Poll: Unschooling: Parenting at it's worst

[Davrel]

Pfft, let em get on with it - as long as they pay their taxes at the end of the day; besides, somebody has to do the menial jobs - why not them?

 

[Tehlanna TPX]

Sounds like new age "everyone is special!" bullshit to me. Go to school and make your kids suck it up like the rest of us.

QFT, right here.

OP: Learn, dammit. The last thing we need is more inept people running around the place without the skills to succeed. Growing shit and dancing isn't necessarily going to get you anywhere in life... especially if you're not good at either. That's why we have -hobbies- and -passions-, and go to work to learn the grunt shit.

Plus there are laws against not teaching your kid properly. But, just like every other law, there are ways to get around it or twist it. /sigh.

 

[Camembert]

Of course it isn't 'parenting at its worse', nowhere close even, on a different map in fact. If that's what these people want to do, leave them to it. They're not hurting anyone, are they?

 

[AnarchistAbe]

... How does this prepare children for the real world? ...

How does school prepare us for the real world? 13 (+) years of math that we will, most likely, never use (please tell me the last time you used anything above Algebra), English classes teaching us worthless facts about what words are proper and which words are exceptions to rules, and teaching us to conform to whatever is popular to the select few "cool kids". School is a time-waste full of what POLITICIANS think we need to know. It's all about "STATE STANDARDS", and not about what we NEED TO KNOW! Any alternative to their hypocritical BS is fine with me.

 

[GothmogII]

Wow, that unschooling garbage has to be one of the most moronic things I have read this week. To my mind education is the best free gift you are given as a kid and the smart parent encourages you to take it and run with it and make the very best of it that you can as it will serve you for the rest of your life. That is even if you dismiss much of the education system as just a sorting process for people.

In the UK you are sorted by how many GCSEs who have, then how many AS levels, then how many A levels and then what kind of degree you have (there are probably more, but I am too bloody old to know these days) and as you take each step through education you let go of the one before - I have a decent degree and don't list my GCSEs on my CV for example. Whether people like it or not one of the first methods of sorting job applications is to take an over view of educational placement - if you have one job and 100 applications you have to start somewhere (those written in crayon, those badly presented, those who have educational requirement). To not even understand that is very naive. If I was faced with a CV where the person had NO obvious educational credentials then it would be binned. Sorry, but no one is a special snowflake who deserves a chance to come to my interview and talk about their parent's bullshit philosophy.

I consider it a lesson worth learning in a hurry that sometimes you have to play the game society has constructed if you want to get on with life.

Agree with that first paragraph completely. However, school ≠ education. Neither is the idea of unschooling against the principle of education and learning.

As to playing the game, there's nothing stopping anyone from completing the same official exams (and many do) as those who go to school, the only thing missing here is the school part, the official documentation/certification is still obtainable by those outside.

 

[Kinguendo]

Isnt that just home schooling? Statistically, home schooled children are smarter.

 

[Aptspire]

well, I wouldn't stop them from 'unschooling' if they really wanted to, but I'd also obligate them to at least learn logical reasoning, so that they have less of a chance of joining the Fox News fodder...
I'm serious, go ask a Fox News adept who are Socrates, Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Descartes. I'm pretty sure they won't have heard of these people...

 

[ArcWinter]

Hmm... while I see the problems inherent in this... why not?

It's better than school.

 

[the December King]

So, "home-schooling" and "unschooling" are two different approaches to alternative schooling, right?

If I understand correctly, then if a child is given enough to learn on and devellop, then homeschooling sounds fine. Unschooling doesn't sound very structured, but I'd like to know more about it.

 

[Shynobee]

If your kids don't go to school, they won't interact with many other kids their own age. They won't learn how to deal with jerks, ass holes, and other sorts of people that they will inevitably meet in the real world. Its taking the whole "sheltered life" to a whole new level.

 

[PhiMed]

I have another word for this: Unparenting.

 

[direkiller]

If everyone was "unschooled" we'd lose any form of advanced science that involved anything more than a linear function.

My goodness I went to the website

But, what about math?

It's easy to see how children can learn many things without using traditional, formal methods of teaching, but many people see math as a huge stumbling block, mainly, because most of us have learned to hate math because of the way it was taught in school. There are a great many ways to encounter math in the real world. Geometry can be found in quilt making, algebra in painting a room. Shifting perspectives, from textbooks to the real world is sometimes difficult, but math that is actually used is math truly learned.

Where will the calculus come from! Nooo!

Calculus can be used to find the inertia of a non uniform density object or the area/volume of a football

 

[kiwi_poo]

I think school is crap and I have hardly learned anything there. the main source of my wisdom is from my father, who actually went to see the world.
the school system is not working on my generation, so it must change.

 

[Hawgh]

I think school is crap and I have hardly learned anything there. the main source of my wisdom is from my father, who actually went to see the world.
the school system is not working on my generation, so it must change.

Doesn't mean that you weren't taught anything, you say yourself that your father taught you, or whatever wisdom is here.

Back on track: For a parent not to attempt to give their children the skills they need to survive, is a damning failure on their part. Doesn't matter if you teach them yourself or are part of some sort of institution, you should make a concerted effort to make your child ready to be an adult.

 

[Sonicron]

You know, this is just one of the reasons I'm glad that in my country if a kid doesn't go to school and spends their day just dicking around the police can drive by their house and force them to go to school. Jesus Christ, how else is a kid supposed to learn what they need in order to even have a chance at getting a job if not at school (or at least through a qualified/certified teacher)?

 

[klakkat]

It depends. I've known a guy who was home-schooled and he turned out all right, but that was largely because both his parents were attentive and intelligent. If your parents aren't up to the task, it's horrible for you.

In either case, kids should spend at least 8 years in school; they get more social contact in school than they could ever hope for being home-schooled, which helps development in ways that parents simply can't.

 

[Valksy]

As to playing the game, there's nothing stopping anyone from completing the same official exams (and many do) as those who go to school, the only thing missing here is the school part, the official documentation/certification is still obtainable by those outside.

It always struck me, when I was schol age, that the kids who did the best were the ones whose parents were on their side - who would take interest in their school work, check they were doing homework, ask them how their day was going. Especially true for those who weren't naturally gifted but had to put effort into everything that they did. These unschoolers have been hearing (from infantile "parents") that school is worthless. I do believe how you develop your discipline, learn to manage your time, and simple basic stuff like how to take decent notes, organise your methods etc at school. The unschooled female in the story assumed that she could just pick up a book and study to get in to college. On top of a lifestyle of doing sweet FA with no back ground at all of study and no developed belief in its worth I really rather doubt it, the person would need to be quite exceptional and most people just are not.

 

[joshuaayt]

"Generally, unschoolers are concerned with learning or becoming educated, not with 'doing school.'"
Right, because the 'doing school' part (With it's silly "formal certificates" and all) is just not worth doing.
Ugh, take the kids off these people, quick!