The stigma around homeschooling is declining. A Gallup poll showed American disapproval of the practice has dropped from 73% in 1985 to 54% in 2001. But unschooling is still very taboo, and it's the topic of this article. An excerpt: Our friends have no kids, but were curious about our decision not to send Benny to school. They're aware enough to know that homeschooling is no longer (and probably never was) just a bunch of Bible-thumping Seventh Day Adventists who teach their kids at home in order to avoid the heathens at public school. Our friends also understand that parents homeschool their kids in different ways and for different reasons.
Nonetheless, when I used the term "unschooling," they needed an explanation.
"There's no good soundbite to describe it," I said, "just as there's no good soundbite to describe school. But generally speaking, unschoolers don't send their kids to regular school and avoid teaching by curriculum. You won't find them at the kitchen table every morning doing math, then reading, then geography."
I went on to explain that unschoolers believe in letting a kid's curiosity, interests and natural hunger for knowledge guide their learning.
Well, a lot of people aren't sold. Check out the comments here.
One example: "I'll coin a new tern to go with hers: un-parenting. When you really, you know, can't be bothered, because you're got bars to hit and a vapid chicklit novel to write and friends in Europe to visit. Let the kid play in mud and pat yourself on the back for what a fabulous job you're doing because he can always, you know, read a book about sharks or something to get himself educated."
And another: "Let's remember one thing here - this kid is 5 years old. I think we have a problem in that too much focus is put on structured education early in life and not in the later, pre-teen and teen years when it really needs to be structured and defined. Give it a rest you haters - let the kid color and play and roll around in the mud..there'll be plenty of time for classrooms and textbooks when he's a bit older. This is the age when exploration and nurturing are important..if she's providing that (which it sounds like she is) then she's doing a great job."
Read the whole article here. Who do you agree with?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 5)
1. un-schooling to me sounds like its effectiveness level is about that of Bristol Palin's "un-birth control" plan...
"i'll not do anything and assume it'll turn out the way i want"
hannah at 1:21PM on Sep 18th 2008
2. First of all, before any of you comment on this blog, I urge you to actually read the article and the comments that follow it. This "mother" is the height of personal selfishness. I know homeschooler parents, some do it well and some do it very badly, but to not do it at all and call it "unschooling" is ridiculous. It sounds like her child is not ready for the real school we call kindergarten, and he might actually benefit from holding him back a year before he starts school. In the article she wrote, it sounds like she has no plans to ever send him to school or start an actual curriculum at home. That might be ok for a 5 year-old, but you can't have the same plan for a 10 year-old or a teenager. Sooner or later, they need structure of some kind in their lives to keep them on track - children actually crave order and structure. And, a teenager is going to get in a lot of trouble without any real work to do. That's how I've kept my 3 out of trouble - is to give them guidelines, structure and a lot to do. They still have time to chill, play and actually enjoy life.
What is she going to do when it is time for him to take a GED, an ACT or a SAT to get into college? He isn't going to just naturally absorb the knowledge he needs to pass those tests. (Remember she's not homeschooling, she's NON-SCHOOLING.) And, she says she and her husband both have PhD's - how is little Benny even going to be admitted to any college, let alone obtain graduate degrees if he isn't even be schooled at all?
As I said, I've seen homeschooling done poorly - I know a young man whose mother loved homeschooling the little ones, but she didn't know what to do with them once they became teenagers, so she just let them do whatever they wanted to do (but she still was too stubborn to admit they were out of her control and send them to school). When I met him, he was 18 (he is my son's friend) and was working 3 minimum wage jobs. He couldn't pass the GED, he had no diploma, so he couldn't get a better job or get admitted into any college. His two older brothers also never had any "high school," but they managed to get into the military. His two little sisters were happily still being homeschooled by the mother. I sent him to a friend of mine who does admissions at a local community college (which also has an alternative high school), and she helped him take the courses he needed to pass the GED, he actually got a diploma and is now enrolled in the college.
I also know homeschoolers who aced the SAT and ACT tests, so it can be done well, but you have to be a real parent to do it - not like the lazy, selfish woman in this "un-schooling" article.
Sarah at 1:37PM on Sep 18th 2008
3. "Unschooling" is what kids get in school. Ever since John Dewey prescribed Rousseau's "progressive" (read communist) method of education for American (1899), kids learn "only what is 'authenitic'. In theory, that means they learn what is pertinent to them in their own lives. In practice, it means they are subtly brainwashed by teachers so they will grow up to vote as liberal Democrats....That is why the American public has been so dumbed down. There is NO curriculum. Read E.D.Hirsch's "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them."
Bob at 1:36PM on Sep 18th 2008
4. Bob, I can tell you with absolute certainty that 80% of what I learned in public school was not, and will not ever be, "pertinent to me in my own life"
I wasn't brainwashed by my apparent evil liberal teachers
I'm as Republican as they get.
I'm not dumb, or a communist.
your comment = fail.
hannah at 1:44PM on Sep 18th 2008
5. One of my cousins was "home schooled." At the tender age of 17, while watching the news, she asked me "what is Congress?"
After explaining the three branches of government, I cursed my aunt out for being an idiot, and trying to create another one.
She didn't talk to her mother for the last few years of her life. She straightened herself out, and I'm really proud of her.
ex-christian at 1:47PM on Sep 18th 2008
6. "Give it a rest you haters - let the kid color and play and roll around in the mud..there'll be plenty of time for classrooms and textbooks when he's a bit older. This is the age when exploration and nurturing are important."
It's also the age when the mind learns the fastest, and the ideal time to teach as much as possible. Exploration and nurturing are important. It's the ideal time to explore a school and learn how to get 'nurturing' from friends.
Mokele Mbembe at 1:48PM on Sep 18th 2008
7. I'm on board with the general idea. School does have a place in life, but i think kindergarten and even first grade can be done differently. Our public schools continue to ignore the fact that children are very open to learning at this age and can pick up languages and many skills that generally end up being taught later when the mind is not as fresh. Nice blog.. and good luck!
Mark at 2:14PM on Sep 18th 2008
8. My husband and I are not professional educators, therefore, we send our child to the PROS at our
parish elementary school. Our child is doing very
well, is 6 years old and is reading and doing math well above his grade level. Of course we have always played "math games" with him, and have read to him since he was a baby, but lots of the credit goes to the wonderful, PROFESSIONAL teachers at his school. He is in 1st grade, and his teacher has a MASTERS degree in elementary education. Credentials are important, as our sons' education will be important to HIM, for college and the job market when he grows up.
Suz at 2:46PM on Sep 18th 2008
9. I know many, many people who home schooled. All the kids were far advanced from their counter parts in public school. All of them passed every state test with flying colors and went on to colleges. One of the things these people did, is to form a support group of other home schoolers. On certain days, they would all get together to have the kids interact, like a reading group, or art class that was usually done by one of the parents gifted in the area they were teaching. Some would give music lessons free because others gave art classes free. It was a great idea. I have no idea if this is still happening...but the kids turned out briliant. Oh yes, all the parents involved were Christians...you know those Bible thumpers so many like to dismiss.
Heidi at 3:25PM on Sep 18th 2008
10. Home schooling with a curriculum is a great idea, if you as a parent are ready to make it a full-time job AND you have the skills and talents it takes to be a good educator. Home schooling without a curriculum and therefore without a plan is a terrible idea. The structure isn't necessary for the kid, although depending on the kid it might help. The structure is for the benefit of actually conveying information in a coherent fashion. It's just as much for the educator's benefit in terms of doing their job effectively as it is for the student in terms of being able to absorb the staggering amount of knowledge required of the next generation. Otherwise, you're just bombarding the poor child with incoherent noise with no rhyme or reason aside from 'what do you feel like learning today?'
Admittedly, this approach might be best for a very specific type of learning style, assuming you have a student who honestly does want to learn and focus. How many five-year-olds and six-year-olds do you know that fit this description? To be fair I'm sure there are plenty out there, but this is the type of thing where you can't know if it works until after it's done. Anyone want to volunteer their child for the experiment? Apparently so...
Ultimately however I think it's a misguided philosophy to give children total freedom. Will you also cut out your nutrition plan and let them eat whatever they please instead of what professional nutritionists say we all should? Or will you feed them whatever YOU please because you believe you know better than they do? There's a certain amount of hubris (popular word on the blogs lately) involved here...
I thought the point of home schooling was to emulate the good things that happen in school while cutting out the bad and the stuff that is just a huge waste of time for your possibly gifted child. I never got the impression that it was a means to rail against the status quo.
Shaun C. at 7:16PM on Sep 18th 2008
11. As a homeschooling mom of ten years (with a doctorate as well), I do know that people have a lot of different ways to teach their children. There is no one right way. However, what kind of education is a 5 year-old child receiving, hanging out at a bar late at night? That's the last place I would ever take a little child.
Rhonda at 8:24PM on Sep 18th 2008
12. I know people who homeschool because of special needs or bullying. I can understand that. But hey - can you homeschoolers/unschoolers teach advanced chemistry. advanced German, advanced English, trig/analytical geometry, biology, physics, American History, etc etc - the classes I took in a PUBLIC high school on my way to a masters in chemistry? Even mt parents with their own graduate degrees could not teach all this. Wouldn't all those outside tutors be expensive? And what about those other kids whose parents cannot afford it?
VB at 8:46PM on Sep 18th 2008
13. Suz- Are you aware that the typical PROFESSIONAL teacher (as you put it) has a SAT score that places him/her in the BOTTOM THIRD of college graduates? Or that to get a MASTERS degree at my local no-name state college only requires 3 courses in actual pedagogy? The other 9 required courses are politically correct nonsense such as "The Multicultural Foundations of a Diverse Classroom"?
My sister-in-law is a public schoolteacher and she told me that her ed school coursework was a complete joke. Her HIGH SCHOOL classes were more challenging....
Crimson Wife at 8:49PM on Sep 18th 2008
14. My mother joined a cult and homeschooled my brother and sister in the 70's, (I was already 13, and said hell no). Her rationale was that my sister was sick all the time, and my brother was held back in the 1st grade. While being 'unschooled' my sister went to Disneyland with my grandparents, and was molested. Homeschool children escape the unbiased critical eye of outsiders, like teachers and school nurses who can spot abuse. Now, my sister wants to homeschool her son, because he bit a kid, and got kicked out of preschool, and then threatened to kill a kid, and got kicked out of kindergarten (Waldorf$$$). What he needs is discipline, not homeschooling. I don't know why parents, even knowledgible ones don't understand that all teachers who are certified actually learned something in our years of college, and professional development, and just might know how to educate the next generation.
MFB at 8:58PM on Sep 18th 2008
15.
I homeschool my two oldest kids and couldn't imagine doing so without a curriculum. We started because of special needs issues and continued because the kids work faster, harder and better at home. The aim here is college and nothing less. The majority of curriculum comes with extra teacher's guides and some services provide live tutors. You can now attend regular school online too. Give it ten years and we'll see how many kids are still in school. That said, you need one dedicated parent at home, bare minimum, and money, homeschooling is not cheap.
Momx3 at 10:18PM on Sep 18th 2008