilarious, and much like Back to the Future, it had a lot of themes about “the little guy” and success or failure by public standards that were neat to talk about.
Doc Hollywood: I had forgotten about this movie until I started working on this post, but my mom and I had watched it and loved it! So we’re trying to find a copy to show Sarah.
Stuart Little: These were childhood favorites of Ashar’s, and I didn’t pay attention enough to realize until now that Michael J. Fox is the voice of Stuart!

Ideas for discussion

Now this is what it’s all about, for our family. We love to learn through books and movies, and we don’t really differentiate between “educational” movies and books and “noneducational” ones.

Some movies, though, really spark a lot of discussion even when they don’t purport to be traditionally educational, and the Back to the Future series is a great example of this. Some of the things it led us to talk about include:

Stem cell research: This is one of the key treatments proposed for Parkinson’s disease, and Michael J. Fox is an outspoken advocate in favor of it. When we started talking about what Parkinson’s is with Ashar, when she asked what Fox had starred in recently, we talked a little about what this is and what the controversy is surrounding it.
Time travel ethics: This was HUGE, in large part because we are also big Star Trek fans. Is it “right” to travel through time, assuming it’s possible? How do you know if you’ve changed the future or the past? This is the key plot of Back to the Future, but it’s neat to talk about even outside of it!
Types of people in history: Back to the Future kind of portrays that every time period has its bullies, its “bosses,” its victims and its oddballs. When we stopped to think about it, it’s pretty true, and it was neat to see how those things changed depending on how the characters changed, and to talk about how we shape our own time.
Bullying and egos: So much of the Back to the Future series deals with bullying – and with one character hating one particular insult so much that, in one scenario, his response changes his life tragically forever. It’s a good chance to talk about what you’re willing to give up to “win.”
How your parents met: On a cute note, Ashar loves hearing the story of how Chris and I met, and that’s a fun thing to share when you watch these movies, since the parental McFlys’ romance is such a big part of the plot.
Predictions for the future: In Back to the Future, the “future” is 2015. But what if we were going 30 years into our future? What would that look like? (Ashar is still holding out for the flying skateboard “hoverboards” seen in the movie to become commonplace in the next two years; we’ll have to see!)

Join the birthday party

If you’re interested, there are many more cool “June birthday” lessons from my fellow iHomeschool Network bloggers. Click the image below to check them out!