Learn Like A Pirate

Anna    Community, Resources     bach, book, books, buccaneer, buccaneer-scholar, buccaneering, james, Learning, marcus, passion, passionate learning, pirate, review, scholar, self-education

This is a discussion of Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success, a book by James Marcus Bach.

“A buccaneer-scholar is anyone whose love of learning is not muzzled or shackled by any institution or authority; whose mind is driven to wander and find its own place in the world.” -p.9, hardcover edition

James Bach dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen to pursue his own education. His book is a first person account of his learning methods and experiences.  His excitement over learning is contagious, and he presents his ideas in a way that’s easy to understand and appreciate. The buccaneer analogy of learning is followed throughout the book, illustrating concepts in a very vivid way.

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar is a great exploration of purposeful self-education that will set you on the right path to appreciate a self-directed approach to learning. It’s a book I recommend to anyone interested in learning.

The Misconception of Self-Motivation

Many reviews of Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar argue one point: James is an unusually self-motivated learner, which is why he’s been successful. They argue that others (especially the average high school dropout)  might not be self-motivated enough to learn.

My argument is that those reviewers are missing the point. read more

Unschoolers On Youtube

Anna    Community     blogs, dayna martin, idzie, james marcus bach, radio free school, unschoolers, video, videos, youtube

I’ve gathered some videos of unschoolers for all of you to see. Seeing someone speak as passionately as you would about something can be very inspiring! Maybe you’ll even see yourself on the list.

Enjoy! read more

Leonardo da Vinci the Unschooler

Anna    Community, General     da vinci, famous autodidacts, famous unschoolers, leonardo da vinci, polymath, quotations, quotes, renaissance man

A polymath is a person, with superior intelligence, whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. … [The term] Renaissance Man … [is] used to describe a person who is well educated or who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields. – Wikipedia

Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance man, in both terms of the word. Born in 1452, he was born straight into the Renaissance polymath ideal. Leonardo was an architect, painter, sculptor, musician, botanist, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, scientist, writer and inventor. He fit into the polymath ideal very well.

Leonardo is renowned for his amazing intelligence, and is the painter of what could arguably be called the most famous painting in the world: the Mona Lisa.

What you may not know about him is that he was self-educated. Leonardo received little to no formal training outside of the arts (untrained artists were unheard of during the Renaissance). His work was ridiculed by his scholarly peers, and in his notebooks Leonardo even states, “I know that many will call this useless work.”

Today, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In his notebooks, Leonardo speaks several times about his perspective as an autodidact. I’d like to share a couple quotes from him. read more