The Unschooling Movement: School's Out ... Forever

[MillCreek]

Ms. MillCreek, the elementary school teacher, has had a couple of unschooled kids over the years.  The parents either got tired of unschooling or the kids themselves asked to start going to school.  

In her experience, both kids had some significant academic and social skills delays compared to their age cohort.  Although by the end of the year, they had pretty much caught up.  Both of these kids came back into the school system at third grade, she thinks that there are more academic delays the longer you wait.  

She is not a fan of unschooling, for pretty much the same reasons articulated elsewhere in this thread.  She is a fan of homeschooling for the right students, the right parents and the right curriculum.  

[nico]

I went to a Montessori school from pre-school through 3rd grade.  The biggest reason I didn't skip 4th grade was that my parents didn't want me to have the stress of going to a new school and being with kids who were all older than me at the same time.  I've been a visual learner my whole life, and learning basic arithmetic through counting and singing songs seemed to work for me better than sitting down and memorizing multiplication tables.

I could see unschooling working for a very small percentage of people who are inherently neurotic about learning (I go to school with a lot of these people).  However, I can see the concept being abused by lazy parents, like the ones in the article, who want an excuse not to push their children to learn.

[zahc]

I basically unschooled. I did fall behind in some subjects, and got ahead in others. I managed to go to college on good scholarships and graduate twice. I did a lot of fishing, too.

[roo_ster]

Having said that, I am a fan of educational experimentation, for those with open eyes willing to take the risks.

I really wonder at the hoax being pulled by the Ed Depts.  People were teaching kids successfully for thousands of years before the Ed Depts existed.  What works for the vast majority of kids has been sussed out.  There are some few kids that have problems with the traditionally effective methods.  Alternative methods then are warranted and useful to address their needs.  But, to use them as the lever with which to displace the traditional methods is nothing more than self-aggrandizement by Ed Dept denizens and (in many cases) has been shown as having deleterious effects on the majority of children.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Sounds like another consequence of our extreme affluence.  As a society, we've been so wealthy for so long that people are beginning to forget that being comfortable, healthy, and well-fed is not the natural condition of man.  

Thriving is not automatic, you have to have a clue about the world around you and be willing to work within it to produce the things you want/need.