Most popular posts of 2014

It’s always tricky to pick the most popular posts of the year because ranking is based on sort-of-arbitrary metrics, and I mess around with the metrics when I don’t like the outcome, and the whole thing starts to smell like school testing. 

So here is a short list of posts people shared frequently. Thank you so much for sharing posts. I am stunned and happy at how quickly this community is growing, and I think it’s due, in a large part, to how much you guys share posts with other people.

4 Lies we tell ourselves about screen time (1.4K shares)

How to raise high-earning sons (987 shares)

A totally great example of a self-directed learning and a parent brave enough to follow  (316 shares)

Kids don’t need teachers, kids need parents (298 shares)

Here is the list of posts that I liked the most. They are the posts where I get militant. Most of the world is totally sick of me being a militant homeschooler. I don’t even know how this happened. But I confess to feeling like it’s my right place in the world.

We need to stop presenting school as the default; it’s a choice

Silicon Valley is innovating babysitting not education

Are museums irrelevant? 

I also want to say thank you to all the people who wrote guest posts this year. I love that I’m part of a group of people writing so honestly about education choices today.

There’s no place for traditional school in effective school reform (Gary Houchens)

High schooler gives an inside view of a top-ranked school (Thi Nguyen)

Is it normal for parents to put their own needs first?  (Karelys Beltran)

Unschooling starts the day your child is born (Erin Wetzel)

My favorite photo from this year is one I didn’t use. It never seemed right.

The picture up top is from our family therapy session. My older son won’t sleep with the lights on, and my younger son won’t sleep with them off. In therapy my younger son drew a picture of the worst thing that could happen if we turn the lights out in the bedroom.

But that’s not my favorite picture. That’s a typical moment in the life of our family—working together so we can each get our needs met, each of us compromising a little. Which is, in the end, probably what this blog is about—when to compromise and when not to.

My favorite picture is the one below. It only exists because I asked them to hug. They fought before and after the picture. But I don’t care. At least I got to see them hugging each other and smiling for one short moment in 2014.