Unschooling demystified

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The question for those of you who say you wouldn't go to an unschooled surgeon or CPA, the question really is how do you know? They have a college and medical degree on the wall. Do you often question your physicians or accountants or plumbers about where they went to high school?

If they have a college diploma and a medical school diploma on the wall, they weren't unschooled.

Why? It appears that you're saying by default kids won't get into or succeed at college or beyond. Being homeschooled or unschooled as a child doesn't translate into a young adult not wanting to go to college necessarily.

Again, how would you know?

No, I'm saying that they went to college and to medical school. Yes, they may have been unschooled before college and medical school. But they were not unschooled for their entire educational career. I know this because they have diplomas from schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The question for those of you who say you wouldn't go to an unschooled surgeon or CPA, the question really is how do you know? They have a college and medical degree on the wall. Do you often question your physicians or accountants or plumbers about where they went to high school?

If they have a college diploma and a medical school diploma on the wall, they weren't unschooled.

Why? It appears that you're saying by default kids won't get into or succeed at college or beyond. Being homeschooled or unschooled as a child doesn't translate into a young adult not wanting to go to college necessarily.

Again, how would you know?

No, I'm saying that they went to college and to medical school. Yes, they may have been unschooled before college and medical school. But they were not unschooled for their entire educational career. I know this because they have diplomas from schools.

So, to be clear, you would go to a doctor, etc who was unschooled for the first 18yrs of their life and then went to university? Pretty much what most unschooled kids of highly educated and involved parents do. I've never seen the term unschooled used with regard to higher education. It's typically, like homeschooling, a term reserved for the education of children 18 and younger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I don't know that I'm a fan, but from folks I know who do unschool their kids it takes both very motivated parents and very motivated kids to end up with educated teens/adults.

An example: A kid is interested in nature, maybe asks why leaves are green. From there, they might explore online, via books, or science experiments and learn about chlorophyl, the bloom cycle of trees and so forth. That might lead the child to wonder "well, if leaves are green, why is the sky blue" and they're off and running to all sorts of other exploration, visting a planetarium and on and on.

We have friends who unschool. Their children's interest in legos led eventually to a lego robotic tournament and their team of home and unschooled kids came in second in the state. The robotics portion led their son to an interest in computers and programming. He's 16 and has now voluntarily taken a class or two at the local community college in computer programming and has written code for some basic video games.

A family cycling trip to Italy was prefaced by studying maps and planning the trip. The vacation was filled with history and art and culture hands-on rather than reading a book and writing a report.

It's organically growth in learning. Their daughter expressed interest in theater and dance from a young age. They watched lots of Shakespeare and other theater, enrolled her in dance classes, explored the history of jazz, and a host of other things.

Based on their experience their kids actually spent lots more of their days reading for enjoyment or being active physically than your average child simply because they had the freedom to do so.

As a parent, I don't think it's a route I would take, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

The question for those of you who say you wouldn't go to an unschooled surgeon or CPA, the question really is how do you know? They have a college and medical degree on the wall. Do you often question your physicians or accountants or plumbers about where they went to high school?

Most of us do that stuff (studying maps, pursuing things our kids are interest in, etc.) in addition to schooling. It's called being a parent. That's why it's mind boggling people considered it their kids' sole form of schooling.

It's also mind boggling that you don't seem to understand that with an extra 40 hours a week due to not having school, commute, or homework, you could do more of those things.

I'm a working parent (a public school teacher, ironically) so my kid went to all day preschool. There were lots of great things he learned there, but I assume that had I been able to stay home with him as a 2, 3, and 4 year old he would have learned the same things, or other equally important things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So, to be clear, you would go to a doctor, etc who was unschooled for the first 18yrs of their life and then went to university? Pretty much what most unschooled kids of highly educated and involved parents do. I've never seen the term unschooled used with regard to higher education. It's typically, like homeschooling, a term reserved for the education of children 18 and younger.

If unschooling is valid, it is valid not just for 5-18-year-olds, but also for higher education. So the question is not, would I go to a doctor who was unschooled up to age 18? As you say, there is no way I would know. The question is, would you go to a doctor who didn't go to medical school?

[Anonymous]

I find the quote below interesting. I can't imagine my child only having 3-6 real friends. My kids have at least 20 good friends from school and other school related activities at any year. Yet the writer says they should know more and more adults who don't take care of kids, obviously not the parents then and more than 3-6 of these people. I also find the great need for privacy and solitude above socializing interesting. I've always thought of it as an important part of the day, but not the need for a lot of it. Is any of this taken from any study or just the writer's opinion?

"They need to know more and more adults whose main work in life is not taking care of kids. They need some friends their own age, but not dozens of them; two or three, at most half a dozen, is as many real friends as any child can have at one time. Perhaps above all, they need a lot of privacy, solitude, calm times when there's nothing to do. "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So, to be clear, you would go to a doctor, etc who was unschooled for the first 18yrs of their life and then went to university? Pretty much what most unschooled kids of highly educated and involved parents do. I've never seen the term unschooled used with regard to higher education. It's typically, like homeschooling, a term reserved for the education of children 18 and younger.

If unschooling is valid, it is valid not just for 5-18-year-olds, but also for higher education. So the question is not, would I go to a doctor who was unschooled up to age 18? As you say, there is no way I would know. The question is, would you go to a doctor who didn't go to medical school?

Actually, no I'd disagree with you that what's valid for a 6yr old is valid for a 24yr old and vice versa. Stages of development and learning styles are vastly different. Levels and depths of knowledge needed in a given subject (say, biology) are very different for a teenager learning general principles and someone who is going to seek advanced training to become a doctor or molecular biologist. And I think you know that but just want to be 1000% against unschooling as an option. To your point though, I would not seek treatment from a doctor who did not have formal medical training and all that it entails.

Like I said, I'm on the fence about it but I do know families for whom it works. It would not work for us.

[Anonymous]

I am not 1000% against unschooling as an option, because that is mathematically impossible.

I am also not 100% against unschooling as an option. If people want to unschool, I think that they should be allowed to unschool -- within the parameters of a law on homeschooling that, like Maryland's, requires the parents to demonstrate regularly that their child is receiving instruction in specified subject areas.

What I am against -- 99% against, not 100% -- is unschooling as a philosophy.

[Anonymous]

So why didn't you put your child in an in-home daycare instead?

What's the difference then?

Shouldn't the daycare provider technically "unschool" your kid?

But you opted for a school setting instead. Why IS that?

Are you saying that you'd do a better job of teaching your child if you "unschooled" him?

I call BS.

You put him in a preschool b/c you want your kid to learn. And as a teacher, you have no patience to "unschool" your child, nor do you have ALL the instructional resources and skills to "unschool" him.

Be a parent and let the schools do what they need to do.

Most of the "unschooling" parents I know (I know of three.) are controlling and closed-minded - but sadly, don't have the $30K to pay for a progressive school.

Signed,
another teacher

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a working parent (a public school teacher, ironically) so my kid went to all day preschool. There were lots of great things he learned there, but I assume that had I been able to stay home with him as a 2, 3, and 4 year old he would have learned the same things, or other equally important things.

[Anonymous]

Unschooling sounds like the waldorf school -- a bunch of nut cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why didn't you put your child in an in-home daycare instead?

What's the difference then?

Shouldn't the daycare provider technically "unschool" your kid?

But you opted for a school setting instead. Why IS that?

Are you saying that you'd do a better job of teaching your child if you "unschooled" him?

I call BS.

You put him in a preschool b/c you want your kid to learn. And as a teacher, you have no patience to "unschool" your child, nor do you have ALL the instructional resources and skills to "unschool" him.

Be a parent and let the schools do what they need to do.

Most of the "unschooling" parents I know (I know of three.) are controlling and closed-minded - but sadly, don't have the $30K to pay for a progressive school.

Signed,
another teacher

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a working parent (a public school teacher, ironically) so my kid went to all day preschool. There were lots of great things he learned there, but I assume that had I been able to stay home with him as a 2, 3, and 4 year old he would have learned the same things, or other equally important things.

I put my child in preschool because, among other reasons, it had financial aid and was a safe place for him to be while I earned a living. The one I chose happened to have a lot of child directed learning, and it was a good match for him.

I think that schools are a great option. I feel as though I do right by my student, and other teachers have done right by my kid. I can also imagine that there are other ways I could have raised my child and also had a great outcome. There's not just one path.

As an educator, I don't understand the hostility between some teachers and homeschooling parents.

[Anonymous]

My favorite are the unschooling parents who never even tried public school or say they are unschooling when their kid is 4. Sorry, but I only consider a parent is unschooling from 1st grade on and don't really care about a parent's opinion on schools unless they tried one for their child in the last 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Actually I should clarify. I'm interested in opinions from unschoolers, however I don't listen to any critique they have of public schools unless they tried them for their child recently and held out for several years before switching. The current article is from an unschooler who has little knowledge of public schools and yet spends more than half the article bashing schools and less time just talking about the benefits of unschooling.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone here cite any specific success stories which were strictly based on unschooling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why didn't you put your child in an in-home daycare instead?

What's the difference then?

Shouldn't the daycare provider technically "unschool" your kid?

But you opted for a school setting instead. Why IS that?

Are you saying that you'd do a better job of teaching your child if you "unschooled" him?

I call BS.

You put him in a preschool b/c you want your kid to learn. And as a teacher, you have no patience to "unschool" your child, nor do you have ALL the instructional resources and skills to "unschool" him.

Be a parent and let the schools do what they need to do.

Most of the "unschooling" parents I know (I know of three.) are controlling and closed-minded - but sadly, don't have the $30K to pay for a progressive school.

Signed,
another teacher

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a working parent (a public school teacher, ironically) so my kid went to all day preschool. There were lots of great things he learned there, but I assume that had I been able to stay home with him as a 2, 3, and 4 year old he would have learned the same things, or other equally important things.

I put my child in preschool because, among other reasons, it had financial aid and was a safe place for him to be while I earned a living. The one I chose happened to have a lot of child directed learning, and it was a good match for him.

I think that schools are a great option. I feel as though I do right by my student, and other teachers have done right by my kid. I can also imagine that there are other ways I could have raised my child and also had a great outcome. There's not just one path.

As an educator, I don't understand the hostility between some teachers and homeschooling parents.

You spent years learning pedagogy to prepare for your profession, and you can't seem to understand why there's friction btw. the "unschooled" and the educated?

I have only met one homeschooling parent who seemed "normal." But her homeschooling ways caused friction. So she's now divorced and unable to homeschool b/c she has to work. So guess what? Her kids are enrolled in their local ES.

So it's oh so convenient when you have two incomes, right? What about the single parent? not an option

So it's truly for the "privileged."

[Anonymous]

The idea of homeschooling, while not for me, seems fine and I don't question it. If you follow a curriculum that meets state standards and have your kids involved in sports, activities, etc., why not?
Unschooling seems like a bad idea to me, because there are certain basic things that kids will need to know in the event that they want to attend a traditional school in the future, or enter certain career tracks. Unschooling seems like a poor way to ensure that all of that material is covered.