Unschooling: practical or dangerous?
Unschooling is a new term on the home schooling curriculum, and one that's caused more than a little controversy."Unschooling" is essentially the rejection of the attributes of a conventional education: the books, the classes, the curriculum and the building itself. While traditional home schooling embraced the basic tenets of traditional education, unschooling stands on the belief that kids will eke out their own educational direction.
As I read this article in the New York Times, I was at first alarmed. Letting kids define their own education? Without text books? If someone had asked me to find my own way as a child, I would have...well, I would've read Judy Blume books all day and refused to ever learn my long division. Which basically is exactly what I did in school.
Currently, this method of education is legal and America and, while small, the movement is growing. Opponents say that it fails to adequately prepare children for the structure of the real world, while proponents object. One Mom in the article noted that learning came from practical desire rather than forced circumstance: her son learned to read when he felt desire, her children learned math when they needed to calculate what purchases their allowance would buy.
I think the idea's a good one. I'm interested to observe how it plays out in the coming years.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ann adams 11-26-2006 @ 1:18PM
"I would've read Judy Blume books all day and refused to ever learn my long division. Which basically is exactly what I did in school."
Could be. On the other hand if math in schools hadn't been so deadly, you might have had some reason to learn long division other than to pass the tests (or not).
I'm watching the unschooling too. It's not a new idea but it seems to be experiencing a rebirth.
One of the reasons I dislike homework is that it takes away from the "unschooling" that could be done after school. Kids need time to explore and learn.
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LB 11-26-2006 @ 1:26PM
I live in the Chicago area where this is pretty common. The kids I know who are unschooled do not seem, generally speaking, more or less "educated" than kids in school or more those typically homeschooled. They are little maybe a bit more wiggly, but also a little more sweet. This is a generalization, of course, there are exceptions.
I'm very supportive of this approach. It's important for parents and critics to keep in mind, it is child-led, not child "dances" alone. The kids point out the way they want to go but the parents and others important to the family need to come along, and sometimes perhaps point out the other paths.
I don't think it's useful to parallel our own schooled upbringings as to how unschoooled kids will spend their time. As school kids our free time was contingent on going back to school and being "on the job." It makes sense that we craved more fanceefree and sloth like activities KWIM?
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Sandy 11-26-2006 @ 2:07PM
Unschooling is a broad band, with lots of different ideas as to what is "true unschooling". In some circles, it can get nastier than the mommy wars.
Unschooling is a lot of work. And a lot of trust. It won't work for all families, but anyone even remotely interested should do lots of research and give it an honest try for at least a year. If a kid is coming out of "traditional school", he will need a long time to test out this idea of directing his own education. The worst that can happen is that he "learns nothing" for that year. If you examine a child's life, there's bound to be a year or two where something major was going on and they really didn't learn anything in school...divorce, death in the family, moving home, etc. (you have to work really hard to "learn nothing".
For more information, read something written by John Taylor Gatto. It will open your eyes to the entire institutionalization of education.
We've unschooled for the past 12 years. My boys didn't read until they were 9 years old. They never felt like dummies for not being able to read. It just wasn't something they were interested in doing. My cousin went to regular school and didn't read well until she was 9 or 10. The difference is that she did poorly in school and now she (and the teachers and other students) all think she's not very smart. It's kind of sad.
That said, we're moving more towards Mom-directed learning. The kids are still free to pursue their interests, but I'm making them memorize basic math facts and work on their handwriting.
Unschooling works. It works because there really aren't any rules and each family is free (and willing) to adjust as life requires.
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Christine 11-26-2006 @ 8:09PM
You should read "Summerhill" a book about a self managed learning school that has been in operation in Britain since 1921.
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Southerncharm 11-26-2006 @ 9:21PM
Breath of fresh air! I homeschool my youngest son (14yrs old) and my blood pressure rises and my stomach churns before I read these type of articles and what others have to post. Most of the time the posts come from those who have no idea, much less have tried any type of homeschooling. So, thank you to those who didn't bash the whole idea. Although, I don't "unschool" it just isn't for my son (I know his limitations)I try not to bash an idea if I havn't researched or tried it myself. Thanks!
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R Biernesser 11-26-2006 @ 9:53PM
I think it is wonderful that so many parents are able to homeschool or unschool thier children. I personally do not do this b/c I know what my limits are and that is just not one.
The problem that I do have with homeschool is that there are some parents that just don't. Their child grows up without learning to read, write, or any other skill a person needs in the adult world. That's not fair to the child.
I will share this with some parents that would like to try it and are worried about the subjects like science and math and their ability to teach it. There are places that give help in all the subjects. In my area, some parents get together and trade off. They also get together and go on field trips and other activites that allow the children to interact with each other.
The main most importants thing to do....Research and know your limits.
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Catherine 11-27-2006 @ 7:36AM
My son is now 18y old and looking for a job. He has always been homeschooled, mostly unschooled. He learned to read by 5, and was reading in the adult range by 8. He struggled with simple math for years, but now does higher math without a thought.
He is constantly frustrated with his schooled friends, complaining about their grammer, spelling, and lack of knowledge of things they supposedly studied in school.
He has a wide range of knowledge, has taught himself Japanese, and is currently writing a novel.
He is very self-directed and self-motivated, and when he took a job-finding course, they were very impressesd with his knowledge and range of skills. Although he was looking for a entry-level position, they are sending him out for better jobs, as they feel he is up to it.
I did have my doubts when we began to home-school, but I am very happy with how he turned out! :D
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becca 11-27-2006 @ 5:39PM
I'm an unschooler. I'm now 23, a college graduate (BA in political science & geography, two passions I developed on my own before I started college), happily married with a 1-yr-old and have my dream job (working for the National Geographic Society). It worked for me.
I and my unschooling friends used our childhoods/adolescence to explore the world. We learned to cook, wrote and performed our own plays, rode our bicycles across town and across the country, traveled to the next state and around the world, learned history from historic sites and elderly folks who had experienced it and dusty library tomes, took apart small appliances and learned to fix our parents' cars, apprenticed with shopkeepers, ran around the woods collecting flowers and leaves to identify, and took dance classes and swim lessons at the local Y. And then, after all of that "unstructured" learning, we put together portfolios that showed what we knew and got into the best colleges-if that's the direction we wanted to take with our lives; I have other friends who became artists and musicians and stay-at-home parents and mechanics. All of the unschooled adults I know have a strong sense of self and a drive to succeed that won't quit (pardon the pun).
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Sandy 12-01-2006 @ 1:34PM
Dr. Phil just had homeschooling on his show today. (it was originally supposed to air at the end of October)
What a hatchet job he did!! Go to this link to get an education on the ins and outs of manipulation.
I taped the episode and my kids and I will watch it and learn all about how the magic of television can be used to the host's advantage.
http://localhs.com/scuttle/2006/10/great-school-debate.asp
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