What are your beliefs regarding the so-called phenomena of unschooling? Unschoo

1. 83

   gmwilliamsposted 8 years ago

   What are your beliefs regarding the so-called phenomena of unschooling?  Unschooling is
   
   an offset of homeschooling; however unschooling consists of unstructured learning  i.e. children learn what interests them & aren't relegated to regimented lesson learning. One can call unschooling freeform learning.
   
   

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2. 69

   Aime Fposted 8 years ago

   I'm not a fan. 
   
   I consider myself to be very child-led when it comes to most things and I am far from strict, but when it comes to education I definitely think structure is important. 
   
   I watched a show once where a couple was unschooling their kids and the older of the two who was I think 10 or 11 didn't understand time at all (didn't know how to read a clock, couldn't tell what the countdown on the dishwasher meant, etc.).  That just kind of blew me away as that seems like an important skill. 
   
   I love the idea of letting kids learn in ways that are most interesting to them but I think that can be done in a school setting, too.  I'll always remember one of my math teachers letting me figure out fractions by drawing pictures instead of numbers because that's the way I best understood them. 
   
   I also HATE math but found that once I got older and started university it was quite necessary for what I wanted to do.  I don't imagine I'd have the appropriate math skills if I'd been unschooled and not had formal teaching - because I never would have been interested in learning it. 
   
   That also makes me wonder how kids with no formal schooling get into college/university...I imagine it might be pretty limiting.

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   1. 65

      rolaabboudposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I totally agree with you .. You just said all what I wanted to say.

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3. 86

   tamarawilhiteposted 8 years ago

   At best, it is relaxed home schooling. At worst, it is child neglect.

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4. 64

   talkmary50posted 8 years ago

   I think it is wrong to home school children unless there is some extreme medicial behavior or mental one that makes it impossible for them to be schooled in a productive way. Not only is the learning a higher and better one. It also is the place where you ngpeople interact socialable with other making friends having experiences that will teach them better ways of handling life as grown ups. Some religious people will home school their children thinking they are protecting them from being exposed and influence by the evils of others. All they are doing however is keeping their children naive about the outside world and when they do learn the reality's of the harsh world. It will be a terrifying or overwhelming experience from them. People are both good and bad everywhere  in this world. If you want your children not to be persuaded or influenced to by others and their bad behavior . Then be the role model of the person you want your child to become. A child personality and habits and the kind of person he will become develops a lot in the first few years of his life before he even starts attending school.So a parent plays the greatest part in developing  his child behavior

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   1. 86

      tamarawilhiteposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Home schooling can be seen as private school/tutoring with a 1-1 ratio. It isn't bad for socialization because most families today do so many other activities. Removing kids from the bullying, overly critical public schools can be quite good for them

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5. 84

   Annsaloposted 8 years ago

   I think it is amazing. I personally know 3 unschooling parents. Their children are amazingly smart, social, independent, critical thinking, and very interested in learning. They take their children different places each day and use the questions their children ask as cues for what to teach them. One of their children starts college in the fall.
   There are many misconceptions about unschooling. People think they don't get "taught" anything, that they don't get socialization, that the children just sit around all day. These misconceptions couldn't be further from the truth. Personally I wish I had the ability to unschool my children. Public schools are more about how to remember stuff for standardized testing than it is about actually learning.
   If a child doesn't know how to tell time, as another answer mentions, that is not unschooling, that's lazy parenting. Almost all children mention time at some point in their toddler years and a good unschooling parent would use that time to explain how to read a clock.
   I see the unschooled children and only see good things. Aren't we supposed to be raising responsible, critical thinking children who are prepared for real life? Unschooling does just that.

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