This is Part 4 of my reflections based on the book "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" by Jonathan Haidt. In his book, Jonathan makes a strong case for the groupish nature of humans and for group selection. That we are not just selfish beings but that in essence, we are a part of superorganisms that drive us t…

This is Part 3 of my reflections based on the book "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" by Jonathan Haidt. In his book, Jonathan makes a strong case for the groupish nature of humans and for group selection. That we are not just selfish beings but that in essence, we are a part of superorganisms that drive us t…

This is Part 2 of my reflections based on the book "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" by Jonathan Haidt. In his book, Jonathan makes a strong case for the groupish nature of humans and for group selection. That we are not just selfish beings but that in essence, we are a part of superorganisms that drive us t…

This is Part 1 of my reflections based on the book "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" by Jonathan Haidt. In his book, Jonathan makes a strong case for the groupish nature of humans and for group selection. That we are not just selfish beings but that in essence, we are a part of superorganisms that drive us t…

In the sci-fi novel Voyage From Yesteryear, author James P Hogan explores what could happen when a governmentally structured society from Earth comes in contact with a stateless society like the one described as being on the planet Chiron. I found this book fascinating and it gave me a lot to think upon and ponder. Some of the content I explore in …

In this interview, I talk with Rachel who is a mum with three children here in North Canterbury. I got to know Rachel about a year ago when we both had an interest in starting a democratic school. In the meantime, our views have shifted more towards a natural learning/unschooling approach. Rachel shares about how her views on respectful parenting h…

In this first interview of my series on people engaged in natural learning, I talk with two mums (Maree and Carly) who have come to home education in the last half-year or so. I talk about what set them onto this journey and the things they have learnt along the way. This series of interviews centre around the three main themes of Freedom, Connecti…

Over the past few weeks, I have continued to get feedback that what I am doing with my podcast is somehow very bad. The other day I got an email saying that I was "judgmental, condescending and patronizing". I find this all rather fascinating. How should we react when we come across someone whose lifestyle and moral choices conflict with our own? F…

This is my response to Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers: The Story of Success". It is certainly an interesting look into what makes an outlier and outlier. What makes these highly unusual people successful? From this I then look into what this may mean for the field of education. Find me on: My Websites: justusfrank.com and frankeducation.nz Bitc…

So there's many interesting articles coming out from parents who are very worried about the current Covid-19 situation and what this means for their child's education. One such article is Home school life: I feel like I am failing my kids https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/120967688/home-school-life-i-feel-like-i-am-failing-my-kids In the…

One of the essential skills humans learn early in life is to talk, to have a conversation. For most people, this early step in life happens through natural learning. The mistake we make is that we think that children want to be babied all the time. Children want to grow up and be fully involved in the world, to be able to add their own thoughts to …

I’m always fascinated with people’s backstory. How they came to do what they are doing and how they came to believe the things they do. The world isn’t just random, and humans certainly aren’t. There’s always a reason behind what we think and what we do. I’ve been rather fascinated by my own backstory as well. That might sound a little bit strange,…

Are you ready to Rumble! I hope so because today I want to talk about roughhousing, wrestling, and rough and tumble play. Roughhousing is essentially any activity such as wrestling, pillow fighting, sliding down the stairs, jumping off the bed and many other such activities. Many people are somewhat hesitant about roughhousing but without it you ar…

The drive to play is found in most mammals and some species of birds. As humans, we too have a drive to play; in fact, play possibly has a greater significance in our lives than any other creature. But what really is play? And why, particular to this episode, do children love chasing games so much? Find me on: My Websites: justusfrank.com and frank…

Today, when we think of the words education, learning and children, we also immediately think of schooling. In other words, we think of education as something done to children by adults. As the education researcher Peter Gray put it, “Today, in the minds of most people, the onus for education lies with adults, who have the responsibility to make ch…

In my last podcast, I talked about the importance of simulations, especially games, as learning tools. However, sometimes we get stuck there, making simulations the primary way of learning. But that is not their rightful place. Simulations are “Plan B” when it comes to learning. Our “Plan A” should be direct learning. So what is direct learning? Le…

Games are a lot of fun. They are highly enjoyable, and for children in particular. But why is that? What are they getting out of it? Why are games so important? And why should we be both initiating and joining in games with our children? In this video, I also want to introduce you to another easy dice game that you can play in your family. My main …

Computer and video games, do you think your kids are spending too much time on them? Are you wanting them to do other things but whatever you suggest seems to get turned down? Do you see no point in video games and that your children are just wasting their time and not learning the things that you think are actually important? Join me as I talk abo…

A great activity that fosters conversation, connection through spending time together, and co-inspiration as you create amazing ideas, is to create Dice Stories. Hope they can be lots of fun! Check out my Facebook page as well to comment and share. Find me on: My Websites: justusfrank.com and frankeducation.nz Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/cha…

Here in NZ we are heading into Covid 19 lockdown. This is my introduction to a new series that I am doing on Natural Learning. In this episode I go into what natural learning is and in following episodes I will show how the principles can be applied in everyday life. Find me on: My Websites: justusfrank.com and frankeducation.nz Bitchute: https://w…

An increasing number of schools are shutting down worldwide due to the Corona Virus. This puts many parents into a situation where they may find themselves considering home education. Yes, this has produced some dank memes and also some good reflective questions. What can you do if you find yourself in a position where school is no longer an option…

We are always learning. There is never a time when we are not learning. But what are we learning? What is the aim of our learning? I believe there are two general aims or general directions that our learning can take. As John Taylor Gatto put it: “You either learn your way towards writing your own script in life, or you unwittingly become an actor …

Too often we think about what people SHOULD feel. But it really doesn’t matter what we think people should feel, it only matters what they actually DO feel. Related episodes: The Art Of Principled Negotiation (Ep.39) https://anchor.fm/justus-frank/episodes/The-Art-Of-Principled-Negotiation-Ep-39-eaoajv The Fear Of Freedom And Responsibility (Ep.40)…

A Special Announcement! + also not everything has been plain sailing. Many people have asked Rachael and I why we are together even though we have some significant differences in worldview. This is my answer to that. Link to the article I mention: https://medium.com/@justus_71245/the-art-of-principled-negotiation-a776d52eed99 Find me on: My Website…

People seem to fear freedom because they fear responsibility. Particularly taking responsibility for your own life. Taking responsibility for your own life and your actions is a huge psychological barrier and emotionally overwhelming for us. Much of this comes from the lessons we learnt in childhood. I also very much urge you to check out the podca…

A hard bargainer will stick to his or her position tenaciously to show they can not be pushed around. But in so doing they may escalate the tension between both parties, not reach an agreement and cause serious rifts to the relationship. On the other hand, a soft bargainer will make concessions readily to reach a deal quickly. However, this undermi…

I've been enjoying some great conversations with families over the past few weeks. One of these conversations was on the topic of rewards. It is a fascinating topic and many people still see the use of rewards as something that is a valuable tool in interacting with others. But is it really? Can we justify using rewards? Find me on: My Website: Jus…

After a Facebook post from a friend caught my eye regarding homeschooling, I was rather intrigued by the response of a teacher who argued that teachers were the best at teaching your children because after all, they are the experts. And "a trained and qualified professional is always going to do a better job than even the most well-intentioned amat…

Chores... it seems to be one of the biggest concerns of many parents. Should you make children do chores or not? Isn't it "good for them"? Check out the video I mention in this podcast here: https://youtu.be/N2YRso_DKo8 https://www.bitchute.com/video/0HgBpZmNwVoK/ I also reference the book Raising Competent Children by Jesper Juul. Find me on: My W…

Well, I'm back for the year. After a bit of a break on holidays, I'm back to planning some projects and back to making podcasts and videos. I'm also getting back into my books and there's plenty of thoughts and ideas starting to flow. In particular, I'm back to reading more of the book 'Ultralearning' by Scott Young. This is episode is about free r…

'Ultralearning' is a book by Scott Young. I listened to an interview with him recently and was interested in how he talked about quite a few concepts that we have in traditional school and yet had reimagined them. He’s got an interesting story of learning which includes completing an MIT computer science under-graduate degree in under a year, and s…

In a recent book that I read called, "The Orchid And The Dandelion", the author Dr. Thomas Boyce points out that in classrooms where teachers take a more egalitarian approach the detrimental effects of dominance hierarchies can be diminished on sensitive children in particular. But is egalitarianism the best alternative to dominance hierarchies? Ar…

The central proposition of the book “The Orchid And The Dandelion: Why some people struggle and how all can thrive”, is that people, and children in particular, have different sensitivities. Through a variety of research experiments by Dr Thomas Boyce and his team, children were plotted on a spectrum of highly sensitive children to highly resilient…

"Our personal language is what we use to express our feelings, reactions, and needs and set our limits." "The nucleus of a personal language is: I want to. I don't want to. I like. I don't like. I will. I will not." "(Personal language must not be confused with the type of quasi-personal language that has evolved in the past 25 years, which is psyc…

There's been a few different things that have come together over the last days regarding safety and risk. From hearing about car accidents, to the uptake or lack of uptake in earthquake safety research, to quite a few conversations with people in the community regarding the recent speed sign changes in my area. All these came together and I ask the…

A straw-man is an intentionally weak summarisation of an opponents argument so that it can be easily knocked down, hence straw-man. The opposite of a straw-man is a steel-man. You can achieve a steel-man by listening, without interruption, to your opponent’s complete argument. You then restate their argument as faithfully and as strongly as you pos…

In my previous episode I discussed how children are able to add in meaningful ways to our lives. There is a common idea that children have not reached full 'human-hood' yet and this seems to foster the way we dehumanise children. I also make links with the other ways humans have sought to dehumanise other humans in the past whether in times of war …

I came across a neat little podcast series called "How To Raise A Parent" which is all about the surprising life skills our kids can teach us and the importance of staying connected to the innocence of childhood. The second episode regarding the creativity of children contained some particularly meaningful thoughts and ideas. Listen to the podcast …

"People like to base things on language because you can manipulate the hell out of language... But you can’t manipulate reality..." "The only thing that matters is the integrity of our actions...The integrity you embody" "That freedom [which you embody] will either attract people or it will anger people. It will do nothing in between. But if it att…

Just finished listening to a neat little audiobook by William Finnegan called "Climbing With Mollie". It's a beautiful story of a father's journey into letting go of forcing his daughter to do what he thought she should be doing and instead joining her in her self-discovered talent for climbing. The effect this had on their relationship holds a goo…

The young lady from Nepal neither enjoyed her job nor living in Christchurch. Yet she wanted to go through with it anyway because she wants to get residency. But I was curious to find out why this would be important, why was it important to struggle through things you don't want to do? Find me on: Bitchute: Life Of Learning Twitter: JustBeingFrank8…

Had an interesting conversation with a young man who wanted to study film-making. But only after he had done another year of high-school. When I asked him if he had made any films yet, even amateur films he said, "No". But should we really need to wait before we start pursuing those things we really want to do? Find me on: Bitchute: Life Of Learnin…

A quick podcast on how after watching a quick video on the Dunning-Kruger Effect this morning led to finding an example in real life. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/justus-frank/message

Language becomes more useful, the more shared meaning we have. The more you and I both have a common understanding of a word, the more valuable the word becomes. Find me on: Bitchute: Life Of Learning Twitter: JustBeingFrank8 Facebook: Justus Frank Minds: @Arphy Medium: Justus Frank Youtube: J Frank Photo courtesy of: Agnes Grace Photography --- Se…

"Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore incapable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal information." -Thomas Paine in "The Age Of Reason" What are the limitations of language? Back in Thomas Paine's time schooling often focused on learning the languages of Greek and Latin. But this tendency for humans to quibbl…

Back in 1794, Thomas Paine wrote the book, "The Age Of Reason". One of the most interesting parts in this book for me was his discussion of the concept of "revelation". Is personal revelation a valid thing to bring to a conversation? (pardon the sound of rain on the roof) Find me on: Bitchute: Life Of Learning Twitter: JustBeingFrank8 Facebook: Jus…

“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.” — Mortimer Adler In this podcast I attempt to bring a number of ideas together. The idea that in order to reach a pleasurable state of flow we should be creating something. That one of the most powerful ways of learning is to explain something …

Is being offended a valid way to respond to criticism? When we receive criticism we are still responsible for our reactions and emotions. Is there a better way to respond to criticism rather than to claim that you are offended? Find me on: Bitchute: Life Of Learning Twitter: JustBeingFrank8 Facebook: Justus Frank Minds: @Arphy Medium: Justus Frank …

To love means to speak the truth. To be gently assertive is to “speak the truth in love.” What does it mean to be assertive? Where should we draw our boundaries? Should we draw boundaries around others or around ourselves? Find me on: Bitchute: Life Of Learning Twitter: JustBeingFrank8 Facebook: Justus Frank Minds: @Arphy Medium: Justus Frank --- S…

Street Epistemology is a wonderful way of engaging with others in conversations about beliefs. It seeks to explore what we believe, why we believe it, and most importantly how did we come to believe our belief is true. There are many wonderful videos online of people using this method of dialogue which I would invite you to watch. Peter Boghossian …