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From the archives
The Taking Children Seriously survey
The bed-making story
Does educational freedom lead to big gaps in knowledge?
Home education in Britain
Do not wait until you are perfect
Smash the TV and burn all the books
Sooooo bored in school
Snapshot
Taking Children Seriously: it is rocket science!
Moralyzin’ Maggie
Why stuff-management matters
Forget about it!
Imposing rules so children feel secure?
Medical emergencies
Practical Taking Children Seriously
When toddlers get upset
Rank pessimism
Curious young children taking things apart
Bedtimes and ill effects of lack of sleep
Enacting a theory
Vegetarian parents, meat-eating child
Coercively protecting children
A chat about Taking Children Seriously
Against ego-centric epistemology
The right to refuse medical treatment
The paradigm shift
What Taking Children Seriously is, and what it is not
Question or command?
Great change of mind without self-sacrifice
Help! Child hates eyepatch!
Why is a three-year-old child hitting and what to do
Do the kids rule?
Children do not need bedtime routines
Carseat in a medical emergency?
Watch out! There’s a toddler about!
Engaging sexually with children is NOT taking them seriously
Joke test of taking children seriously
How to get enough sleep with a toddler who does not sleep
Ideas for parent whose toddler does not want to go to sleep
Is your child worried about death?
Children do not need what conventional wisdom says they need
Reacting to an angry child
Protect the victim
Respecting other people’s wishes
No way out – and loving it
(NOT) listening to children
Choosing to go to school or Iraq
Moving, improving: punishment will not help
But if we don’t make her do maths…
Can an emotion be wrong?
In praise of ignorance
Taking toys seriously (yes, really)
The Keeping-One’s-Options-Open mentality
Lying about lying
There but for an internet post go I…
Does your child love visiting the dentist?
My heavenly-horrific vision of Taking Children Seriously
Parenting by the book
Are time outs time off or serving time?
Housework help for a harried mother
Questioning natural consequences
Natural consequences and “enabling”
The dark side of John Holt
Swearing is not a four letter word
Parental rules mess up children’s thinking
Is Taking Children Seriously revolutionary?
Non-coercive schools?
Are schools inherently coercive?
Breaking the spiral of coercion
On Politically Incorrect…
Where is the choice for the child?
Waste not, want not
Never make a child feel bad
Taking sick children seriously
Beware the homeschooling mentality
Taking Children Seriously and fallibilism
Requiring children to do chores
Objectifying education sabotages learning
(Not) doling out looks and latitude
The importance of video games
We lost our internet account
Children who prefer to go to school
Unhappy with natural consequences
Supporting a child’s choice to go to school
Treat information about local education authorities with caution
Unnatural consequences
A discussion about whether problems are solvable
Taking the free world and children seriously: an anecdote
How do you get children excited about maths?
Biting lessons
Punished by rewards
Creativity and untidiness
Doing nothing academically?
Both coercion and “doing nothing” are mistakes
Coercion — the meaning of the word
Answering questions about Karl Popper’s epistemology
Karl Popper on the growth of knowledge
Coercion of adults vs. coercion of children
Is creativity a boon to the affected individual?
Is creativity even desirable?
How about explaining to your children?
Getting kids to ‘agree’ to TV limits
Educational theory: science or philosophy?
The language of parental power plays
Genuinely protecting children versus coercing them
Expressing approval vs expressing appreciation
It is impossible to control for all the variables in any experiment involving human psychology
Why giving children rules and boundaries is a mistake
It’s your house, your income, your everything; and if the kids don’t like it…
Are your children free to follow their own interests?
How would you like it?
Relax about babies watching TV
How to transmit inexplicit knowledge without using real life examples
“Natural authority”?
Unschooling and Karl Popper
Herbert Spencer on children’s rights
Different labels for adults and children
Trying to turn philosophy into science is a mistake
Philosophical theories are refuted by argument, not empirical tests
Coerced to change their values
Bathtime and hairwashing
Time out is not taking time out
“What if…?” questions
Blind obedience, thoughtful obedience, ‘cooperation’
Playing with guns, real coercion
Mistakes and what to do about them
In defence of television soap operas
The final prejudice
The Simpsons – the best teacher in the world
Coercion as a ‘solution’ to behavioural problems
The mistaken belief that we have to doooo something
Learners’ rights vs. alleged ‘responsibilities’
Why discussions take a philosophical turn
We should not be coercing our partners either
Unschooling and schooling as a continuum
Ivan Illich denounces the internet
Children’s welfare secondary to a dogmatic ideology?
Common misapprehensions about Taking Children Seriously
Coercion prevents problems being solved
Solving problems takes creativity
A lack of forcefulness is good not bad
Consensual family dynamics get easier
The heavy societal pressure to coerce children
Branded lazy parents for not coercing
School children have less freedom and choice than prison inmates
“You gotta be kidding. That would never work with my kid.”
The joy of consensual parenting
Avoid coercing other rational beings
There is no safety in ignorance
What if your child wants a dangerous substance?
All choices restrict future choices
‘Tantrums’ are a response to coercion
Ideas colour experience
Differences in knowledge not reason
Don’t children prefer strict rules so they know where they stand?
Criticism of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Common emotional blackmail
Hand wringing instead of intervening?
Popper’s epistemology and the everyday lives of children
That something is legal does not make it right or best
Why allow minors to disregard the guidance of their elders?
Theory-laden observation
What to do if you get a visit from a social worker or CPS
No dogmatism here
Coercion, manipulation, reason, persuasion
‘Influence’ versus ‘coercion’
Young children, reason and creativity
Violating parents’ rights of conscience
Fallibilism is not self-contradictory
Young children, non-coercion and the interplay of reason
How to talk so your kids will be manipulated
Coercion punishes children for reasoning
Unschooling and academic education 3
Covert educational coercion
Unschooling and academic education 2
Instruction does not address the immediate moment-by-moment concerns and questions of the learner
Parents accept costs and inconvenience for their children
Unschooling and academic education 1
The education game
Parents know that punishment is damaging
The primary function of teachers is to coerce children
Who
wouldn’t
be ‘school phobic’?
Coercion needed to prevent cavities?
Children’s rights and the law
Television vs. workbooks
“What do you think?”
Never stop reading to your children
What does the UK do about homeschoolers not educating their kids?
Clarification of what I mean by ‘coercion’
Coercing children to play an instrument
Unschooling is not the same as non-coercive education
The education of Karl Popper
Video games: a unique educational environment
The social, educational, economic and political oppression of children
Autonomous learning, autonomous life
