Most everyone here knows I am no fan of the Public (government funded and dictated) School system. I feel that Private Schools and Home Schooling can do it better and cheaper. . I do feel that Education is the primary key for success and advancement in life. . To me if you reject education in all forms, you set yourself up to fail in life. The basics are important! Reading, Writing, Math, Sciences, Civics, History. Structured education should include testing at various levels, advanced placement for gifted students as well as remedial studies for challenged students. Education has no race. Excelling in any given area of studies has no race or gender. . Now I am hearing something called "home unschooling". After watching a talk TV program on the subject I was shocked. The Mother was the only parent present in the program. She is an author of a published book on the subject. She does not channel the children into certain areas of instruction at all. No reading encouraged, nor math, or science, or anything else..... unless a stray thought pops into one of her childrens empty heads and they ask questions on that subject. Only then are they given any direction on how to pursue that particular thought thread. If they choose to play all day or night for that matter so be it. No rules, no formal anything. Just do what you want, we are your parents and we love you. Are you freakin' kidding me. These parents are CRAZY. When asked about whether her children would be able to qualify for and or get a job when they became adults, and what did she think they would grow up to be? The Mother looked a little confused at the question and then said.... "well, I quess whatever they want to be." . DUH !!! Oh really? . IMHO, this is criminal child abuse. It gives legitimate home schooling a bad name and makes it possible to outlaw home schooling and force kids into the inadequate public government run system. . Look into this folks. Speak up if you object on any level. These are the future generation of welfare slugs. You are going to be paying taxes to support them, because for the most part they are going to be unprepared to take care and provide for themselves.
Posting to reply to my own post.... sad ....lol . Actually I am a fan of good education. I think your greatest chance of finding that is someplace other than the public school system. IMHO far too many kids with untapped potential never are recognized and properly channeled and encouraged to excell. They simply fall through the cracks of the large public educational machine. . From what contact locally that I have had with home schooled kids, I am impressed. . Here is a flip side to the GMA TV program that I saw. But, it seems to me that this guy is not a total free spirit as the Mother I watched, and he does provide some direction to his children. <CITE>www.huffingtonpost.com/.../unschooling-how-igood-mor_b_543880.html</CITE> I will look for some other examples.....
That's just lazy .. I do the whole "instructional on random thought" and more. School doesn't end for my kids just because the bus drops them off.
I just spent close to an hour reading comments and watching youtube videos on unschooling. It seems as if it runs from "free range kids" where the parents provide next to nothing input or expectations, to a "semi structured curriculum" with the basics covered, and many electives encouraged and explored. . Many 16 to 18 year olds were in the videos, but I found that portion inconclusive. Most seemed well spoken, but thats about all you got out of it. How many were out on their own supporting themselves? What were their plans for the future? How did they expect to accomplish that? . Some of these kids were reading at 3 years of age. Others not until 10 or 11. One of them, a 17 year old male was quite apprehensive about his lack of math skills, and what his future might be. . All of the parents were pretty much on the same page about not wanting the government to control the teaching of their children. I can understand that, but at the same time, the parent needs to be up to the task and involved or in my opinion they are doing an injustice to their children.
The "free range" children with little or no input from the parents, and no expectations, I cant agree. I think for the most part the public school system sucks. But, even Public School was better than this total free range crap.
IN REAL LIFE??? What do you call the dumb masses indifferent to the Constitution, and the rule of law that got us to this point in time and government. Even among these so called home unschoolers most at some point experienced formal structured education and or moved to higher education where there is structure, and then they had to adapt. Real Life, and society and interaction in the business world as an employee or employer, or sole proprietor business person is ultimately where this home unschooled now adult is going to have to compete and excell or fail. . first off you disagree with a grand total of 5 words, then you follow up with some grandiose vague description of "natures Justice" which we are all supposed to magically accept, and a counter description you call an "artificial government controlled environment". . While I will agree that formal public K-12 education is an "artificial government controlled environment, I submit to you, that all after is a Real Life government controlled environment. . disagree all you like but, try to expound on it in a more substantial way than just being argumentative please.
There was a period in time where this kinda thinking ran rabid among(liberal?) "educators". My brother was subject to some of this in N.J. public schools they experimented with a mixed grade class room with no walls or some moveable walls..and a very free form schedule. It was a mess..
Unschooling is quite a popular movement. I heard about it quite a few years ago. I disagree with it, in that I believe that children need to learn and they need guidance and structure to accomplish that. Left to make their own educational decisions, I do not believe that a child can even fathom how much [seemingly] "useless" information will actually be used in their future. Given a choice, I don't know any kid that yearns for Geometry or History. They don't understand it will eventually have practical applications in their adult world. My experience (YMMV ): The unschoolers that I've come across were more than off-the-grid folks. They were so anti-everything that they were willing to (in my opinion) let their children suffer. Sad. Some "just" unschooled for a year, to let their child decompress from that nasty old schedule (<-- sarcasm intended) that they had to face day after day in the public education system. I can't grasp that concept, as every part of reality has some sort of schedule and I believe that good habits (like getting up every day) are best learned early. Again, I believe the children suffer in those instances.
Any parent that is into this "Unschooling" is just plain lazy, and probably unwilling to discipline their children as well. The result is unruly ignorant young adults. A parent's number one job is to prepare their offspring to function as adults in society. That includes giving them the skills and capabilities to get a decent job, and the ability to interact with others in a civilized manner. When I'm out in public, it's becoming rare to see well-behaved children, and easy to see what parents are NOT doing the job.
There are public and private schools with this free range idea. No classrooms, no structure at all. Targeted towards the gifted. Maybe to stupid them up?
Since we seem to be stuck with social security, perhaps we could index those pension payments to the productivity of their children. That might motivate them to raise their kids right.
Not sure what brand and I don't know a whole lot about Montessori but it seems some of the parents of the 'odd' children I've known have talked about these type institutions. Need to dig one up as an example.
