"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
