Poll: Unschooling: Parenting at it's worst

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Fire Daemon

Quoth the Daemon
Dec 18, 2007
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I don't understand why people assume that because a kid doesn't want to learn they can't possibly learn anything in a classroom environment and because of this a structure in which the kid isn't pressured to learn must be better. It's essentially giving up on the kid because he's deemed unteachable which is pretty idiotic.

If a kid doesn't want to learn you have two choices. Force them to learn and teach them something or let them run free to choose their own method of learning which will be none because they don't want to learn. The response to this is of course 'No, children will go and learn what they like' which is great and all except that without getting taught in some manner a kid wont know what he likes!

We were all introduced to science, literature, math, history, geography etc in a school environment. We gain our interest in things from school and in latter years we have the option to jump onto that interest and gain a further understanding of it. When you deprive a child of an educational environment than they will not discover how to write competently, or maybe even read, they wont learn about the elements or trees or the continents, they wont learn about what happened in the past and they wont know what multiplication is. The child will continue with their life as they had in their baby stages playing with things, eating and shitting. A child wont reach a point when suddenly it wants an education but maybe only wants an education in particular areas. It wont, it just wont. Given the freedom it'll do whatever the fuck it wants and what it wants is to be happy and a child is happy when it gets to play.

Granted there are times when a child will become curious of the world, everyone does. This isn't indicative of wanting an education though. Asking where babies come from isn't a sign that the child wants to be educated in human biology but if you were to take it a sign that the child wants to be educated in biology than you will be forcing them into an education system that you had might as well have ignored. You can limit their teaching to the questions that they ask you, sure, but eventually your answers will become to confusing. It's one thing to explain where babies come from, it's another to explain what Meiosis is. Eventually under any strain of asking questions a child will reach a point in which knowledge of other areas is required to understand the answer. How would a child understand how many chromosomes we have if they can't count higher than ten? How could they know the difference between X and Y chromosomes if they have never heard of the alphabet? And what of when the child doesn't want to learn anymore? Eventually they will grow tired of the explanations given from their parents, even the most intelligent and interest will get bored and they will happily leave when given that freedom, which they will always have. There is no doubt that children always have a natural curiosity but there is no way that this natural curiosity will make this unschooling work.

You'll never get a kid into school if you gave them the choice. Hell, you could buy a kid a ton of clothes but they'll never wear them if you never make them (ignoring cold climates perhaps). This unschooling stuff is nonsense and is in my opinion supported and created by people who think that they are smarter than they really are and blame the school system for their failure. Someone that has had no problem in school isn't likely going to turn around and demand for it be torn down, at the most they will ask for minor changes and modification in areas that they see as in need of repair, but that will most likely only be done by those who go through with absolutely no problems at all, you know, the smart ones.
 

Klarinette

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May 21, 2009
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Er, as far as I've known for my whole life, at least where I am, it's illegal not to send your kid to school. And I'm wondering what kinds of dreams and goals they plan on accomplishing with zero education? I've been to college, and I'm told the piece of paper I have is useless against a University degree.
 

KP Shadow

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Jul 7, 2009
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Klarinette said:
Er, as far as I've known for my whole life, at least where I am, it's illegal not to send your kid to school. And I'm wondering what kinds of dreams and goals they plan on accomplishing with zero education? I've been to college, and I'm told the piece of paper I have is useless against a University degree.
Yeah, and having zero education could lead to them using... *puts on sunglasses CSI-style* Zero Punctuation *insert voice saying YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH*
And yes, I just did that because of your ZP avatar.

OT: If they want their kids to learn about their own interests, why don't they just have them do that, you know, after school. It's not like they'll be at school 24/7. Homeschooling can allow a kid to learn at their own pace, but "unchooling" will just have the kids choosing not to learn. Like... someone said earlier in this thread, if they're being rushed, then they must be a misplaced retard, because the U.S.A. has one of the slowest education systems in the western world. And the "too much competition" thing, well, our world runs on competition, so if you don't want the pressure of it, too bad, you gotta deal with it. Yes, the education system needs reform. No, your way is not the right way. We need a definite structure that, to a certain point, is flexible, and an established curriculum. Not just "do whatever you want, my beautiful little godchild". Without structure, it'll degenerate into total anarchy and chaos, as if it was run by /b/. And when you say that grades mean nothing, grades are a statistical evaluation of a student's competence, like... someone else said earlier in this thread. They aren't really applied correctly, but they've done us well enough that we're reluctant to create change. You're trying "basic and unstructured learning through application", they're doing "application to prove structured and in-depth learning". My major problem with the system has nothing to do with this. It's how my school district monitors actions on the computer like Big Brother.
 

Lullabye

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Oct 23, 2008
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while I fully agree with the concept and the ideal, I don't agree with the reality. It would take a mature child to do this properly. But, hell, I've gone to school for almost 12 years now and I still don't know what to do.
Ugh, oh well, maybe someone will do somethin about this and smack them in the head or something.
 

feather240

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Jul 16, 2009
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This might have worked back in the old west, heck it would've worked any time when kids were allowed to run around freely, but now we have stranger danger and all the good jobs require college degrees. D:
 

Chancie

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Sep 23, 2009
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While I'm tempted to say it sounds great (I'm a high school student, and so, I obviously hate school), I really don't think it is. You're just cheating your kids out of really learning.

Besides, I get the feel that kids who are "unschooled" will grow up to be hippie people. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying.
 

Deleted

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Jul 25, 2009
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This used to work before, back when your choices were to stay on the farm or go to town looking for a job...
 

ottenni

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Aug 13, 2009
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I wish i could have done that. The greatest lesson i learnt from school is that i did not want to go to university. Which i know will go badly in the long run for me.

Of course i know that school is the right way to go (even if i disagree with many of the way in which schools are run) but i still wish otherwise.
 

miriahofthewind

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Mar 24, 2010
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I know that some people would argue that we should let people do what they want but you have to remember that we live in a democracy, not in separate isolated areas. Everyone gets a vote to decide how to make OTHER people run their lives. Anyone who has ever seen the movie "Idiotocracy" knows how this can play out.

Children do not have developed front cortexes to make decisions about what's best for them. Piaget showed us with experiments that child logic is not the same as adult logic, the only way they learn is when they are forced to change their perceptions. While I applaud efforts such as homeschooling and alternative schooling without agreeing before hand what subjects are important to cover this can only lead to tears - most likely ours.
 

QuickDEMOL1SHER

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Oct 14, 2009
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I think you may be a little narrow minded. There are many forms of Unschooling. I happen to know some Unchooling kids, one of which didn't start reading until she was 10 because her parents never told her to. But you know what? When she finally WANTED to start reading, books were made available and by the end of the week, she had read the entire Harry Potter series.
I think that Unschooling in the sense of not even making knowledge AVAILABLE is wrong. But Unschooling by just not forcing the kid and letting them learn when they are ready, is one of the best methods there is. On the other hand, it's not for everyone. For the right person, it's perfect, but for the wrong person it's horrible.

And to all those people who just keep saying "How is that good?" and "That won't prepare them for the world!" shut up. You don't what you're talking about until you have met one of these people.
 

RatRace123

Elite Member
Dec 1, 2009
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This breeds children that feel unique and special, we need drones, we can't have a whole generation of kids grow up thinking they'll matter.
 

cheese_wizington

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Aug 16, 2009
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Well that's not going to work at all.


So, you want to be a gas station cashier, what kind of education do you have?

None.

Fuck Off.
 

Blatherscythe

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Oct 14, 2009
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This just sounds like a bad idea. Homeschooling fine, real school great, boarding school okay, unschooling sounds bad. Teachers are trained professionals, unless the parent is a teacher (probably not considering that they don't agree with schooling) the child isn't recieving a proper education. The children who live under such conditions will not be properly prepared for the real world, they will probably lead poor lives due to their parents lack of foresight.
 

AndyFromMonday

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Feb 5, 2009
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miriahofthewind said:
AndyFromMonday said:
children aren't fucking animals.
Yes, they are. They're basically small chimps.
Because freedom is for everybody minus children. It's funny how everyone goes out of their way to state how stupid, cruel and idiotic treating your animals like shit is but when it comes to children it's like the crowd went silent.
 

Daveman

has tits and is on fire
Jan 8, 2009
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I don't think school prepares most people, unless you go into academia. I mean sure it's useful at first but once you can read and write and add up it's not particularly useful. Take it away XKCD...
 

AtticusSP

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Apr 6, 2009
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Sure, the normal schooling system has some huge problems. Especially in places like Texas. HISTORY? NO ONE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT ALL THAT NON CHRISTIAN STUFF THAT HAPPENED. FUCK THAT STUFF.

Still a hell of a lot better than unschooling though, even if I didn't take an interest in science until after school.
 

Little Duck

Diving Space Muffin
Oct 22, 2009
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Whilst I'm all in favour of kids learining by doing (learning not to go too far up a tree, by falling out of it etc) I do believe schooling is the main way to continue society, without it we lose the connection of information to the next generation and so to continue on culture and the intelligence we are all so self righteous about.