Knowledge that is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. -Plato
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Siasays
You know what? Compulsory education is like currency. It isn’t actually worth anything because we simply don’t have enough ‘worth’ to back it up. What we (schools, mainly) can do is increase the appearance of children learning (by teaching to the test and things) but not actually increase the number of children learning.
It’s foolish to think that you can make a child learn anything. Sure, you can drag the kid to a building where learning is supposedly taking place, kicking and screaming, if necessary. Yeh, sure, you can strap the child in their seat. Sure, you can do that with a 5-year-old but you can’t force the 5-year-old to pay attention.
Eventually, the 5-year-old will be a teenager who is stronger than you. Now what? Reinforcements? Well, I suppose but you’re just back at the 5 y/o problem then.
Kez:Heather, I think most people will agree that usnchooling appears to work for some people and not others. But I can see several possible explanations for this outcome:1. Unschooling is a good educational methodology, but some parents do it wrong’, or label themselves unschoolers as a front for neglecting their kids.2. Unschooling is great in theory, but not in practice, given that it is not widely practiced and parents don’t get supported in their choice.3. Unschooling isn’t a good idea, but some kids thrive and learn a lot in spite of it.4. It depends on the personalities and situation of each family as to whether usnchooling is a viable option for them.(There are likely more possibilities that I’m not thinking of right off the top of my head.)For my family, I love the idea of usnchooling, but it didn’t look as though it was going to work out. I think this was partly because my Aspie child tends to feel comfortable with predictability and some degree of structure, but also partly because I wasn’t able to commit to it fully. It is quite possible that my son would have learnt to read at 8, 10 or 12 years of age, but I wasn’t able to let go and trust that it would happen. I figured it was preferable for me to be honest and tell him that I consider learning to read as a not negotiable requirement, rather than try to relax about it but end up constantly stressing about how we could trick him into learning to read!Anyhow, that’s just our (limited) experience. I’m not commenting about the woman Smrt Mama was talking about as I don’t frequent that forum and haven’t read all the background on that family.Smrt Mama, from what I have read on TWTM forum, I’m starting to suspect that usnchooling varies regionally, and perhaps US unschoolers a a little more towards the radical’ end of the spectrum, on average. Also my experience isn’t that extensive, I’m only talking about 20 or so families I have had contact with. I particularly noticed the reading aspect because it was something that annoyed me considerably. If I ever mentioned that my son wasn’t reading yet, I would be told that it’s fine, I just have to trust him, and it doesn’t matter if he learns later, even as late as the teen years. However, it always seemed to be that the people giving this reassurance were parents of kids who taught themselves to read by age 3! So yep, personal anecdotal evidence here, I haven’t seen any research or statistics about it. Unschoolers in Australia are such a minority that I wouldn’t be surprised if there were no research on outcomes.
You know what? Compulsory education is like currency. It isn’t actually worth anything because we simply don’t have enough ‘worth’ to back it up. What we (schools, mainly) can do is increase the appearance of children learning (by teaching to the test and things) but not actually increase the number of children learning.
It’s foolish to think that you can make a child learn anything. Sure, you can drag the kid to a building where learning is supposedly taking place, kicking and screaming, if necessary. Yeh, sure, you can strap the child in their seat. Sure, you can do that with a 5-year-old but you can’t force the 5-year-old to pay attention.
Eventually, the 5-year-old will be a teenager who is stronger than you. Now what? Reinforcements? Well, I suppose but you’re just back at the 5 y/o problem then.
Kez:Heather, I think most people will agree that usnchooling appears to work for some people and not others. But I can see several possible explanations for this outcome:1. Unschooling is a good educational methodology, but some parents do it wrong’, or label themselves unschoolers as a front for neglecting their kids.2. Unschooling is great in theory, but not in practice, given that it is not widely practiced and parents don’t get supported in their choice.3. Unschooling isn’t a good idea, but some kids thrive and learn a lot in spite of it.4. It depends on the personalities and situation of each family as to whether usnchooling is a viable option for them.(There are likely more possibilities that I’m not thinking of right off the top of my head.)For my family, I love the idea of usnchooling, but it didn’t look as though it was going to work out. I think this was partly because my Aspie child tends to feel comfortable with predictability and some degree of structure, but also partly because I wasn’t able to commit to it fully. It is quite possible that my son would have learnt to read at 8, 10 or 12 years of age, but I wasn’t able to let go and trust that it would happen. I figured it was preferable for me to be honest and tell him that I consider learning to read as a not negotiable requirement, rather than try to relax about it but end up constantly stressing about how we could trick him into learning to read!Anyhow, that’s just our (limited) experience. I’m not commenting about the woman Smrt Mama was talking about as I don’t frequent that forum and haven’t read all the background on that family.Smrt Mama, from what I have read on TWTM forum, I’m starting to suspect that usnchooling varies regionally, and perhaps US unschoolers a a little more towards the radical’ end of the spectrum, on average. Also my experience isn’t that extensive, I’m only talking about 20 or so families I have had contact with. I particularly noticed the reading aspect because it was something that annoyed me considerably. If I ever mentioned that my son wasn’t reading yet, I would be told that it’s fine, I just have to trust him, and it doesn’t matter if he learns later, even as late as the teen years. However, it always seemed to be that the people giving this reassurance were parents of kids who taught themselves to read by age 3! So yep, personal anecdotal evidence here, I haven’t seen any research or statistics about it. Unschoolers in Australia are such a minority that I wouldn’t be surprised if there were no research on outcomes.