Friday, February 2, 2007
Unschooling
OK I'll be the first to admit that this complete unschooling thing doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe it's because if I don't give my dd something to do she won't do anything. She'd rather watch TV or play computer games than play with toys or try learning something on her own. Now if I mention school, she'll dive right in with a passion that most parents envy. This isn't to say that I don't believe in child-led education though because I do. Whenever dd is interested in learning about something I'm right there providing information and fun ways to learn about her interest. However complete unschooling doesn't make any sense to me because I tend to see it like this article does. In other words, if children are allowed to do whatever they want, whenever they want, won't they think that is how they should be for the rest of their life? When does unschooling stop and real life begin? I just can't wrap my head around it although I'd like to.
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8 comments:
It sounds like the American dream. Children are able to do that for the rest of their life. That being take care of themselves, educate themselves, and do what they want insofar as they do not hurt anyone else. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...
Thanks,
Scott Hughes
Education Forums
I looked at home schooling. The problem with it is that the child may only learn about a few topics because thats all there interested in, especially one starting as a preteen or teenager.
I also have a home schooler and it would not work with him at all. If I let him do what ever he wanted he would play world of warcraft from waking until going to sleep.
I don't teach in a conventional manner. For history I pick out programs on the history channel for him to watch, science is National Geographic. He has made friends in other countries by playing world of warcraft every day and has decided he wants to make an effort to learn about the countries they live in and to speak there native languages which are currently German and Japanese. He also decided on his own he wants to learn Shiastu.
I have encountered a lot of people that don't unschool completely. They put there kids into situations that make them want to learn more, such as a nature hike or something.
Sorry i meant un schooling not homeschooling at the beginning of that blog.
I was just reading a post below about finding something for your daughter to do while you read to her. Can she crotchet? If you pick a project with an uncomplicated pattern it can quickly become a very brainless activity. I used to work in a call center and I would crotchet Christmas gifts while speaking with customers.
Scott: It is the American "dream" but that's about it LOL When you wake up you see that reality really doesn't work that way.
dragonfly: She's only 5 so I think she's too young to crochet. Thanks for the idea though!
It's weird, it sounds to me like you are unschooling, in that you are doing what your daughter loves to do and she's happy.
Just letting kids do whatever they want to do all the time isn't unschooling. But that's how the media always makes it sound.
"Totally unschooled" kids usually are extremely responsible and know themselves well. I know a lot of them, certainly not all, but enough to have a pretty good idea of how they turn out, and well, they are happy. Maybe not what you'd expect to see churn out of a school, but happy.
The media is the worst place to get info about homeschooling or unschooling. I say, do what works for your family. If you don't think that what you're doing is "unschooling", and you want to label it something else, whatever. It doesn't matter.
If you haven't had a chance to read John Holt, I recommend it. He wrote his books before "unschooling" became this ... thing.... almost like some kind of dogma or something.
It's the concepts behind learning and it's knowing our children that are important, no matter what it's called or what people "do" to achieve that.
Tammy, thanks for your comment. It really made me think. I totally agree with you but I'm really not sure where I've derived my definition of unschooling from. I do a ton of reading online about homeschooling/unschooling/etc. I don't like how unschooling is defined but when you define things in the way that you just did, I would have to agree that we are unschooling. I don't like that name though and my dd certainly isn't responsible enough to manage her entire education on her own since she's only 5yo and I do check out those books... "What Your Child Should Know In X Grade" and try to make sure that all of those things are covered before moving on. I don't like textbooks and neither does dd but we do some occasional workbook pages when I feel she's not grasping something any other way. Thanks again for your comment! I'll stop my rant here but you really did make me think LOL
We unschool but it's not a total lifestyle for us. I do believe in unschooling in terms of academics. We totally unschool in that we do child-led learning and real-life experiences. Sure, my son has a workbook but he works on it when he wants.
Now, does he do whatever he wants whenever he wants? Absolutely not. Must he pick up his toys? Yes. Does he have a bedtime? Yes.
So it's important to note that not all unschoolers are radical unschoolers. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it because I know some online and I respect their choice to do that. I'm just saying radical unschooling is not something I feel comfortable with.
My son is involved with sports, art classes, homeschool groups, etc...There's so much for him to do in our area. We're going to start 4-H soon and our own group of Earth Scouts or Roots and Shoots next year. :) We're busy, busy, busy!
Instead of just reading about manatees, we get in the car and go SEE them. :) That's really the main difference between parents who unschool and parents who use a "school at home" approach.
We learn by doing...Hope this helps.
Jan
www.janzeiger.com
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