Replies to '11/24 Great School Debate'

Your Aunt is doing her children a great disservice by letting them grow up stupid.  What are they going to do when they grow up and are fighting for a job in the workplace??  I agree with you...your Aunt is VERY irresponsible.

How do you know that they are behind?  Are you somehow testing them? 

 

Unschooling does not mean a lack of education, it is merely a name for a way of learning.

 Not everything is learned in school either - THAT is ridiculous. 

Think about your life - what you learned in school, what you learned at home, at church, with friends, while travelling.  How much of what you learned in "school" has helped you?  How much  has hurt?  (I have friends who only learned they were "stupid" at school because they were late readers and the lack of confidence has haunted them to this day, I learned that the secret to success was being great at taking tests - got me through school but didn't help much when I tried to suceed in the real world).

Our school systems were designed to produce factory workers - (really) and they do that remarkably well - but in the world of the future we are going to need all sorts of different kinds of people with all sorts of different skills.  We need people who learned both traditionally and non-traditionally - some who are motivated self learners that come from an unschooling background, some with a strong spiritual core that were christian homeschoolers, some with a personalized more traditional HSing background, some from elite charter schools, some from public schools - the mix of different ways of learning is very important.  No one way is right and no way is "ridiculous" because there is no possible way that any one type of schooling can produce the "perfect" education for all.

There are alot of problems with this statement. For one, you are basing an entire thought on a small experience.  I see this happen all the time. Because someone knows one person who homeschools, they know how it ekes out for every family and individual. An example of this: a mother is nursing her one year old and is regaled with stories of the friend of a friend whose five year old would rip her shirt off in the grocery store. I don't see how one gets from point A to point B.

Secondly, 'sharply behind' is a very relative thing. The children may not meet the public school systems standards, but chances are they know a lot of things that kids in public/private schools miss out on. My niece at 2 years of age wanted to be a palentologist, she knew about a variety of species of animals by their scientific names, and used adult language. This was at an age that there was not a school that would have accepted her. As you can imagine, at 12 years of age, she is blowing many adults out of the water with her knowledge. Perhaps it would surprise you to know that she is homeschooled.

Thirdly, 'our society requires education', again, you have a very narrow view of education. Education does not have to include sitting behind a desk with a pencil in hand, especially for people like myself that are visual/spatial learners. Public school failed me miserably, causing defiance and making me into a social outcast. I could not survive in the vast ocean of students, knowing that my thoughts were of no value to anyone.

And the fourth issue here is the assumption that children who are 'unschooled' will not seek out the book learning that you are referring to. I don't know about you, but when I was a child, I would read through my family's encyclopedias on the weekends for FUN. The homeschooled and unschooled children that I know love to learn because that is the focus of their family life.

One of my six year old daughter's favorite subjects is anatomy, which isn't taught in first grade public school. If it weren't for my penchant for education, she wouldn't learn about blood vessels and white blood cells.

I fully support the right that every parent has to educate their child at home. I support it and I believe it in. And my daughter goes to school 3 blocks away from our house five mornings a week, where she deals with stress and trying to navigate a social climate that is already very complex. She comes home saying phrases that are not permitted in our home and I spend plenty of time back-peddling and trying to rebuild our values. It often feels like a waste.

I send her to public school only because she craves the stimulation of a busy environment, even though she is lost in it. I also send her because I'm not a strongly social person and would find it wearing to meet her social needs through homeschooling groups. In fact, education is the only reason that I don't have for sending her to school.

I'm just sick to death of all of the stereotypes that people choose to make about others, as IF they knew what happens in their home.

Depends on how you live, though, don't you think?  Baking is a fractions lesson, sale shopping is a percentage lesson, eating in a restaurant is a manners, patience, articulation, grammar and language lesson (ordering what you want, returning it when it is incorrect),  traveling is a geography and social studies lesson.  You CAN learn it all through unschooling, especially if the learning is pointed out in a way that shows the child they have accomplished a new level of knowledge ("Excellent calculation on the price of the dress.  Can you afford it with the tax, or not?") All things are possible, it depends on the execution.

With all due respect, there are millions of children in the public school system who are "sharply behind when it comes to every subject." 

 

I find sending one's children away to be "taught" by STRANGERS incredibly irresponsible. 

 

The economy benefits greatly from the educational system.  I lived and taught school in a small community in northeastern Kentucky where the school (of only 500 students K-12) was the largest employer in the COUNTY, and those people fought tooth and nail to ensure that their school stayed there regardless of the fact that the school was a mess, they couldn't keep teachers or adminstrators, there was no discipline, and children were abused, verbally and physically, and property destroyed on a daily basis by the STUDENTS, but nothing could or would be done, because the school needed the numbers (attendance, not grades or EDUCATION, was what mattered) to get funding.

 

Yes.  I homeschool my children, and we even call ourselves unschoolers.  I am neither irresponsible nor ridiculous, and many things we don't want our children to know are learned as a side effect of going to public school.