Should we be ‘Unschooling’ our kids?
A new education movement showed up on ‘Good Morning America” this week and parents are up in arms about the story. The movement is called “Unschooling.”
Based on what I read and watched on the “Good Morning America” web site, it sounds like a cross between extremely lazy Montessori and homeschooling. The basic gist as far as I can tell is that the kids choose what they want to study and how they want to study. But that they may mean they just watch TV or play video games that day. (I’m only comparing it to Montessori because kids get to choose what they work on to some degree – but in Montessori kids have and actual curriculum and lessons to choose from.)
The report estimated that of 56 million school children, 1.5 million are homeschooled and of that 150,000 are “Unschooled.”
From the GMA web site:
” ‘We find that we don’t need a whole lot of rules,’ Phil Biegler said in the segment that aired Monday. ‘They might watch television,’ Christine Yablonski said. ‘They might play games on the computers.’ ‘They might read,” her husband added. Most children will choose television over reading every time, but Yablonski said that “the key there is that you’ve got to trust your kids to … find their own interests.’ ”
In our house, that’s called summer.
Here are two videos about the movement called Unschooling. The first video is the original story that aired on Monday. The second video is when the parents came on to defend themselves because so many people wrote into “Good Morning America” outraged by the concept.
Original report
Defending themselves – second appearance.
So what do you think? Is this a legitimate way to educate your kids or are they just letting them play hooky as the reporter joked in the piece? Are there variations of this that could work?
What did you think of the parents in the first video who said they really have no rules and let their children choose when, where and what to eat and don’t make them take care of hygiene issues? (Go back and watch the first video if you missed that.)
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128 comments Add your comment
Uh, oh - Wayne is...
April 23rd, 2010
2:46 pm
…turning into another motherjanegoose…must be something about northerners (Chicago for motherjane and somewhere on the east coast for Wayne)…
V for Vendetta
April 23rd, 2010
2:48 pm
Wayne,
I’m sorry if I came off harsh. You must understand, I see this sort of thing daily. Sometimes, I just get a little fed up. If your school is unable to serve your son, I feel for you. When I was in Elem. school, they pulled those of us reading that far ahead out of class. We had a small reading group comprised of students reading beyond the Elem. text books. We remained in that group through third or fourth grade. By fifth grade, we had all migrated on to adult novels and what not, so I didn’t really care what we were reading in class. Easy A and all that.
I hope your son has similar opportunities, and I applaud you for finding them. I honestly think that reading Jurassic Park in the fifth grade is what set in stone my love of books. Up until that point, they were simply a welcome relief on a rainy day. After that, they became an addiction. I can’t think of a better vice. :-)
Good point, JATL...
April 23rd, 2010
2:49 pm
…”Our entire nation seems to have gravitated toward being a bunch of fools who want everything without putting forth any effort”. Neal Boortz couldn’t have said it better – did you steal that from him? Obviously, you are not an Obamabot….thank goodness.
Wayne
April 23rd, 2010
3:03 pm
@V; Welll…. okay… ;) All I’m asking is that if my youngest son can get an IEP for being delayed, why can’t my older son read something a bit more challenging. Putting him in another reading group would be perfect! The problem is that the school won’t acknowledge any student who is excelling; all we parents have to prove to the school that they are bright, and then maybe they will do something.
Yeah, I suppose I can’t blame them, budgets and all, but when you see (and hear) about all the money spent on IEP kids, it gets a bit much. If we were the only parents butting heads with the school system, I’d say more power to you and move on my way. We’re not, so I’ll keep pushing.
He loves books. He’s reading Hardy Boys now, and flying through them. We’ll ask questions about what he has read and he’ll tell us all about it. It’s very cool to listen to him talk about them because as a kid, I read them and it dredges up old memories.
What’s a ‘victim of code’?
As for the motherjanegoose reference, I’m not sure I follow? I don’t travel for a living.
JATL
April 23rd, 2010
3:13 pm
@ Good point JATL -thank you! I’m actually not “anti-Obama” in many respects, but I find that there isn’t a viable political party that really stands for my beliefs. I like Libertarianism on many levels, but I DO support government programs for some things. I’m one of the many “socially liberal and fiscally conservative” folks who find themselves a bit lost when it’s time to vote…but I definitely agree with Neal when he starts talking about those who expect to become millionaires by sitting on their a**es (and not in front of a work computer).
Don't worry, Wayne...
April 23rd, 2010
3:21 pm
…when motherjane gets online SHE will explain…
Wayne
April 23rd, 2010
3:21 pm
It’s amazing to me when I speak to (and listen to) older kids; everything has to be handed to them. All I can remember was how much I had to work to get a car, pay the insurance and put gas in it. Even getting a job was you started at the bottom and worked your way up. Back when I interviewed folks for IT positions, they wanted to be CIO. Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere, and generally speaking, it ain’t the top.
All I saw in the GMA video was a couple of kids playing around. I’m not sure that constitutes ’schooling’.
Wayne
April 23rd, 2010
3:26 pm
LOL Okay, I’ll wait…
Wayne
April 23rd, 2010
3:27 pm
Still want to know what “victim of code” is though… That one has me stumped!
uberVU - social comments
April 23rd, 2010
3:37 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by AJCinEducation: Should we be ‘Unschooling’ our kids? | Momania: A Blog for Busy Moms: http://bit.ly/bIqySk via @addthis…
Spunky
April 23rd, 2010
3:47 pm
So I’m wondering why no one is asking if this is a legitimate piece of reporting? Stephanopoulos sets up his bias from the beginning and the video takes it from there leaving the viewer completely manipulated toward only one outcome this is all bad and parents all over America asking if this is “legitimate.” Has anyone ever heard of EDITING?
Has the girl ever had her teacher put her in a taxi and haul her off for an abortion without her parents consent? I doubt it but that’s what happened to a minor in Washington State just a few weeks ago.
Has this young man been in a “ten second” fight club with this his school mates? I doubt it. While we’re upset that he and his sister are play fighting in the front yard, middle and elementary school kids are beating each other bloody in upscale schools all across America.
Has anyone stopped to wonder what this “journalist” didn’t ask these kids? How about instead of what grade you are in (completely irrelevant question passed age 18) to what are you interests and long term goals? How about instead of asking what college are you going to be able to get into, Chang could have asked what countries they’ve already been too.
But we wouldn’t want to ask those questions because that would make these children seem normal, maybe even above average. Instead, we get a story with an obvious bias and a national viewership that sucks it all in. Group think at it’s finest and the very reason these parents don’t want their kids to be a part of it at all.
For more thoughts on this article and homeschooling in general visit my blog
http://www.spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com
penguinmom
April 23rd, 2010
3:54 pm
@Wayne, my own (and my husband’s) boredom in school is one of the main reasons we homeschool. I was a math major in college and remember almost getting a C in junior high in a math class because I was so bored out of my skull it was hard to pay attention. My husband was called into the office in 2nd grade because he hadn’t done his seat work. He completed a Month’s worth of assignments in 30 minutes. Just hadn’t done them because he already knew the material.
It is hard to have a child reading that far ahead. My eldest son was reading well beyond his level and it makes it very difficult to find appropriate books for them to read. Textbooks for his ‘grade’ level were a short read for him so we had to move up a couple of grades in the material we presented. I ended up pre-reading all of his books until he was in middle school just to be sure they didn’t present topics above his maturity level.
On topic, unschooling can be a cop-out for lazy parents. As a homeschooler, I sometime wish these parents would get on track instead of giving the entire movement a bad name. If a parent is diligent and offers a wide variety of educational experiences, unschooling can work for many students. The graduation requirements we have in Georgia are nonsensical for some students. Not everyone needs to take PreCalculus or even Algebra 2. (remember I’m a math major so I love math, but many topics aren’t really practical in every day life). Preferrably, everyone should be required to take Business Accounting so that they can handle money and understand business practices. This is useful info for your adult life. Not everyone needs to read the full text of the books covered in English. There are concepts/themes you need to grasp but a lot of students would get these just as well through a synopsis followed by a well-done movie as opposed to wading through Victorian English. Unschoolers are merely taking this concept to a radical conclusion and letting their children determine what is going to be important for the future they want for themselves.
The hygiene thing is just gross. It’s not unschooling to let your kids decide when to bathe or brush their teeth. That is a matter of sanitary/good health practices that are as important as teaching your baby to talk and walk. Also, allowing the family in general to be a complete egalitarian society is not useful because that does not represent real life.
Linda masci
April 23rd, 2010
4:16 pm
I think these parents are just lazy! They are doing a disservice to their kids. We are instructed to raise our children up in wisdom and understanding and I don’t see that they are doing either. The sad thing is when they get out “in the real world” they will be shocked that they now have to go back to their toddler ages and be taught about responsibilities, consequences, deadlines, studying to gain understanding about God or any other topic. Very sad! I am a homeschooler and I would never raise my child to be self-centered like that! I think if they didn’t want to be parents they should not have had kids. In this case, I think the school system would have been a better option for them. It gives all the well-meaning homeschoolers a bad name.
Seriously?
April 23rd, 2010
4:45 pm
FCM – “progressive liberal indoctrination?” Seriously? Are you holed up in your trailer with a bible, some guns and your sister-wives?
Being scared of education is not becoming.
Faye
April 23rd, 2010
5:02 pm
GMA didn’t do a thorough job of explaining unschooling; no doubt they were going for shock factor. Unschooling wouldn’t work for everyone, just as trade school or private school wouldn’t work for everyone. But unschooling does have some redeeming qualities, and many unschoolers go to college/get good jobs/lead productive lives. No doubt some unschoolers/homeschoolers will have trouble once “school” is over, but that could be said about any child, no matter their educational background. For a different look at unschooling: http://tinyurl.com/26a2fxt
mom2alex&max
April 23rd, 2010
5:29 pm
I think they are out of their minds.
I can just imagine these kids getting a job (assuming they go to college, which seems far fetched) and when the boss hands them an assignment and they say: sorry, man, this doesn’t really interest me. I wanna pursue my own goals here.
FCM
April 23rd, 2010
5:35 pm
ROFL….Far from being scared of education….I just think the public school breeds sheep. No trailer, no guns, etc.
I am a Liberterian so I think that the schools and their everyone should be treated the same — NCLB don’t hurt Susies feelings because she cannot read, keep the whole class at one pace lest Joey lose track is STUPID.
Education doesn’t happen school, at best the school gets the basics and a really GOOD teacher fosters a life long love of learning. If your schooling stopped when you got your diploma you have stunted your growth potential.
catlady
April 23rd, 2010
5:37 pm
Okay, Wayne, I will bite the bullet. “I can see where he might be having problems in school” would be a nice way of saying either “He is so bright Georgia Power could use him to power the school”, OR “I can tell by his behavior one on one that he is probably difficult to handle in the regular class where he is NOT the center of attention”.
I have two bright kids (IQs in the 120 range) and one very bright (150+). My son, the latter, was clammoring for Shakespeare at 6. He quoted Shakespeare’s Hamlet soliliquy to the psychometrist at age 7. I know about bright kids. I have taught quite a few.
Your comment about the objectivity of Sylvan’s personnel is a little funny. Why would they be biased? (Drumroll) To please you, their employer! Is their tester acceptable to the school system, by the way? Many who bill themselves as “qualfied” are not accepted, if you end up back in the public schools. Beware! I had my son privately tested by the nearby university (the school system drug their feet for a year).
Your son is fortunate to have you as an advocate, and to get him a chance at an education that you feel will better meet his needs. Best wishes to him and you! None of my comments above are directed at your son, merely observing based on experiences.
FCM
April 23rd, 2010
5:41 pm
OH and seriously, I am back in school for my second college degree. I am a HUGE believer in learning.
Terrie Lynn Bittner
April 23rd, 2010
6:27 pm
Ally, in theory they can learn to be excited about school, but most schools kill the love of learning. Here’s a story I tell in my first book: My children were reading and doing math before kindergarten, just because it was fun. They loved learning. Then they went to school. I pulled the the two youngest out in second and third grade after being told they were so advanced the school had nothing to offer them. The first day of homeschool, they did a math worksheet and ran to me saying, “Here’s our papers. Give us our candy.” When I looked confused, they explained in school they got candy if they did their work. I refused, and they asked for stickers or some other reward. I decided not to even give them a grade, explaining that learning was its own reward. We went over the papers, corrected mistakes, and went on. It took a year to give them back what they’d lost.
Look at it this way: We don’t reward children for eating cake or playing with toys. We only bribe them to do things they’d never want to do otherwise. So grades, stickers, and worst of all, candy, tells a child learning is something no one in his right mind would do without being forced or bribed.
I was “afterschooled” as a child. I plowed through unmemorable school days and then rushed home to do my real learning with my parents. I remember almost nothing of what I learned in school, and nearly all of what I learned at home. My parents didn’t open my brain and dump in knowledge. They taught me how to learn, and today, I can learn anything I want to learn.
Although I had a few good teachers, I’m an author because my mother taught me to read and write and my father taught me how to be an independent scholar.
We did both structured and unstructured homeschooling at different times. My son just got two scholarships in a week and has been on the deans list every semester. He knows how to learn, and unlike his traditionally schooled peers, isn’t burnt out on forced learning. I gave him both discipline and freedom, something test-laden schools can’t do. What is taught on standardized testing only creates standardized brains, and those can’t change the world.
Alasandra
April 23rd, 2010
7:16 pm
As a retired Homeschooling Mom (both my children are now in college) I really resent That’s called Laziness attitude. Homeschooling certainly isn’t the path of least resistance and if anything it involves MORE WORK, then simply shoving your child out the door and sending them off to public school. There are lesson plans to develop, educational field trips to plan, papers to grade as well as researching which textbooks to use, researching what different colleges require and maintaining transcripts and other paperwork. We choose to homeschool because we wanted our children to receive the BEST education possible. Our eldest son started college at 16 and is now working on his Masters in Computer Science, our youngest son in a freshman in college, and both work part time. They are both happy successful young adults.
penguinmom
April 23rd, 2010
7:56 pm
@Alasandra – I homeschool as well and I believe the laziness comments were not aimed at homeschooling parents in general but at the unschoolers portrayed in the piece. The parents shown don’t think there should be any rules or discipline at home and seem to believe the kids should make their own decisions about everything including hygiene and eating.
catlady
April 23rd, 2010
9:01 pm
Wayne, one more anecdote: When my son was in first grade, he “went up” to 5th grade for reading, which was appropriate in terms of his reading skills, including literal comprehension. (Our school was small, 230 kids grades K-7; our principal was willing to be flexible) However, he was still 6 years old in terms of maturity. (His handwriting, for example, was that of a first grader.) His first grade teacher, who was in her first year of teaching, didn’t quite know what to do with him, so she pulled 5th grade level work for him. One topic he studied was “International Workers for World Peace”. He studied Ghandi, Dag Hamerskold, etc, and could easily answer factual questions about them. HOWEVER, when he came to the “mature thinking” question, well, he was just 6. The question was, “As a citizen of the world, what can YOU do to help promote world peace?” And his answer…..”I’d fight for it!”
Crimson Wife
April 23rd, 2010
9:51 pm
I don’t follow an “unschooling” approach in our family’s homeschool but I have observed that it can work very well in other families. Don’t forget that the Colfax family “unschooled” their children all the way to Harvard University.
Chris
April 23rd, 2010
10:15 pm
I have to laugh at till all of these posts about how these parents are irresponsible. The kids that are rude and lazy are kids that are in traditional school. Parent are lazy and want the school to take care of them. Homeschoolers and Unschooler know their kids and their kids dont act like this. Also remember that they showed them watching tv and using the game due to name brand not being able to be shown on tv without clearance. Kids that are unschooled can get jobs , they usually start with an apprentice and then goes from there.
Sarah Johnson
April 23rd, 2010
10:31 pm
It appears unschoolers get angry when someone suggests they should work with the public school system.
http://giftededucation.suite101.com/pages/article.cfm/what-public-schools-lose-when-gifted-kids-are-homeschooled
Chris
April 23rd, 2010
10:45 pm
funny thing is I don’t unschool.
Kim
April 23rd, 2010
11:08 pm
Testing…
quiltermama
April 24th, 2010
12:13 am
How is this family different than others? How many teenage children skip school while parents are too busy to even talk to them? Parenting is more than sending children to school to jump through some hoops for a dozen years. While I’m a home schooling parent, we are very flexible with what our children learn. We are NOT unschoolers- we have been by necessity in the past, but there were rules- just no academic learning for that time period. However, my children are not behind at all. I doubt these children will be “behind” either. How many public school children have you met that are brats and hate everything about their lives- and ARE exposed to things children should never be exposed to?
mommyof4
April 24th, 2010
3:14 am
While I do not agree with unschooling, this report seems to be a setup for future criticism against all homeschooling. Homeschooling is an extremely successful method of educating our youth. To be fair to homeschooling we should also measure the percent of public school and private school dropouts or failing students. We should also do a study on the public/private school teachers who are doing poor jobs of educating their students. I doubt that media would paint such a poor picture of all teachers due to 10 percent teaching at subpar levels.
Momx3
April 24th, 2010
3:36 am
Anyone who says homeschoolers are lazy have never met a homeschooling family on the classical track – My kids work hard, damn hard, harder than they would at school and if they want to go to university in the future they will have the academic scores and aptitude to do it. It’s my job to make sure that they do. To the person who said homeschooling is an excuse for one parent to stay home, GET A LIFE! I parent, I homeschool and I run a successful business corporation. Play hard or go home. And if Americans want to worry about the effect homeschoolers are going to have on your nation, consider this, right wing Christian groups are not only training up kids with scripture, they’ve got whole programs that run from elementary through to college that teach U.S constitutional law. The main body that looks after homeschoolers HSLDA is run by constitutional lawyers and they know very well what their movement needs more of. These kids don’t care if they’re serving hot fries at Mickey D’s, they’re out to run your country for you instead and give it twenty years and they will.
G
April 24th, 2010
5:16 am
I have two points to make on the subject. 1. Freedom 2. Teaching vs Learning.
1. Freedom
Unschooling, whether you like it or not, is a valid, legal option. Although our family doesn’t practice unschooling, I shiver to think that some would want to ‘outlaw’ it. The greatest freedom our country provides to its citizens is freedom. Please don’t tell us which books we can (or must) read, what religion (if any) we must practice, and how we educate our children.
2. Teaching vs Learning
Teaching vs leaning. Institutional education is all about teaching. For some, its boring and uninspired at best. At worst, it spoils a child’s natural curiosity and destroys the love of learning and natural creativity. Perhaps unschoolers take their kids ‘lives’ back, putting deeper meaning into what education really is– learning. After all, real life isn’t broken up into one hour chunks of reading, writing, and arithmetic — its all there all the time. If parents are truly engaged, curious unschoolers WILL naturally seek out and learn — more deeply and more meaningfully than their public-schooled peers. I’m not a TV fan, so if we unschooled, we’d just get rid of the TV!
mommyof4
April 24th, 2010
7:07 am
@ Momx3…Is knowing the constitutional law a bad thing? Just wondering if you feel as negatively about it as it appears. Thank you.
homeschool believer
April 24th, 2010
11:35 am
I agree that Chang did a HORRIBLE job at interviewing this family. I too homeschool my children (5, 6 1/2 & 9yrs). I made this choice when my oldest son was 4 yrs because he was so eager to learn & I wanted to give him not only the education he needed, but the love that no preschool teacher could have given him. My daughter (who was 2 at the time), learned her ABC’s (phonetically) & 123’s right along with him. She was reading by 3 yrs old.
Due to some difficulties I was facing with my son’s reading & writing at 7yrs old, we decided to put him & my daughter in a private school. The only positive thing that came out of the whole experience was their diagnosis that my son had dyslexia. His “social” skills learned?…that he wasn’t as bright & wasn’t as good of a reader as everyone else. “The kids laughed at me today mom because I couldn’t pronounce some words I was reading aloud.” It was basically entertainment for my daughter who was bored out of her mind. I do not think my daughter is a genius, but the teacher was not able to meet her “needs” educationally. The only thing she came out of there with was scripture memorization….fantastic, but not worth $1000/month.
So I brought my children back home & have the resources to work with his dyslexia (which is doing wonders). I am able to challenge my daughter in the areas she needs…something the school was not able to offer. We belong to a public charter who is able to give us these resources, while supporting us whether we homeschool or unschool.
I have HAPPY thriving children who are appreciative about the fact they get to sleep till 8am & be done with school by noon….all in their pj’s. We have traveled across the country while visiting National Parks, major land marks & most importantly, experiencing it together as a family while doing “school”.
I am very thankful for the opportunity to homeschool my kids & instill biblical moral values while educating them. I am able to control what they learn, while they choose what interests them. Of course video games & TV would be their 1st choice, but those are considered rewards when they have fulfilled my educational goal for them.
Sadly, there are people out there who do not see homeschooling as a privilege, but a hindrance to societies expectations.
labradorworld
April 24th, 2010
12:46 pm
I happen to have followed this hands off approach and have had the privilege of knowing a few families who have also avoided the need to control every waking moment of their childrens lives. In every single case the children are much further ahead in terms of the ubiquitous testings imposed upon young people. How much further ahead you ask? In both English and Math they test at a level 4 and 5 years ahead of their peers who have been subjected to the public school system for most of their lives. And regarding sociability? They are able to carry on intelligent conversations with anyone including adults and look them in the eye to boot! Perhaps there is something to say for allowing young people to follow where their minds take them. In my experience, no one can learn what they are not ready to learn or have no interest to learn. One must have the confidence that the interest and time will come and the curiosity will be the guide.
Kristen Wells
April 24th, 2010
2:15 pm
Has any mentioned the presumably “normally educated” reporter asking about X+Y=Z. It was the perfect opportunity for the parents to comment on something irrelevant to daily living. So irrevelant in fact that the reporter forgot it was Xsquared +Ysquared = Zsquared when dealing with a right angle triangle and Z is the hypoteneuse. What? None of you remembered that little bit of high school math? My, what a horrid education you all must have had? Or perhaps you learned a lot of things which you promptly forgot as being useless. Now teach your kids this same concept but do it with woodworking/carpentry and I bet they remember it when they are grumpy adults complaining about “today’s youth.” Our education system is nothing to hold up as a Gold Standard which all kids should be exposed to, let’s start finding ways to improve it. Unschooling may not be the answer but it might be a step on the road to a good educational system.
Maeve
April 24th, 2010
2:31 pm
I think we all need to consider that this is a family that approached unschooling radically. Therefore, they are not the norm. I am a unschooled student and I feel that this article does not express unschooling in a good light, it takes a family with children that have used this opportunity and have thrown it away rather than exploring a wider ray of subjects that have been given to them.
I frequently encounter looks of confusion and apprehension when I tell people I am unschooled, but as I explain to them and I will explain in my post, the philosophy of unschooling is beautiful, not radical.
Unschooling is the belief that human beings are natural curious creature and from birth we begin to seek out answers to the world around us. We a curious and intelligent creatures willing and ready to learn and most of experience the excitement of school the first few days we are in a new class, new grade, new anything. We all love the idea of learning but unfortunately the way we are taught is flawed in a traditional setting, such as public school. Education is forced down our throats, we are reprimanded for what we do not understand and some of us are left behind, confused and scared to even say that we do not understand the subject matter. That, understandably, happen in a public or private institution for it would be impossible for a Teacher to cater to each students needs, there just isn’t enough time in the day.
However, in homeschooling and in unschooling we are in an environment that focuses solely upon us as a person, not as a class. We are given the time and the care we need to comprehend and sometimes move away from subjects we understand to a degree to progress even further. This is why many homeschooled students are further along in their studies than those in traditional school.
The way that unschooling differs from homeschooling is that it is not traditional school replicated in the home but a new way to approach education. Unschooling is just as effective but instead of forcing subjects down the students throat, every student is given the freedom to explore their interests, no matter how fleeting they may be, to find their passion and from that passion and constant support of their parents they get a far more well-rounded education.
I can easily say that I feel ready to go into college and have taken the SAT scoring higher than the national average, as well as a few college courses that I have received nothing but high marks in. So, as radical as the idea of unschooling may seem to you, it’s a beautiful experience to me. I am so very grateful that my parents gave me the opportunity. This is my last week of unschooling, I will be a High School Senior on June 12th, with a High School Diploma and everything.
So before you decide that unschooling is wrong, that unschooling should be illegal, think back to your education; Did you ever come away from it grateful to your parents for allowing you the opportunity?
Momx3
April 24th, 2010
7:59 pm
@ Momof4
No, I don’t think constitutional law or any advanced subjects taught to homeschoolers is bad. I was merely trying to point out that many homeschoolers, as opposed to being the burger flippers and sanitation experts of tomorrow, will actually grow up to be prime policy makers in the future.
catlady
April 24th, 2010
10:24 pm
Maeve: Obviously no one “forced” English grammar and punctuation “down your throat.” Better do a year of extra “unstudy.”
JATL
April 24th, 2010
10:46 pm
@LOL catlady! Maeve, honey, I hope you’re going to brush up on your writing skills before turning in your first college essay. Perhaps a traditional approach to proper writing skills would help you. You may also want to rethink where you are in life. You said you would be a “High School Senior” (none of which needs capitalizing by the way) but you would have a “High School Diploma” (again with the unnecessary capitalization). So, are you a junior or a senior? Do you know?
And yes, I am overwhelmingly grateful for the education my parents gave me. They paid for 10 years of private school that also involved them shuttling me back and forth (a 40 mile round trip), because the public school in our area was horrible. Then they spent a fortune on my college education, allowing me to be one of the lucky ones who got to go to college on a free ride from mom and dad. So yeah, grateful doesn’t even begin to describe the way I feel about the opportunities my parents gave me.
Kristen Wells
April 24th, 2010
11:38 pm
God! Catlady and JATL, you ladies are such Beyotches. This is a comment board, not a college essay. You should be ashamed of yourselves for using such petty arguements to make your case against unschooling. Even if you never learned the socratic method of arguing in your private/public/home schools, I would expect better than merely berating a child’s post that is defending her education.
JATL
April 25th, 2010
12:03 am
Hey Kristen-evidently the “child” is around 18 years old and feels that she learned everything she needs to know as an “unschooled” kid, and it’s quite evident by reading her post that’s not the case. You throw it out there and you should expect to get called on it! I completely agree that this is a comment board, but she’s the one who said she had received a wonderful education and then made one grammar, punctuation and wording error after another. Our point is that her “education” doesn’t seem to be so great if that “essay” is the best she can do to defend it. My second point was merely answering the question she posed.
Kristen Wells
April 25th, 2010
12:15 am
JATL- Why don’t you reread her post and put quotes around the part where “she feels she has learned everything she needs to know”. Also, in terms of her grammar,etc, is the coverse true? If you can write without any errors then have you received a wonderful education? Perhaps your definitions differ from hers. Just try to keep civil. And if you are so well educated, demostrate it by putting forth valid arguements not personal attacks and anecdotes.
JATL
April 25th, 2010
12:40 am
Wow Kristen, are you Maeve’s BFF? I haven’t personally attacked her at any point. I also wasn’t aware that, suddenly, Maeve and I were in a formal debate with you as the moderator. However, being able to express oneself well in written English (if that is your native language) is one of the hallmarks of a decent education. If Maeve turned in an essay or any type of writing assignment in a college class with the errors she made here, she would fail. Granted, many of our public high school graduates cannot write a decent essay of any type, and they also fail once they arrive in college.
As for anecdotes, if you’re referring to my information regarding my personal education, that’s not really an anecdote. Although it is biographical in nature, it’s not a particularly amusing account of an incident in my life. As I’ve already said, it was a response to the question young Maeve asked at the end of her post.
JATL
April 25th, 2010
12:56 am
Oh,and Kristen -you want me to keep it civil after you called me a “Beyotch”? Grow up.
Kristen Wells
April 25th, 2010
10:15 am
Wow JATL. Do some research and then decide if what you gave was an anecdote. Try Merriam Webster for a start. Or, in medicine, if something is anecdotal evidence, do you suppose it’s amusing?
To get back to the discussion topic: If you admit that there are many public school grads whose education has failed them, why is what these parents doing so much worse? We can site horror story after horror story in our government run schools so I don’t think we ought to throw stones at other systems. These parents, while I think they are misguided, seem to be doing what they think is best for their children. I disagree with what the vast majority of the population does with their children but since we live in America they have the right to do it. I think calling it child abuse is wrong. While the “mainstream” idea of success includes a college education and a well paying job, that isn’t everyone’s idea of success. I would say that the man with a $40K/yr job is more successful than the man with a $400K/yr if he truly loves his job and the more well paid man does his merely for the money. Perhaps that is what these parents are teaching their children. GMA did such a crappy job interviewing them that we will never know. I would like to hear others’ views on the way media seems to be trying to manipulate our opinions on basic parenting issues like education. This segment was obviously done in order to get the intended backlash from the public. They did not do this in order to educate us on another way that education is being done or they would have portrayed it more fairly than only showing these radical parents. They have now associated unschooling with parents who don’t even make children wash their hands or brush their teeth. I’m not convinced that the 2 are related in reality.
Colin
April 25th, 2010
10:54 am
State and local governments, the teacher’s unions, etc. have a vested interest in making all homeschoolers look like irresponsible radicals. This “news” story suggests that if we don’t stop homeschooling now, all kids will end up directionless hippies.
HB
April 25th, 2010
11:32 am
I’m sorry, catlady and JATL, but that really was just obnoxious. You post here thoughtfully often, so I know you’re both better than that. You don’t like unschooling — fine. But this student wrote a thoughtful, and fairly elegant, argument for the education she has received. Most people’s posts have mistakes from time to time (including yours and mine), but I think it’s fair to say that hers, even with the small mistakes you so eagerly pointed out, is better than what the vast majority of public high school seniors could write. So please keep the discussion level high and don’t resort to condemning her entire education on the basis of a few small mistakes in a difficult to proof, casual setting.
As for me, I am grateful for the wonderful formal education I received in Georgia public schools and then private universities even while recognizing it has not made me error-proof. :)
nikki
April 25th, 2010
4:24 pm
I am horrified at how MEAN these comments sound! Why must you pick apart what you don’t understand or what is different from the path you choose? First off, I have a strange feeling Good Morning America edited it a bit (for ratings) to make it seem worse than it was. Secondly, lots of jobs don’t require formal education. How about a farmer? A florist? A yoga instructor? An artist? An exotic animal breeder? There are jobs in our society which these kids would not be prepared for, but neither would half of the kids in public school who bring home homework which nobody bothers to help them with and go on to cheat their way through high school and never go to college. Are THOSE families abusive? Many countries don’t have a formal education for their kids, some only offer it to boys. America and Europe and China put an emphasis on formal education, but who are you to say that’s right? Who gives you the right?
I’m upset that this family allowed themselves to be portrayed in such a way and that GMA made it seem as though unschooling is a free for all with kids sleeping all day and playing video games all night. No, we are not unschoolers, but we ARE homeschoolers and I know lots of fully functional unschooling families. Oh, and FYI this is NOT such a new movement in our society. In the 60’s, when peace-loving Americans known as hipppies moved to communes to have their kids and raise their families, where do you think these kids were schooled? It was a form of unschooling. You want to be a farmer? Go grow some plants. You want to make tie–dyed t-shirts? Grab some dye and figure it out.
nikki
April 25th, 2010
4:39 pm
Also, JATL and Catlady, I will bet MONEY you both spent a few minutes re-reading your entries before submitting bc you wanted to make sure you didn’t have any misspells or grammer problems. You probably even hit spell-check. You sound like horrible old ladies trying to pick apart what you don’t understand. How horrible you must feel daily to look at yourselves in the mirror. This young girl was nice throughout her whole comment (which is a COMMENT BOARD btw NOT a college essay which I’m sure she would have spent more than 4 minutes writing). It’s mean people like you and your mean little kids that make lots of families NOT want to send their sweet children to public school. Yeah, I really want my sweet child to be picked on by bratty 6th grade losers who will be knocked up at 16 or committing suicide from the pressure at home.