Learn Nothing Day

...it counts as fun

2025-08-21T19:08:00.001-06:00

Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, found and sent by Sadie Brown, about my kids' age, also homeschooled in New Mexico.

Sadie sent it on facebook in 2014, and I brought it here in 2025. I'm really slowing down!

It's sweet. So is Sadie. So is Bill Watterson, the philosophical creator of Calvin and Hobbes.

Joy and Giggles

2025-07-17T00:01:00.001-06:00

I don't think this has been saved or shared before. It was on Facebook, not just now.

Phoebe Wyllyamz
25 July 2016 ·

One of the most important things I learned on Learn Nothing Day yesterday was, my family is a bunch of rebels and learned and shared as many things as we normally would with each other with so much joy and giggles because it simply was a day that we were NOT suppose to learn.

Thank you Sandra Dodd for this wonderful observing day!

A Learn Nothing Day Playlist (youtube)

2025-07-10T14:50:00.002-06:00

Video Playlist, mostly Fiverr videos from years past—people would offer to make a video for five or ten dollars. They're FUN! There are flowers and chickens, shells and dancing boys, a machete, a coconut, and a Caribbean magician.

There's also a short interview (Amy Childs talked to me about Learn Nothing Day for fifteen and a half minutes, in 2014).

Don't wait until the 24th; watch it sooner (or later).

Some have ads, but I didn't put them there. I guess youtube does the for videos sitting around without much action.

Video Playlist

2024, LND finished, I guess.

2024-07-24T23:03:00.003-06:00

"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.

Interview with Sandra Dodd - Learn Nothing Day
Jul 24, 2024 · 1h 6m 25s

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.

Cecilie Conrad, on Learn Nothing Day

2024-07-15T10:39:00.003-06:00

Learn Nothing Day is seasonal. July 24; soon, so time to think about it.

From 2023, Cecilie Conrad wrote

Learn Nothing Day, Compliance and Avoidance

It's partly about "PDA," but begins and ties back to Learn Nothing Day.

Here is the podcast she mentions there, but didn't link: Da Ladies #1 | Da Ladies Fixing the world 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.

#25 - Sandra Dodd | Learn Nothing Day - Unschooling and the Complexities of Parenting
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

Cease and Desist Notice

2023-07-09T15:26:00.007-06:00

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

New art

2022-07-08T00:31:00.001-06:00

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.

I'm going to feature one image in each Just Add Light and Stir post from July 11 to July 23, 2022, to credit, again, the photographers. Click here for the guide to those photos, credits, and posts.

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):

The country that leads the world...

2021-07-24T18:58:00.003-06:00

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!

Learn Nothing Day Parade

2021-06-24T12:12:00.003-06:00

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:

LND 2021, and subscription/e-mail changes

2021-06-09T10:37:00.004-06:00

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.

Give it a rest.

2020-11-28T21:00:00.002-07:00

If it's Learn Nothing Day, don't click this.

If it's Learn Nothing Day, if you still haven't learned anything, don't click anything anywhere. It's a danger.

original
DON'T CLICK IT unless today is NOT July 24.

2020

2020-07-24T15:01:00.001-06:00

This year's Learn Nothing Day was discussed on facebook, announced on Always Learning and in Just Add Light, but I didn't come in here until The Day Itself!

As usual...
It is as usual. I half expected it to be easier during a pandemic, but apparently not!

Pao Gut posted this, and wrote:

We failed at 9:00 am this morning!! We find out about water surface tension.... I tried not to... But didn't succeed at not learning today...

We're having a big online celebration here in México!! Wish we were doing boring things, but not... Maybe boring enough we won't encourage learning.

May you have merry thoughts

2019-07-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

Merry thoughts, fantasies, whimsies, dreams to all!
Three more days until Learn Nothing Day.

The reflection is nice

2019-07-18T22:48:00.001-06:00

This horse, with lotus leaves... This horse cannot read.
Those lettering lotus leaves have never touched real water.

The reflection is nice, and the idea is sweet.

The artist was "amazing image" on fiverr.

Four languages

2019-07-16T13:27:00.000-06:00

So I was poking around fiverr.com, as I do most years before Learn Nothing Day, and came to a flower man who had this on his site: Languages spoken English, Hindi, Marathi, and Kannada.

Those were the three that Hema had sent translations of for the collection of "Learn Nothing Day" in other languages!!

Here is what I had wrote to the guy, to order the video, then:

Your languages are just the ones I want!

https://learnnothingday.blogspot.com/2014/05/real-and-imagined-languages.html

From that page:

HINDI, KANNADA, MARATHI

From Hema A. Bharadwaj in Pune, India:

It's "Aaj kuch mat seekho". Meaning "don't learn anything today" in Hindi.
And in Kannada it is "Evat enoo kali byadaa"
and in Marathi it i s "Aaz kaahi shikoo nakaa"

I wasn't asked yet what I want the 50-word message to be, but:
______________________________

July 24 is Learn Nothing Day for unschoolers all over the world. Try not to learn anything.

Aaj kuch mat seekho.
Evat enoo kali byadaa.
Aaz kaahi shikoo nakaa.

Void in Utah.
Good luck!
_____________________
(end of message)

The reason it's void in Utah is they have a state holiday, Pioneer Day, and they have parades and picnics, so it's impossible for kids not to learn that day. I'm not insulting Utah. It's sort of a joke, and a mystery for other people to find out why.

end of quote

He had said he was unwiling to say anything rude or insulting, and so I explained "void in Utah." He couldn't, with his accent, quite say "void," but that's okay.

If you want to order something from him, or see other things he's done: I Will Deliver A Message As Flowerman, varun_karkhanis
He has some other costumes, too...

No sheet-steel was harmed

2019-07-15T19:41:00.001-06:00

No sheet steel was harmed in the making of this image.

If you prefer to imagine that it was not only cut, but getting really hot in that tropical sunshine, then let me tell you that they also cut down some trees that were getting in the way.

Learn Nothing Day is nine days out. Maybe you could read about plasma torches and modern welding equipment. That's all more expensive and dangerous than Photoshop is.

The art was done by Amine, in Thailand, who is mecamine on Fiverr.

Learning how to identify hippies

2019-07-14T02:46:00.002-06:00

In 2017, Heather Booth reported on Learn Nothing Day at her house, with a bonus throw-back story.

It's the time of year again. Time to celebrate Learn Nothing Day! It's a fun, tongue in cheek holiday where unschoolers collectively try to go a whole day not learning anything to illustrate it's not possible.

This year started with Austin laying on the carpet face down in an attempt to not let any new information into his head. He got bored and asked if we could call a time out for a bit so he could play his game. Learning nothing is hard work and boring.

2013

At some point he asked me if my friend Willow was a hippie. I asked him what he thought a hippie was. Here's the list he came up with:

Have dreadlocks
Love peace
Be a vegetarian
Wear round sunglasses
Wear super flashy clothes
Believe in karma
Like bugs
Like the outdoors
Participate in activism
Say "man" a lot

I asked him how many of those things a person had to do to be a hippie. He said five. I'm pretty sure Willow loves peace, I think she likes bugs, I know she likes the outdoors and participates in activism, but she doesn't have dreadlocks, isn't a vegetarian- but is a vegan. I've never seen her in round sunglasses and I wouldn't say her style of dress is "super flashy." I also don't think I hear her say man a lot. How many was that? Only four? Willow, you're not a hippie in Austin's book. Later that day he asked if we could go to the Lego store. We had been going about our day and I think we forgot we call Learn Nothing Day back on, so figuring out what was the best Lego set to buy for the amount of money he had didn't count either. Come to think of it, I don't think we ever called Learning Nothing Day back on. It was too hard not to see something new, figure something out, or engage in interesting conversation and really isn't any fun to go about a day that way. Basically we quit Learning Nothing Day and went about our learning as usual. Just the way we like it.

I came across that while working on this page: Heather Booth, on Unschooling, which I needed because a link had gone bad (to her older blog) from The Big Book of Unschooling page, which I needed to clean up because the second edition was released this week, ten years after the first! There's a new cover and everything.

Cool, for July!

2019-07-11T15:08:00.000-06:00

Here's something to cool you down if you're in July's northern hemisphere.
It might excite you if your day is boring, too, but save the dullness for July 24.

Thirteen days left until The Day.

The art was done by skmlko1993 on Fiverr, in India, who has created a program to photoshop an image into 50 different scenes. So you'll see some of the others, as time goes by, maybe. He sent me 55, total, mostly things on walls and buildings. They're fun.

Mini-unit on reality

2019-07-10T21:59:00.001-06:00

It's true, it's real, but is it news? Not really.
But also this is faked news; the image is just a photoshopped thing, from a blank. Nothing special, only it's special to me!

It's truly faked. REAL fake news. But wait, no... It's true.

Click here for a BONUS reality question! Is it, or is it not, a snow globe?

Once upon a time...

2018-07-27T20:32:00.001-06:00

This popped up as the next video after I was watching the Polikowskys Roblox video with Devyn today.

Very sweet:

—by Jessica Sexton, on the second Learn Nothing Day.

Tie Dye and VERY personalized art

2018-07-25T13:55:00.003-06:00

Galina Erkamp had the idea for the gathering. Tessa Onderwater organized the tie-dying. Saskia Ruder put photos of the doings of the kids in that group over the past year behind the letters of the logo, and printed iron-on transfers, at a gathering at Tessa's house on Learn Nothing Day in Rotterdam, 2018.

This might still be there!

2018-07-25T12:05:00.001-06:00

"This might still be there!" I thought, for an instant, being a desert-dweller. :-)

Spot Nixon took the photo in 2017, I'm sharing it here in 2018, and people will see it in 2019 and thereafter, so... in a way...

A family fails to stop learning

2018-07-24T20:57:00.000-06:00

The text and images were posted by Jen Keefe, on July 23, 2018.

“Well, I guess I can’t look at the map to find that out today...”

“I can’t watch YouTube...”

“I can’t even bake! This is pointless! I can’t do ANYTHING without learning!” Sydney, age 8.
This is the first year the kids have had such fun with Learn Nothing Day. The tongue-in-cheek holiday from learning happens every year on this day, which is also Sandra Dodd’s birthday and not a coincidence.

We tried, as much as unschoolers would attempt to stop learning, but it was hard. Sydney was cutting up an old shirt to make pajamas for her new build-a-bear while we watched the Middle East Top Gear special. As Sydney learned new stitches we all learned that most of Iraq is peaceful and beautiful. We learned about motors and that an egg won’t fry on a spoiler- even when it’s been driven through the Syrian desert all day. We learned how long it takes to drive 226 kilometers and that a car radio can be re-wired to play the same song over and over at the same volume with no ability to stop it 😂

Then we went to see Mama Mia. Ugh. That sealed the deal. We identified flags, talked about the use of flashbacks, Greece, Italy, set decoration, actor casting, how much three tickets would have cost without Movie Pass and how much money we’ve saved this week... we just couldn’t stop learning, which is the fun of Learn Nothing Day.

When we first decided to homeschool I grieved a bit (okay, more than a bit). No standing at the bus stop on a crisp fall morning, no going for a run, reading...writing... before picking the kids up in the afternoon. No going back to work...

We had such a bumpy start. Without Sandra and the group she’s created we would, for sure, not be where we are. And I can’t imagine being anywhere but where we are right now (okay, maybe Greece- we did just see Mama Mia!) Living life with these two awesome humans is the very best place to be.

Having Kristopher and my focus be 💯 on their learning has given us the gift of peace and personal growth in ways we couldn’t have committed to otherwise.

Happy Learn Nothing Day fellow unschoolers! I’m sure your day was as successful as ours 😁

I wrote to Jen for permission to use this, and she wrote some more!

Yes- you can certainly put it in your blog.

I think I could have written 3,000 words off the top of my head. We had such fun with Learn Nothing Day today! It was neat to see the kids pointing it out over and over again. Maybe it was that I got it more then ever before. Throughout the day I’d have moments where I realized how much the kids were learning at that moment- the ones where we were just doing normal human things, like we do every day. Watching TV and running to the map to confirm which country borders Iran there, using google to be sure that is the Greek flag and not Sweden. What I wish I’d said in that post, and meant to, is that learning literally happens every minute of every day and I’m learning sometimes supporting that is staying out of the way, or at least doing only what’s asked. It’s just the coolest 😍

New Art from the Netherlands

2018-07-24T15:27:00.000-06:00

I'm going to assume even the Hawaiians have had enough Learn Nothing Day for me to share something.

This art came out of a meet-up in Rotterdam, in The Netherlands on Learn Nothing Day 2018. ~~I don't have details yet on who should be credited,~~"The idea was from Galina Erkamp en Saskia Ruder put the prints behind the letters." and I don't have notes on the images, but here for starters are these:

Info is still coming in... but they printed iron-ons of this art to put on t-shirts.

SEE MORE!

Tessa Onderwater sent these images, and might share some more about it later on Facebook.

JUST TRY not to learn.

2018-07-19T08:37:00.000-06:00

Try not to learn.
Don't try to learn.
Just try not to learn.

Sweet little podcast, about that...