Unschooling Blog

Hat Tip to Susan for passing this along:
Link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15029646/wid/11915773?GT1=8618

A new chapter in education: unschooling
Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the
lead in learning
Unschooling allows youngsters to chart their own
educational course. So if they want to doodle on the
floor instead of opening a textbook, their parents let
them go for it.

Here’s where it seems to take a turn downhill.
Enter “expert” opinion:

“If the parents are highly educated and/or from a
higher socioeconomic level, the kids are going to get
all kinds of rich experiences because the nature of
the home is going to be about books, experiences,
education and learning,” says Myron Dembo, a
University of Southern California professor of
education. “These kids won’t be harmed as much from
[unschooling] as the kids who have parents without
much education. One thing I worry about, though, is
that the parent may be less competent than the parent
thinks.”

Dembo, the author of “Motivation and Learning
Strategies for College Success,” agrees that the best
education comes when children are self-motivated, but
he says without formal matriculation some kids risk
simply being left out. They may not master basic
skills, they won’t receive so much as a high school
diploma, and their chances for productive futures
could become nonexistent. Yet he acknowledges there
are alternative ways to gain college acceptance — such
as taking the GED or writing an essay. And unschoolers
may enroll in school, or even community college, long
enough to develop something of a transcript.

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Hat tip to Mary for posting this at HEM-Unschooling

Unschooling Voices #3 was posted Sept. 1-
http://anunschoolinglife.blogspot.com/

The fourth Unschooling Voices will be out on October 1. If you’d like
to participate visit http://www.foreverparents.com/UnschoolingVoices.html
for the details.

Valerie comments on a couple of unschooling articles including the one in the Last Post

For entire article CLICK HERE

EDUCATION | Curiosity, not curriculum
The world is a classroom
Local parents teach at home and let their children’s interests guide the lessons.
By EDWARD M. EVELD
The Kansas City Star
Back-to-school means getting up early again, cracking open textbooks, studying for tests. But local families like the Becks and Mattinglys have done away with all that.

They are “unschoolers,” a small but growing group of homeschooling parents who free themselves from nearly all the trappings of school. They teach, but they do it without set lessons, textbooks or multiple-choice tests.

Most important, the children prime the agenda. Interest in a topic can come from almost anywhere, setting them off on a field trip to a museum, a state capitol or simply the public library.

Jessica Mattingly of Blue Springs listens for cues from her children. When 7-year-old Ian heard the name Rosa Parks mentioned on the radio, he started asking questions. That led to an exploration of the civil rights movement, including information appropriate for Ian and a more in-depth library visit for 12-year-old Amber.

At supper Ian told his dad, James, all about Rosa Parks, except he didn’t quite get her name right. That was OK, though. There was no pop quiz the next day.

It works for the kids.

“I can learn what I want to,” Amber said. “Right now I like reading about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.”

“I can just learn by doing things,” said 8-year-old Rylie Beck. “I don’t have to sit down and do the work.”

(more at link above)

May 22, 2006
Nothing online as far as I can tell, but there’s an aol preview HERE.

The controversial trend of “unschooling”: Is it really education?

~Thanks to Susan F. for the heads up

The Benfante family appeared on NewsChannel 3 on May13, 2006..

Unschooling: Child Directed Learning With No Books, No Schedules, No Curriculum

Barbara Benfante unschools her three boys in their Chesapeake home. “I think that they’re allowed to learn naturally, the way that kids were meant to learn. As an interest is sparked, they pursue that interest, they learn that they love it and they remember it.”

The video can be viewed by Clicking on the “Site Features” at the following LINK

Thanks to Lynda who posted this LINK on unschooling-dotcom list

Welcome to the world of “unschooling” — an educational movement where kids, not parents, not teachers, decide what they will learn that day.

“I don’t want to sound pompous, but I think I am learning a little bit more, because I can just do everything at my own pace,” said Nailah Ellis, a 10-year-old from Marietta, Georgia, who has been unschooled for most of her life.

Nailah’s day starts about 11 a.m., her typical wake-up time. She studies Chinese, reading, writing, piano and martial arts. But there’s no set schedule. She works on what she wants, when she wants. She’ll even watch some TV — science documentaries are a favorite — until her day comes to an end about 2 a.m.

I’d say, for the most part, it’s a decent write-up. That said, the last bit left me feeling a little dry…

But proponents of the public education system suggest these children may be missing a key part of the educational experience.

“There is nothing like the texture of kids having contact with each other, making friends and relating to different adults in a school setting,” said David Tokofsky, a longtime educator and member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

Nailah, who would be in 4th grade if she attended a regular school, seems to enjoy the “unschooled” lifestyle, even if she’s a bit confused when asked what exactly she is learning.

“I actually don’t know what I’m learning,” Nailah said. “I think I’m just having a good time.”

Taken from the latest issue of The Link. More articles can be found HERE
—–

The Richest Man in the World Has Some Advice for Us about College . . .

(P.S. He didn’t take it himself)

by John Taylor Gatto

1. William Faulkner

On April 12, 2005, the August “New York Review of Books” pronounced William Faulkner “the most influential innovator in the annals of American fiction,” a man well-deserving of his Nobel Prize.
Faulkner, a high school dropout, was later able to enter the University of Mississippi on a special waiver for ex-WWI servicemen. After a single year there he dropped out with a ‘D’ in English. Between that time and his Nobel Prize he never returned to college.

2. Bill Gates and China

On February 28 of this year, Bill Gates of Microsoft, told a gathering of the 50 American state governors that the United States has reached a competitive crisis which we were losing. This could best be combated by making college prep the sole function of secondary schooling, college prep for everyone, and college, too.
Those who couldn’t afford it should be subsidized by the states. In Erving Goffman’s chilling locution, college was to become a “Total Institution,” controlling all work in the economy.

Gates’ speech was headlined in the European press, where I read about it the following day at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, which I was leaving for Guangzhou, China. When I landed there, it was big news in China, too, if the English language “China Daily” can be believed.
It was the first thing my Chinese hosts wanted to talk about — this radically utopian idea of college for all.

3. But … Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I asked my hosts to consider this: If Gates’ proposal was such a great idea, then how was it that Gates, like Faulkner, dropped out of college his freshman year? And why didn’t he ever go back? And how was it that from among millions of college-trained techies, Gates decided to hook up with another dropout, Paul Allen, to found Microsoft?
That could have been a million-to-one coincidence, of course, except for the fact that Steve Jobs, the brains behind Apple, dropped out of Reed College after one semester. And never went back to college, not for a single day! Was it only an accident that Jobs chose to partner with another dropout, Steve Wozniak, in the founding of Apple?
Michael Dell of Dell Computer didn’t bother with college either. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, said he didn’t have the time to waste on college. Is the penny beginning to drop? These multi-billionaires, who’ve changed the face of the global society in technology, were all dropouts. What do you make of that?
(snipped - full article can be found HERE)

Unschooling Catching on Among Homeschool Families

Education officials aren’t convinced the trend is good for kids.

…

About 150,000 children are “unschooled” – that is the child discovers subjects on her own and in some instances sets her own schedule. Mike Smith of the Home School Legal Defense Association calls unschooling “informal.”
“As they go along, mom and dad are imparting wisdom and as they see learning experiences, they use them. It doesn’t mean they don’t have some kind of curriculum, but it probably is not one store-bought curriculum; it’s what they call eclectic.”

Smith believes unschooling is fine for some families as long as the parents can satisfy their state’s requirements for education. Marc Fey with Focus on the Family supports the idea of catering to a child’s natural curiosity but has reservations.

“It’s hardly anything that’s being directed by the parent. Unschooling is all about the child being in charge

Fey says unschooling can sometimes overlook the building blocks of education that are important to long-term success.

**In my opinion, neither of them sound very supportive of unschooling.

Here’s a nice little article By Kathy Aney of the East Oregonian :
More parents choose to teach at home

Mariann Adams home-schooled her three oldest children, who are now
grown, and sent her youngest three to public school.

“You take it a year at a time,” said Adams, of Pendleton.

Adams said teaching her children herself allowed her streamline their
educational experience.

“There’s a lot of time in the public school spent in transition,” she
said. “Also, you know what they know — you don’t have to spend time in
review.”

Homeschoolers are often able to absorb, in a few hours, information
that it takes public school students all day to learn.

“Learning doesn’t have to be by the book,” Berry said. “There’s so
many different ways to learn.”

She often loads up her boys for field trips. They visited the Maryhill
Museum, the Whitman Mission, the Baker Interpretive Center and took
behind-the-scenes looks at a hospital, grocery store and restaurant.
Classes are often held outdoors.

…

“What is socialization?” Rhodes asked. “If you mean peer dependency
and fitting into the mainstream culture — then yes and no.”

She has a different definition for socialization.

“Do you treat people with respect, do you relate to a wide variety of
people and will you contribute to your society?” Rhodes said.

Home school graduates, she said, are generally comfortable with
diverse age groups and tend to be involved.

Entire article HERE