Schooling, Homeschooling, and Now, "Unschooling"

ciaohound writes "The Baltimore Sun has a story about 'unschooling,' which is like homeschooling except, well, without the schooling. '...unschooling incorporates every facet of a child's life into the education process, allowing a child to follow his passions and learn at his own pace, year-round. And it assumes that an outing at the park — or even hours spent playing a video game — can be just as valuable a teaching resource as Hooked on Phonics.' If you have ever been forced to sit in a classroom where no learning was taking place, you may understand the appeal. A driving force behind the movement is parents' dissatisfaction with regular schools, and presumably with homeschooling as well. Yet few researchers are even aware of unschooling and little research exists on its effectiveness. Any Slashdotters who have experience with 'unschooling?'"

Comments

So it's a fnacy nmae

[Hognoxious]

Sounds like a fancy name for goofing off, skiving and truancy.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[ravenshrike]

Child C, the one who took apart the toaster when he was 4.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[Timothy Brownawell]

Obviously, Child A needs to learn his multiplication tables too.

So you're saying "school + extracurricular learning > school", which is a rather silly thing to argue about.

What this is about is whether "extracurricular learning > school", which could be slightly less silly. If whoever was helping with the "extracurricular" learning knew a large amount about pretty much everything, and could generate interest in all of history, politics, math, literacy, science (how to use experiments and record-keeping to assist curiosity), the various trivia that we learned from science (earth goes around the sun), basic accounting, etc.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[Hognoxious]

Who do you think is going to be a better engineer someday?

Child B. Maths is a prerequisite for being an Engineer (with a big "E"). Spend all day tinkering with old bikes and maybe you'll be a mechanic.

But I seem remember that about 80%-90% of my time spent in public school I was bored out my mind to damn near the point of insanity after 15 years of it. Granted, I am in the top 1 percentile intelligence-wise.

And that makes everything you say true? FWIW I'm the same level, but I wasn't bored.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[TooMuchToDo]

Yes, clearly it's better to drag down the more intelligent to make it fair for those who can't learn as fast. Fuck. That. The world needs ditch diggers.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[Bught_42]

Don't underestimate the value of being bored, or being forced to be at someplace other than at home. When I sit at home all day I have a tendency not to do much intellectually, I play video games, watch TV and movies, and maybe read a book.
When I'm stuck at school or work and am bored I find better ways to entertain myself, thinking, writing or drawing. I have had teachers that didn't care if I sat in the back of the class room coding on my laptop as long as I kept up and didn't disturb anyone else.

This might just be my lack of motivation but I find it very helpful to be forced to find someway to entertain myself, often in a positive manner, when not surrounded by the distractions of home.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Who do you think is going to be a better engineer someday?

Child B. Child B without a shadow of a doubt.

I'm sorry to burst the bubbles of all the school reformists around here, but the simple fact is learning anything, and learning it well, requires a certain amount of effort, work and indeed hard slogging. While I agree that school should not be a monotonous, pointless drudge, at some point in education student are going to be required to sit down at their desks and drill something difficult into their heads.

Do you know what happens when you let children run around, be inquisitive, ask questions, appreciate concepts, and open doors of wonderment in every topic? You get Arts students. Arts and Humanities students who know how to appreciate everything and know how to do absolutely nothing. People who can master the art of appearing intelligent whilst remaining shockingly ignorant. People whose ideas and tastes and practices are simply imitations of something that was actually original.

When you sit a child down, get them to learn their times tables; learn how to spell and write; learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide; learn how to solve algebraic equations; learn the periodic table; learn the organs of the body; learn the continents and countries of the world; learn the history of their own country; learn the planets of the solar system; and nowadays learn the principles and usage of computers, you will have given that child the tools they need to build a life worth living. A life that they spend bettering themselves and their society.

I was as bored as anyone in school. Sleepy too. But, reluctant as I was, I learned my lessons and I know full well that if I had been left to sit at home with entire library of books and no one to watch me I would probably have spent the whole day playing video games. Maybe my education could have been faster, better and more comprehensive, but only if my society wanted to spend more on it. But no matter how magnificent my experience could have been, I could not know all that I do today without those mind-numbingly painful drills and lessons and test and reviews.

Learning is fun. But it's also pretty hard. And a wide curriculum means a better chance of everyone finding something they are good at. Combined, this means that most children will be bored at some stage during the school day. But it also means there's a good chance they'll learn something each day too, or learn how to do it better.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[Archangel Michael]

We regret to inform you that Child C has died due to electrical shock.

It wasn't curiosity that killed the cat, it was ignorance. Curiosity was framed.

Re:So it's a fnacy nmae

[db32]

Now...high school is a bit of a different beast. However, I am rarely bored in classes I take anymore. There is always someone else to help understand the subject and there are almost always more students than teachers. If you are bored it is because you are allowing someone else to fall behind. If you understand it so well that you have nothing to do, help the others understand and then you can all move forward.

I can tell you from personal experience hearing another student say "I could not have passed without you" is much more fulfilling than simply hearing the instructor say "you passed". Only the foolish refuse to train their replacements. The brilliant will have a hard time finding enough replacements to keep them moving upward.

Good luck in university

[Sycraft-fu]

These parents are in for a nasty shock when their precious snowflakes head off to university and can't get in. What you will discover, and many homeschooling parents have already found out, is that they don't care how good a job you think you did or how proud you are. You pass their various admissions tests, or you go somewhere else. They are not at all interested in your ideas of how education should be. Your reading comprehension, writing, and math skills had better be up to spec or you are sent packing.

It's called "Evenings"

[CorporateSuit]

The kid is only in school for 6 hours in the day. Use the other 8-10 of their non-sleep hours to do this stuff. School isn't a substitute for parenting, and it shouldn't be their only source of learning.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Sounds like...

[ari_j]

Not only do you get the Calvin's Dad effect, but your children also lose out on learning to deal with structure. It doesn't matter how academically advanced you are if you have never had any real authority to deal with (not necessarily to obey, but at least to learn how to manipulate) or discipline in your life. And let's face it, parents who think they are the best combined teachers and child psychologists their children will have an opportunity to learn from tend not to be the greatest at being authority figures or disciplining their children. This is a Bad Idea(TM).

Just remember..

[Totenglocke]

what Mark Twain said - "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education".

Schools theses days are about indoctrinating and conforming to useless standards, not about learning. If you want to learn, you have to do it outside of school.