I caught a spot on some news show over the weekend about unschooling. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter.
Unshcool link
Full Version: Unschool
Interesting idea but naive to a fault.
1) If you don't encounter these "situations" that will "teach" you in your daily life, then you wont' be exposed to it and thus be unable to apply those lessons later in life.
2) It doesn't allow for any disccovery by the children into what they like/are good at...for instance, a child may never be exposed to architectual engineering if he/she lives on a farm, but may have a knack/love for it if they are in fact exposed to it.
3) When students are exposed, they won't have the means beyond the actual circumstance they learned from to apply it to future occurrences. For instance, they are exposed to geometry while painting a room, but while they will be able to figure out exactly how much paint they need to cover a wall, they won't be able to know WHY it works out that way, and thus will have to be re-taught every time a new geometric problem crops up, vs having the base knowledge to figure it out if possible.
Just my 2 cents.
1) If you don't encounter these "situations" that will "teach" you in your daily life, then you wont' be exposed to it and thus be unable to apply those lessons later in life.
2) It doesn't allow for any disccovery by the children into what they like/are good at...for instance, a child may never be exposed to architectual engineering if he/she lives on a farm, but may have a knack/love for it if they are in fact exposed to it.
3) When students are exposed, they won't have the means beyond the actual circumstance they learned from to apply it to future occurrences. For instance, they are exposed to geometry while painting a room, but while they will be able to figure out exactly how much paint they need to cover a wall, they won't be able to know WHY it works out that way, and thus will have to be re-taught every time a new geometric problem crops up, vs having the base knowledge to figure it out if possible.
Just my 2 cents.
I think your spot on.
The spot I saw on cnn followed two familes around for a few weeks. One family had one kid, an asian girl, who was about 12. The other family had 3 kids, all under the age of 12.
The asian girl was very smart, she was teaching herself Chinese, and she had test scores that mirror 12th grade students. She played the piano 5 hours a day however, a bit overkill if you ask me. There is no doubt that this girl is going to have a bright future, but what gives when she gets to college?
The other family was just a wreck if you ask me. First of all not one of them got up before 11am. The five year old kid spends his first few hours awake watching cartoons and playing video games. One of the other kids went to the park for a few hours.
No structure, no expectaions, no challenges...I don't see how they think this is a good idea.
The spot I saw on cnn followed two familes around for a few weeks. One family had one kid, an asian girl, who was about 12. The other family had 3 kids, all under the age of 12.
The asian girl was very smart, she was teaching herself Chinese, and she had test scores that mirror 12th grade students. She played the piano 5 hours a day however, a bit overkill if you ask me. There is no doubt that this girl is going to have a bright future, but what gives when she gets to college?
The other family was just a wreck if you ask me. First of all not one of them got up before 11am. The five year old kid spends his first few hours awake watching cartoons and playing video games. One of the other kids went to the park for a few hours.
No structure, no expectaions, no challenges...I don't see how they think this is a good idea.
QUOTE (bcook823 @ Monday, February 27th, 2006, 2:08 PM) 
The five year old kid spends his first few hours awake watching cartoons and playing video games.
This is bad? This is how I spend every Sunday...
Unschool is uncool
QUOTE (lvpro @ Monday, February 27th, 2006, 6:59 PM)
This is bad? This is how I spend every Sunday...
you should be reprimanded you lazy-ass
QUOTE (DonkSlayer @ Monday, February 27th, 2006, 1:02 PM)
Interesting idea but naive to a fault.
1) If you don't encounter these "situations" that will "teach" you in your daily life, then you wont' be exposed to it and thus be unable to apply those lessons later in life.
2) It doesn't allow for any disccovery by the children into what they like/are good at...for instance, a child may never be exposed to architectual engineering if he/she lives on a farm, but may have a knack/love for it if they are in fact exposed to it.
3) When students are exposed, they won't have the means beyond the actual circumstance they learned from to apply it to future occurrences. For instance, they are exposed to geometry while painting a room, but while they will be able to figure out exactly how much paint they need to cover a wall, they won't be able to know WHY it works out that way, and thus will have to be re-taught every time a new geometric problem crops up, vs having the base knowledge to figure it out if possible.
Just my 2 cents.
1) If you don't encounter these "situations" that will "teach" you in your daily life, then you wont' be exposed to it and thus be unable to apply those lessons later in life.
2) It doesn't allow for any disccovery by the children into what they like/are good at...for instance, a child may never be exposed to architectual engineering if he/she lives on a farm, but may have a knack/love for it if they are in fact exposed to it.
3) When students are exposed, they won't have the means beyond the actual circumstance they learned from to apply it to future occurrences. For instance, they are exposed to geometry while painting a room, but while they will be able to figure out exactly how much paint they need to cover a wall, they won't be able to know WHY it works out that way, and thus will have to be re-taught every time a new geometric problem crops up, vs having the base knowledge to figure it out if possible.
Just my 2 cents.
QFT
Hippies.
To think this would work is rediculous.
Without doing a lot of research, I can tell you that 95% of the children I have been around wouldn't do shit if they didn't have to.
My Case
I love it how they think their 8 year old who doesnt know how to read or write yet is just going to magically learn.
"Who knows, down the road when he finally masters reading and writing, he may have something profound to share with us."
These are the type of people that I would love to shoot in the face with the worst gun ever invented.
"Who knows, down the road when he finally masters reading and writing, he may have something profound to share with us."
These are the type of people that I would love to shoot in the face with the worst gun ever invented.
QUOTE (kers2 @ Monday, February 27th, 2006, 7:06 PM)
I love it how they think their 8 year old who doesnt know how to read or write yet is just going to magically learn.
"Who knows, down the road when he finally masters reading and writing, he may have something profound to share with us."
These are the type of people that I would love to shoot in the face with the worst gun ever invented.
"Who knows, down the road when he finally masters reading and writing, he may have something profound to share with us."
These are the type of people that I would love to shoot in the face with the worst gun ever invented.
Exactly.
Public schools are bad. This is worse in a way I'm not sure I'm entirely capable of comrehending without firsthand knowledge.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.