I'm going to tape this show, just to watch it, but I don't have any great hopes for any kind of objective look at either unschooling or homeschooling, just based on Dr. Phil's previous performances.
Reading through the posts so far on this message board, it's clear that most people are debating something that they have no experience with, have never seen or heard in action, and don't fully understand. Most people have never met an unschooler, let alone spent a day with them to see what their lives are really like, what their kids are like, and what they learn and how they learn it.
Unschooling is a very different approach than the school most of us grew up with. As such, it is perhaps difficult to truly understand, and also threatening in a way. Things that are different often feel threatening to those who don't have an opportunity to understand them. Even beliefs like a round earth or the earth revolving around the sun have historically met with strident opposition from those invested in their current belief systems.
I can't speak to every unschooling family, but I can tell you about my own. Our kids are ten and seven years old, they are active and engaged in real life every day. They learn from their real life experiences every day. They have no notion that learning is something dreadful, to be avoided (ever wonder why so many educational materials insist that "Learning Can Be Fun!"? Our kids have never known otherwise). Our kids often choose to do wildly "educational" things, because they find them fun. They have begged me to give them multiplication tables, asked to read _The Iliad_ and _Beowulf_ as bedtime stories, and last year both chose to learn Latin (mostly because of my son's interest in Roman history). They also often choose to do things that society would deem "uneducational" such as play imaginary games for hours on end, or have competitions on the Nintendo Gamecube, watch cartoons, or simply read a book for a whole afternoon. I believe that they are "learning all the time" as the great John Holt once said, and that they learn as much from things that society calls "uneducational" as they do from typically "educational" activities.
My son (10) has a very engineering-oriented brain and also is really absorbed with history (not to mention the typical 10 year old boy pursuits such as throwing around a baseball, reading Spiderman comics, and playing video games). He's currently on a Robotics Team, working toward a competition with other teams from around the state. As a part of that competition, the team is also doing a research project on Nanotechnology. He takes Karate, has a wide circle of friends that he sees in many different places (playdates as well as organized homeschooling activities with our local group). His other main interests are history, especially Roman and Greek history and mythology, and medieval history; and botany: he often propagates plants to sell at garage sales for income, and he has recently asked to find a mentor to teach him about grafting.
My daughter's (7) main interests are music, theatre, and dance, as well as animals. She has been playing the violin since age 3, focusing on Celtic fiddle music, and often performs in public (which earns her some income as well). She's currently (by choice) doing classes in modern dance, ballet, horseback riding, violin, gymnastics, ice skating, and is in a ballet production of Chronicles of Narnia, as well as being on her older brother's robotics team. She adores animals and spends a lot of time with our eight family animals, reading books about animals, watching movies and documentaries about animals, etc.
In addition to their own interests, our family has a lot of activities that we do together. A typical week sees us reading together, playing family games in the evenings, going swimming as a family, spending whole afternoons at the library, and we love to travel. In the summer, we do a lot of camping with other homeschooling families, as well as day trips to the beach or mountains. We all love being out in nature. We belong to several homeschool groups, from a small community of six close homeschooling families to larger groups that do field trips and activities.
I wish all the people who think unschooling is "educational neglect" could spend a day with my wonderful kids. They are so joyful in their day to day living, and they truly are engaged and learning all the time. My son recently took our state's mandatory standardized tests (homeschool kids here are required to take them every other year). When we did some practice tests so he could get comfortable, I was amazed at the things he knew and how he had learned them. He knew how to do averaging because our family had done a rootbeer taste-off and had averaged our scores for 6 different brands of rootbeers. Fractions he knew from all the times he helped me baking in the kitchen. He could calculate areas from the time he helped his dad plan and build our chicken coop. Really, learning follows from real life, it just does.
I know this has been long, but I hope (in addition to whatever can be gleaned from the show) it gives an insight into the wonderful world of an unschooling family. I know our family is blessed with the ability to unschool - the time and resources that allow me to stay home with the kids. I know everyone doesn't have these resources, and that not everyone wants this kind of education for their children. But for those of us who choose it, I am grateful for the freedom we have in our country that gives us the right to make this choice.
Parents want the best for their children, but what’s the best way to educate them? Dr. Phil’s guests face off in a debate about whether to school, homeschool or unschool. Dana and her husband, Joe, call themselves radical unschoolers. They say education happens as a side effect of life, and they don’t believe in tests, curriculums or grades. Are their three kids learning what they need to know? Then, RaeAnn says public schools are death traps and wants to homeschool her children. Her husband, Steve, says their kids are safer at school than they are at home. Can this couple reach a compromise? Plus, Nicole feels like an outcast at 26. She says she hated being homeschooled, and couldn’t relate to other kids. Share your thoughts here.
