"Well... it's a holiday when people demonstrate what they've learned about learning by attempting not to learn, which is kind of a science experiment and kind of a festival and sort of a game."
Sandra, 2012
Below is a 2024 interview, partly about Learn Nothing Day, by Cathy Koetsier, which you might want to watch sometime before next July. Take your time.
Christianity didn't come up, in this session. I'm apatheistic, and Cathy knows, but my ideas haven't clashed with her religion, so it's a blend we're comfortable with.
It's 11:00 at night, at my house, as I write this. I'm 71; my birthday is nearly over. The west-most time zone of the contintental U.S. will be done in two hours, and people in Alaska and Hawaii have probably already learned something, so I will stop waiting for the fun reports of happy learning that pops up even when people try not to learn.
They didn't discuss Learn Nothing Day as a group, but Cecilie said near the end:
I just did an interview with Sandra Dodd on judgment and good judgment yesterday. So it's top of mind for me. It's coming out on the 20th of July, which at least will be before this one, I think comes out.
I haven't even decided. We have to talk about that later, um, which is four days before Learn Nothing Day, very important day to celebrate as it is Sandra Dodd's birthday and Learn Nothing Day, the 24th of July. I always fail. Everyone fails. That's the whole point. It's a great challenge.
Follow it anywhere you want and share it with everyone, you know, when you fail, how long from you woke up until you failed Learn Nothing Day. It's a fun challenge.
NOTE about the date:
I chose July 24 because I knew there were no big holidays there, in any country, that I was aware of. In the state of Utah, there is "Pioneer Day," and that was all I knew might interfere with an international exercise. 🙂 So I would add "void in Utah" to posters and art, for fun,
It wasn't to celebrate my birthday; I didn't mention that, in the early years, though others figured it out. I chose a day I was familiar with, from living with it all those years.
(And in the interview below I nonsensically and accidentally said Pioneer Day was July 4, which is goofy. Sorry.)
In July 2023, Cecilie and her husband Jesper Conrad interviewed me. From this link, you can choose from various podcast sources (including YouTube, which is below), read the notes and intro, and see an auto-generated transcript.
I've tried to set this to start at 1:18 or so. Below says Learn Nothing Day is discussed at 1:20:22, but it starts a bit before that.
▬ CONTENT OF THIS VIDEO ▬
(00:00:00) - Balancing Male and Female Communication Styles
(00:08:05) - Parenting Roles and Gender Dynamics
(00:12:52) - Unschooling, Parenting, and Judgment
(00:22:18) - Unschooling and Parental Guidance
(00:33:02) - Honest Communication in Parenting
(00:41:11) - Parenting and Communication Guidelines
(00:52:36) - Losing Friends Over Unschooling
(00:59:33) - Making Better Choices in Life
(01:10:02) - Passion for Medieval History and Unschooling (01:20:22) - Unschooling and Learn Nothing Day
(01:29:23) - Video Games' Impact on Learning
(01:34:19) - Parenting and Video Games
(01:44:14) - Unschooling and Parenting Decisions
(01:50:01) - Importance of Critical Thinking in Unschooling
To those who identify as Unschoolers, or whose home-education practices could be so categorized by others, this is a formal request to
CEASE AND DESIST
On July 24, 2023, beginning at 12:01 a.m. in whatever time zone you are, whether awake or asleep, you are asked to refrain from any learning, and from the facilitation of others' learning, for a period of 24 hours. (EXEMPTED: Unschooling families resident in the State of Utah should cease and desist July 25, 2023, or sometime.)
This message is delivered out into places unschoolers might see it. If you have read this far, you are in receipt of the letter. Tag, no backsies. Binding, blinding information.
Having taken such actions and made such decisions that learning "just happens" in your home and in your life, it is likely that you are living without taking a break from that learning. Lest you and your children get so tired of learning that school starts to look like restful activity, give it a break.
Should you fail to follow this directive, or should your efforts prove fruitless, proceed with fruitier activities thereafter. No further action will be necessary, although you might want to share the story of your unintentional learning, and the time (on that date), of your first failure to learn nothing.
Clerk to the Secretary of the Office of Maintenance and Upholdence of Learn Nothing Day
Holly knew all the images in the original art; she filled in the letters. Most of the associations with those images were forgotten, though, as many newer unschoolers had come along, and Holly (my daughter who is now 30) wanted to make a new logo, with newer images.
It's easier, now, to predict what will happen on Learn Nothing Day, but you might still want to give it a shot. Celebrate Learning! Also, see about taking a break from it.
Good luck!
The image above was made in 2020, but people weren't doing much so we were fairly quiet about it.
The original image is here (click it for more info):
It's not new, but it's new to this blog. I'm posting a 2017 comment in 2021, just because every year's the same.
It's Learn Nothing Day here, finally. We had previews from other time zones. It's not going well. Cally Brown sent a note "from New Zealand, the country that leads the world in failing to Learn Nothing."
It's like election results—will Hawaiians even bother to try?
Well, best of luck to those who are just waking up today, and it's nearly over, those who are going to bed now on Monday. 🙂
There are several comments detailing failures. If you like the idea that "Learn Nothing Day" might succeed, it's a Festival of Failure, but if you like stories of unexpected and happy learning, you'll love those comments!
One more month! Big month of learning, or little month of relaxing after the craziest year and a half since the 1960s, or 1940s or something, depending where you live.
I saved this e-mail feed for last, for deletion, and the one-month announcement can slip in under the wire!
For art, this year, think about a parade. Any medium that can be transported electonically (photo or video of what you've done, or computer image from the get-go). Any kind of parade from your memory or imagination, from history or popular media. I've seen or been in in rodeo parades, Christmas parades, high school homecoming parade and the state fair parade. You might live where those seem weird or exotic, but there might be other parades you could reference or fake up. If we line the collected images up, tadaaa, parade!
If there are no entries, people can stay in their warm homes (southern hemisphere) or out of the burning summer sun (northern hemisphere) or go back to your surfing or bird watching or whatever (equatorial dwellers).
And remember that e-mail subscriptions are ended for this, in just a few days. Facebook might be a better thing to subscribe to (follow). Learn Nothing Day
That has 68 members as i write this. The subscription list for this blog has 85.
I need a photo... gratuitous photos from my phone, forward and back, sitting in my kitchen:
The change is that the feedburner subscriptions will not work after this month, so if you have another way to subscribe, or to remind yourself to check in here sometimes, do it!
Thanks for subscribing, and I'm sorry you won't get more posts by e-mail.
It is six weeks or so to Learn Nothing Day 2021. This will be the twelfth, so people who started celebrating with a young child probably have a teen or young adult at home now, and much experience with learning.
This image was created (by someone at fiverr.com) before it seemed dangerously deadly to go to the theatre. I have heard that Broadway is reopening in September.
Best wishes to all of you getting back out into richer, wilder unschooling lives.
