Unschooling (eight year old, school authorities, leave, hit)
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It would be ideal if people on all sides of the equation would stop making baseless assumptions and "bashing". I don't expect it to happen though. There are public schoolers who feel threatened by alternatives, private school parents who feel obliged to justify why they're spending 15K a year per kid, homeschoolers who just know nothing good can come from an institutional setting, ever, and unschoolers who overdosed on Summerhill. The truth is that there are good and bad sides to all of them. And where you live, what your family circumstances are, and how your child learns determines which is the best option.
What I've seen a lot of in the last several years is families who use a combination of two or three of those approaches, depending on what's being learned and what options are available. If the parent(s) can manage the choreography that requires, it seems to work well.
I agre with this.
Another poster mentioned the MA school system and maybe that is why I have such a hard time wrapping my brain around this (though I do understand homeschooling) I am, as are my children, products of the MA education system. Maybe it is different in other parts of the country, I would have no clue, but in MA I can't help but think these poor kids would get chewed up and spit out to put it mildly.
Great education is somewhere in between what people around Cambridge want and this unschooling-- actually more toward the Cambridge concept and farther from totally no school at all-- feel good, let them do whatever they want ideas, no self discipline, don't do anything you don't want to do.
So much depends on the kids, too, and the family itself. What's right for one child may not work with another; what works for one family wouldn't work with another.
Radical unschooling works really, really well for my family and my sons. It's not about 'do whatever they want'; that's a misconception - though I certainly do support what they want, when possible. And they are actually more self-disciplined than I am! LOL
So much depends on the kids, too, and the family itself. What's right for one child may not work with another; what works for one family wouldn't work with another.
Radical unschooling works really, really well for my family and my sons. It's not about 'do whatever they want'; that's a misconception - though I certainly do support what they want, when possible. And they are actually more self-disciplined than I am! LOL
I am very unfamiliar with unschooling, as a matter of fact the only time I have read about it was on CD, what do unschooled kids do when it comes time for college? Do they take the state madated tests that homeschooled kids take? For example, in any state we have ever lived in, my friends who homeschooled had to make arrangement for their kids to take the state madated tests they must take in order to graduate. Is it the same for kids who are unschooled?
Not attacking you at all, but what prompted your family to unschool? What is the difference between unschooling and radical unschooling? I know that I could probably just research it, but I am interested in hearing from someone who unschools.
Well, this doesn't say it's unimportant to learn to read, but it certainly says that reading is not considered essential to learning:
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7 or 8 is only "too old" in school, where a teacher needs to impart information to the greatest number of kids in the most efficient way possible. That's not an issue with unschooling! Teaching kids to read earlier isn't for the benefit of the child, though that's what most people think; it's for the benefit of classroom management.
In point of fact, at 7 and 8, in the public schools there isn't a lot (if any) of "read these pages and answer these questions" type of teaching, at least not at the school my kids attended. Kids of these ages are all over the place at reading levels, with some not getting to any level of proficiency until the end of 3rd grade, at which some of them are 9. So the teaching of reading is NOT being done for classroom management, it's done to teach reading.
Again, another quote that says reading isn't essential to learning:
Quote:
However, as I pointed out before, learning needn't rely solely on writing and reading. If you look at a census from 1900, there are numerous adults who don't read or write-- yet they managed to learn to survive in their world, so they must have learned something-- cooking, cleaning, and coal mining, at the very minimum.
Well, this doesn't say it's unimportant to learn to read, but it certainly says that reading is not considered essential to learning:
Quote:
7 or 8 is only "too old" in school, where a teacher needs to impart information to the greatest number of kids in the most efficient way possible. That's not an issue with unschooling! Teaching kids to read earlier isn't for the benefit of the child, though that's what most people think; it's for the benefit of classroom management.
In point of fact, at 7 and 8, in the public schools there isn't a lot (if any) of "read these pages and answer these questions" type of teaching, at least not at the school my kids attended. Kids of these ages are all over the place at reading levels, with some not getting to any level of proficiency until the end of 3rd grade, at which some of them are 9. So the teaching of reading is NOT being done for classroom management, it's done to teach reading.
You're not reading carefully - the point is about reading EARLY - not just reading. And I'm using early to mean, before the child would have naturally learned. The idea that there's a certain age by which a child must be reading, IS for classroom management.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
Again, another quote that says reading isn't essential to learning:
Quote:
However, as I pointed out before, learning needn't rely solely on writing and reading. If you look at a census from 1900, there are numerous adults who don't read or write-- yet they managed to learn to survive in their world, so they must have learned something-- cooking, cleaning, and coal mining, at the very minimum.
Well - reading isn't essential for learning! Obviously, pre-readers learn a LOT before they're ever reading. Having said that - I believe it IS essential for living in our world today. And I believe, since it is essential, that kids will learn it in their own time, if they're in a supportive, print-rich environment.
You are taking things out of context, and seeing things that aren't there. "Reading isn't essential for learning" does not equal "Reading isn't an essential skill to have". I think everyone posting here would agree that reading is essential to our society.
What do unschooled kids do when it comes time for college? Do they take the state madated tests that homeschooled kids take? For example, in any state we have ever lived in, my friends who homeschooled had to make arrangement for their kids to take the state madated tests they must take in order to graduate. Is it the same for kids who are unschooled?
For kids who want to go to college, they'll prepare for the tests. It will be something the child wants to do. And requirements for graduation and homeschooling vary widely from state to state.
Your second set of questions, about why we unschool and the difference between unschooling & radical unschooling, requires a much longer answer! I will answer that, but it might be later today.
Just yesterday, my ten-year-old was asking about whether he shot his BB gun at a steep upward angle, would the BB go further than if he had shot it parallel to the ground
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Originally Posted by Aconite
Sure it is. (physics) Not the sum total of physics, certainly, but more than the local elementary school teaches.
If that's all he's learning in high school, he's lost out-- and that's true of a homeschooled kid or a schooled one (physics is not required for graduation in the State of Florida).
Again, IIRC (and it's been a loooong time since my kids were in ele school), my kids were taught stuff like that, certainly at that level, not with BB guns, but with balls, etc. "Physics" as a subject is not usually broached until high school, but "general science" is taught beginning in 3rd grade.
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