Schooling, Homeschooling, and Now, "Unschooling" 1345
ciaohound writes "The Baltimore Sun has a story about 'unschooling,' which is like homeschooling except, well, without the schooling. '...unschooling incorporates every facet of a child's life into the education process, allowing a child to follow his passions and learn at his own pace, year-round. And it assumes that an outing at the park — or even hours spent playing a video game — can be just as valuable a teaching resource as Hooked on Phonics.' If you have ever been forced to sit in a classroom where no learning was taking place, you may understand the appeal. A driving force behind the movement is parents' dissatisfaction with regular schools, and presumably with homeschooling as well. Yet few researchers are even aware of unschooling and little research exists on its effectiveness. Any Slashdotters who have experience with 'unschooling?'"
Apparently they do just fine at MIT (Score:1, Informative)
It seems they are as well adjusted and engaged in their communities and prepared as those "socially promoted" from some of our lesser public no-choice schools.
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/homeschooled_applicants_helpful_tips/homeschooled_applicants.shtml [mitadmissions.org]
Re:Good luck in university (Score:4, Informative)
Sounded good ... never tried it (Score:5, Informative)
When my wife and prepared to homeschool our kids back in 2001, we both talked a lot about unschooling (yes, the term was in use that far back and longer). It intrigued us. At one point we may even have convinced ourselves that we were going to give it a try. But a funny thing happened on the way to unschool. By the time our kids were done with their reading and writing and arithmetic lessons, they didn't have much more time for learning through play than any other kids did.
Apparently our common sense was stronger than we gave it credit for. No way were we going to let our kids not learn the three R's. In time, we added the usual history and geography and science and so on, and though we never did subscribe to anybody else's curriculum, ours ended up looking pretty standard.
We did eventually join a homeschool group to give our kids a way to meet other kids, and that group included a few unschooled children. We saw nothing to make us think we had erred in actually educating our kids. The unschoolers weren't unpleasant to be around; they just didn't know much, and even the other kids could see it.
[This is all in the past tense because our kids started public school this year -- eighth grade. They're on par with the kids in the AP classes in English (excuse me, Language Arts), and algebra. The other classes aren't tracked (grouped, stratified, whatever), so kids of all abilities are in the same classes, and ours are ahead of many of their classmates in those areas. They're experiencing a bit of culture shock, but overall we're pleased with how it's going. FYI.]
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:3, Informative)
The Dallas Observer had an article about "NoSchooling", which is a better name, IMO. The kids ended up learning to read so they could figure out cheat codes for their video games. So in practice it can work. Their parents (and resulting so were their kids) were above average in intelligence, so they were able to get away with this. I think the problem with no-schooling children of average intelligence (really, think about this, most slashdotters don't come in contact with truly average intelligence children) end up either doing manual labor or working in the service industry. At least with some formal education, children have a chance at going to college and breaking out of more mundane jobs.
Re:Sounds like... (Score:4, Informative)
It doesn't do anybody any good when they try to teach their kids something that they don't really understand either.
Sadly, many teachers don't understand the subjects they're teaching. I had a high school English teacher fail a paper I wrote because she thought I made up the word "hierarchy", and a science teacher who gave me an A because what I wrote was way over his head. You have math majors teaching history and history teachers teaching science. Any college educated parent is going to be as knowledgeable as just about (with some exceptions) any public school teacher.
What the parent doesn't know, he or she can look up.
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:1, Informative)
Child D the one who took it apart and put it back together properly...
Apart is easy...
Re:Just remember.. (Score:3, Informative)
http://flexbooks.ck12.org/flexr/ [ck12.org]
Re:Good luck in university (Score:5, Informative)
linky [hslda.org]
Homeschooling has its problems, usually social ones, but academically, homeschooling nearly always produces vastly better educated children.
I was homeschooled for all of my primary and secondary education in Arizona (a VERY good state to be homeschooled in because of the LACK of regulation it puts on homeschoolers. It seems Arizona has realized that homeschooling produces MUCH smarter kids and it is best to leave government well out of it) and don't have a High School Diploma or GED. I got a FULL SCHOOLERSHIP into ANY state school (ASU, UofA or NAU) because my SAT scores were nearly perfect. Get that GP. I. Didn't. Pay. Anything. Because. I. Was. Homeschooled.
Most homeschooling parents have found out that it is an incredible sacrifice to stay home and teach your child yourself, but it is one of the best ways of showing your love for your child by providing an actual education for them instead of the public system that is failing so many children across the country.
Re:Sounded good ... never tried it (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Great idea! (Score:3, Informative)
There are lots of parents who are smart and organized enough to do this. There are a bunch who are ambitious enough to do it. There are some that are even committed enough to see it through. There are a few that have the time to do it. Unfortunately, there are just a small number with all four traits.
Apparently most parents who choose to homeschool(*) have those traits: http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp [hslda.org]
Now "parents who choose to homeschool" is a self-selecting group. So maybe parents in general don't have those traits, but in that case the ones that don't at least have the good sense to recognize that homeschooling isn't for them.
I'm not saying home/non-schooling should be disallowed, but it's in society's best interests to educate as many kids as we can to the highest level we can reasonably achieve. So if a parent wants to do this, I'd say they should have to demonstrate the skills and commitment, then they can receive support, assistance, and above all constructive progress monitoring and feedback.
Depending on the state you live in, homeschools are held to the same standards as any private school. In fact where I'm from (Kansas), homeschools are private schools as far as the law is concerned.
We homeschool our children, as well (Score:2, Informative)
I was not homeschooled, per se, but I taught myself from age 10 on to program, by myself, without any help from my parents, outside of school, and started by copying BASIC programs out of COMPUTE! magazine. By end of high school I had taught myself BASIC, 6502 Assembler, and Pascal. I am now a professional software developer on my 2nd business.
Required reading for anyone who considers critiquing homeschooling would be John Taylor Gatto's "Dumbing us down." Gatto is an award-winning New York school teacher who spoke publicly and wrote many essays about why our current school system is not good for children, or education at all. A great, quick, read and it spoke volumes about my own experience with public and private school as a child.
Finally, we homeschool our three children (8, 5, and 3 years old.) For those who think homeschooled kids will become lazy, jobless, drains on society obviously have some vein of laziness in themselves, or no work ethic at all.
It's easy to call names, or discredit us, and harder to consider your own education and how much better it could have been if you weren't served 50-minutes of American History, then 50 minutes of being half-naked in a room with red balls flying at you, then 50 minutes speaking Spanish. Nowhere in life does that happen, so why do we teach our kids like that?
The whole point of homeschooling is to:
From as early as possible we communicate with our kids that:
Obviously, as a parent, my job is present structure and facilitate the learning. Making pancakes? Great, a good time to explain fractions (1/2 cup, tablespoon, teaspoon). Interested in video games? Great, let's animate something in Flash.
We read to our kids every day. We read things all of the time in front of them. You think with that kind of example, kids won't learn to read?
And some kids take longer. I've known kids who were 12 years old who weren't ready to read. When they made the decision to read, it happened within 6 months. Are they going to suffer as a result? I doubt it.
Just plug "Homeschooled Children prepared studies" in your local search engine to find plenty of studies which show that homeschooled kids tend to be well prepared for college, and as a group, tend to go to college more.
Yes, if you're a deadbeat alcoholic Dad working at Wendy's and let your kids run around "unschooled", then no, homeschooling is not the answer, and sending your kids off to school to be babysat at the local school for 6 hours a day works great. But most homeschooled parents take the commitment very seriously, and guide their children lovingly into a rich, knowledgeable future.
A view from the unschooled (Score:5, Informative)
I am an example of an individual who grew up with under this exact educational philosophy and I beg to differ on the outcome most of the above commentators anticipate.
Unschooling is a set of principals and ideas about learning in general which emphasizes the individual's instinctual intellectual desire and capability over institutional time based curricula. It's in no way a new concept, with people like John Holt [wikipedia.org] and Ivan Illich [wikipedia.org] establishing most of the modern ideas in this educational arena several decades ago.
Though purely anecdotal, my own case is evidence that the method does indeed work, at least in my example, and I would argue it works quite well indeed.
I grew up without school until the 12th grade, and decided to enroll as a senior in an area High School mostly out of a desire to test my knowledge and socialization prior to venturing out to the greater world the following year. I was presented with a series of intensive placement tests and tested into the top levels of the senior class, where I completed the year and graduated at the statistical top of my small class without much trouble at all.
Since graduating a dozen years ago, I attained a roll as a senior software engineer at a major financial firm where I continue to design and implement technical solutions to complex problems which interest me. I'm also considered by some a bit of an expert in political strategy and consult a number of elected officials.
All this while declining to pursue higher education and instead learning from the experts in the fields which interest me.
I find that learning from those who do is much preferable to learning from those who decide to teach instead.
Additionally, the most crucial ability a critical thinker can have is the desire for and access to written knowledge and history.
The sad state of affairs which our educational system finds itself in is one which can obviously be improved. I would think that an open system with 100% subsidy which is open to the learner to take desired courses when they see fit would benefit society immensity.
Cost of such a system would indeed be high, but quite a bit less than dealing with the problems which a lack of self-motivated education hoist upon the systems of our limited resources. In a light improvements in our system to produce better learners could be viewed as the most cost-effective move we could make.
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:3, Informative)
"Like all such measures, any value beyond 3 standard deviations is an outlier and can not be considered accurate."
That's completely not true. College lecturer in statistics at CUNY here.
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:1, Informative)
Read the title !
My homeschool / unschool experiance. (Score:2, Informative)
Homeschool is not for everyone, but I've been pleasantly surprised by how well it seems to work. We have a few friends which unschool their kids but I don't notice much difference between the unschool kids and the more traditional home school kids.
As a father who goes to work and leaves most of the day to day schooling to the wife, here's some things I've come to find out which I didn't know about before we started home schooling.
Home schooling is probably more expensive then going to public school since you end up fronting the cost. However, it's nice that you can make your own schedule and not worry about some random gov. test that everyone has to take (i.e. you have more freedom with the curriculum and to go on trips).
The "sit down with workbooks" schooling only last an hour or two. sometimes the kids get into it and work on math for 4 hours straight (who would of thought) and other times they only get through 1 page in 20 min. When they get into something we try to take advantage and feed them all they will take in.
There are many organizations and events dedicated to home school. We belong to the Sonoma County Home School Association and have a lot of interaction with other home schoolers. In addition, many sports facilities offer home school discounts while regular school is in session (i.e. gymnastics and the roller skate place come to mind). I was concerned about the kids not having enough social contact but between all their sports throughout the year (gymnastics, soccer, baseball, ballet, tennis, golf), their home school groups (4H, violin), and their regular kids groups (cub scouts), that concern has been put to rest.
There are many labels for different kinds of home schooling, but rarely does anyone practice only one type strictly. There's also many different reasons people home school. My wife and I both hated going to public school (hours of B.S. in my opinion) but others may do it because of religious or other family reasons. I personally like many of the unschool ideas, but feel that there should be some structure so the kids can function in an academic environment; but that's just me and who am I to judge others. We'll go on trips and put away the books for a week or two and instead take more of an unschooling approach and just focus on what the kids want to learn (say geology if we go to some volcano). You'll find that the kids can come up with some very good questions which you then can follow up on for the next day or two.
Homeschool becomes a 365 days a year event. There's very little concept of "going on vacation". That said, we don't do much school on the weekend unless there's a learning opportunity to be had while we are out and about. It's a different way of learning then what I was taught; you are always looking for teaching opportunities instead of trying to manufacture them for 6 hours a day.
Anyway, I could go on but so far it's been a very positive experience in our family. My kids are under 10 still, but we've meet many teenage kids which have gone on to universities (Berkley, Stanford, Sonoma State, etc...) and didn't really seem to have any issue getting in. Seems like to get into a university you take the SAT and get your diploma equiv (not the ged); many don't seem to penalize you if you didn't go to public school (that' just secondhand observation on my part).
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:3, Informative)
Unschooling could only be successful if the unstudent is surrounded by Really Smart People. We normally code information in the form of texts because, the first few goes in class, no one really understands it, but they can all go back to the source later and figure it out when need be. Without that kind of structure, a lot of knowledge gets lost because its transmission and existence depends on the unteacher to be able to convey it when the unstudent is most receptive. That's not easy.
So between this and Montessori, it's probably still Montessori ftw.
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:3, Informative)
1.5 x 0.8 == 0.8 + 0.4 2.5 x 0.8 == 0.8 + 0.8 + 0.4
1) That doesn't even come out to the correct answer!
2) What are you doing in step 2?
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score:2, Informative)
1.5 x 0.8 == 0.8 + 0.4
2.5 x 0.8 == 0.8 + 0.8 + 0.4
I think he means that. I've no idea what the second one is for though. The only problem is that Delwin fails to comprehend that there is multiplication or division implicit in the 0.4