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Very true, you just don't have as much time when your kids are in school. School takes up 6 hours a day add to that the time it takes to get to and from school plus time spent studying and doing homework and you don't have much time left in the day to focus on individual interests.
Not always the case. There are summers, vacations, weekends.
My teen gets home at 2:30. Does his homework, then has plenty of time to "pursue his own interests". The whole summer and now after school, he's been working on restoring his Jeep. Doing all the research himself, paying for it himself, doing it himself.
It's all about time management. If a parent raises a child to be self motivated and interested in learning, they will do it and find the time to do those things.
I've got a niece who is his same age and is homeschooled - doesn't even get out of bed until noon each day. I realize this isn't the case with all homeschooled/unschooled kids by the way.
"unschooling" is just a buzz word as far as I can tell. Unless the parents are completely looney toons there IS "schooling" (ie: learning, education, etc) being done. Taking classes at a CC is schooling not matter how you slice it, as are classes or training anywhere else. Kids who aren't interested in something will still need a basic understanding of it to not look like idiots, and if they want to go to college they may need a little more than that.
I teach my kids stuff all the time, I don't call it "school" but I don't call it "unschool" either because it's silly.
"unschooling" is just a buzz word as far as I can tell. Unless the parents are completely looney toons there IS "schooling" (ie: learning, education, etc) being done. Taking classes at a CC is schooling not matter how you slice it, as are classes or training anywhere else. Kids who aren't interested in something will still need a basic understanding of it to not look like idiots, and if they want to go to college they may need a little more than that.
I teach my kids stuff all the time, I don't call it "school" but I don't call it "unschool" either because it's silly.
The kids may go to school at *some* point, but they can be completely unschooled for quite a long time. The point is that the kids choose what they want to learn rather than the parents or other adults.
The kids may go to school at *some* point, but they can be completely unschooled for quite a long time. The point is that the kids choose what they want to learn rather than the parents or other adults.
Dorothy
But how do little kids even know what they want to learn without being exposed to different subjects? I'm in college and still can't settle on a major- I don't know how a small child would be able to pick what they want to learn. They may have interests but what if that changes? And what if they are never forced to learn about something that may be important to them?
This whole unschooling thing really rubs me the wrong way. Children need to go to school in order to learn effectively and need to be taught by a qualified teacher. This is my opinion and it is my right to express it. If you don't agree fine but really even homeschooling is pushing it for me. Unschooling? I find the whole concept strange. Why not send kids to a regular school and do this unschooling thing with them on the side. I can see a benefit to that. Relying solely on unschooling is doing more harm than good.
Last edited by KylieEve; 09-06-2010 at 06:04 AM..
Reason: .
But how do little kids even know what they want to learn without being exposed to different subjects? I'm in college and still can't settle on a major- I don't know how a small child would be able to pick what they want to learn. They may have interests but what if that changes? And what if they are never forced to learn about something that may be important to them?
A parent who unschools would need to be paying attention to their child's interests. When my dd was 2 and 3 she was fascinated by bugs. She liked to look at a bug identification field guide that we had lying around the house and she even identified a few bugs she found outside. This was the book of choice for her when it came to bedtime stories. She would go out in the yard and pick up rocks to see what kind of bugs lived under them. She picked up bugs and looked at them closely. She watched ant colonies to see what they'd carry home. She also observed how many legs bugs had, how their bodies were shaped, what colors they were, what they ate, etc. From that she was learning lessons about biology and sociobiology, colors, numbers, shapes, etc. Right now at 4 she's interested in cats and the sounds that letters make. My point is that children are naturally curious about their environment and can and do learn a lot just from experiencing it. If we don't squelch that love of learning it will continue on as they grow.
As a young child I was fascinated by WWII and the Holocaust. I couldn't wait to get to school so I could learn everything there was to know about it. I was pretty disappointed when I finally got there and realized that it wasn't something that was covered in the Kindergarten curriculum. I had to wait until college to really go into depth on the subject. Unschooled and some homeschooled children have the opportunity to learn the things that interest them when they are interested and do so in depth. Lots of disciplines can be learned from almost any given interest. In school you are told what to learn and when to learn it which can be frustrating for some which can lead to boredom and a lack of interest in learning for the sake of learning.
This whole unschooling thing really rubs me the wrong way. Children need to go to school in order to learn effectively and need to be taught by a qualified teacher. This is my opinion and it is my right to express it. If you don't agree fine but really even homeschooling is pushing it for me. Unschooling? I find the whole concept strange. Why not send kids to a regular school and do this unschooling thing with them on the side. I can see a benefit to that. Relying solely on unschooling is doing more harm than good.
What's the problem with homeschooling? Stats show that homeschoolers do great compared to their school peers.
Many people don't see schools as the optimal learning environment for their children. From an unschoolers perspective sending a child to school would interfere with learning, not enhance it since at school a child is told what to learn and when to learn it. Some proponents of unschooling might argue that sending a child to school does them more harm then good.
Unschooling differs from conventional schooling principally in the thesis that standard curricula and conventional grading methods, as well as other features of traditional schooling, are counterproductive to the goal of maximizing the education of each child. <snip> Proponents of unschooling assert that individualized, child-led learning is more efficient and respectful of children's time, takes advantage of their interests, and allows deeper exploration of subjects than what is possible in conventional education.
I had to wait until college to really go into depth on the subject.
But you didn't "have" to wait. Why couldn't you go to your public library? There is no law keeping schooled children from delving further into a subject if something is interesting to them. They just have to do it on their own time.
I have no issue with a well planned and executed homeschool but "unschooling" to me just sounds like an excuse to do not much. Otherwise, why not just homeschool?
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I had to wait until college to really go into depth on the subject. Unschooled and some homeschooled children have the opportunity to learn the things that interest them when they are interested and do so in depth. Lots of disciplines can be learned from almost any given interest. In school you are told what to learn and when to learn it which can be frustrating for some which can lead to boredom and a lack of interest in learning for the sake of learning.
