Sit down, shut up and stop thinking, we'll do it for you

[masterfedora]

I have a number of interests that I regularly pursue, but none has caught my attention and changed my way of thinking so much as when I learned of unschooling. Now unschooling is an "education" method used by some parents to allow their children to grow and learn naturally through their own interests. Years of reading forums, mailing lists, blogs,

Comments

[padawanspider]

I thrived on the two years of homeschooling my mom was able to give me. We went on more field trips than you could shake a stick at. I got to shadow a radiologist for three days.

...that's actually all I remember right this second but everyone should be able to have that experience.

It's so sad. My mom's a substitute teacher now and so many students just don't care. When they're old enough to drop out they plan on sitting in front of the TV and living on welfare for the rest of their lives. Something is very wrong with the school system for that many kids to not be passionate about anything.

[masterfedora]

Hey you can learn a lot sitting in front of the television. But yeah, you're right it's just so freaking sad and that's why it makes me angry. I mean if you look at little kids, really little they're just so excited, and then we send them to school and it all just dies. Learning is seen as a chore, and if you do enjoy it you're labeled as a freak. Don't even get me started on how no two people learn at the same pace so forcing a roomful of children to do it is ridiculous.

People don't want to face this. They don't want to hear what I'm saying cause they want to believe it's not a complete waste. I used to be the same way but I just couldn't ignore it anymore. The reality of it all was just so loud I had to pay attention to it.

[joecloudheart]

I wanted to be a marine biologist from the age of 5 until I was a senior in high school. My chemistry teacher was retiring after that year and he was a horrible teacher. Everyone cheated off of like 3 Korean girls except me. I refused to cheat. I had to drop the course and I wound up losing confidence to the point where I gave up my dream

[masterfedora]

Oh God, this reply is so sad. I'm sorry Joe.

In your last point, nothing annoys me more than a parent who doesn't want to help their child learn. I don't expect everyone to know everything that's absurd, but showing your kid how to find information, doesn't take a lot of time.

Honestly I grew up rather poor. I was the youngest in a house full of kids with a waitress mother. My mom worked her butt off and was tired a lot but she still tried to encourage our learning. My father did the same for me. I'm lucky in that way I know that. Thank God for libraries and PBS. XD

Oh and I think you should start learning about marine biology again. Not for any job, but just because it's interesting.

[joecloudheart]

Right now I'm teaching myself Chinese, and continuing Spanish, and I intend to learn Thai. I might take up reading about marine bio again...who knows

[masterfedora]

One of the problem lies in the fact that we equate learning with school. Our society is astounded by people learning on their own. The best example I can give right now cause I'm tired is way back when I was in like third grade. We were learning about the solar system, got to Pluto and said something like "We don't know much of anything about Pluto." and I proceeded to spout out a bunch of facts like the giant nerd I was and am. She was shocked, my fellow students were appalled, and I was confused. Oh and the source of my Plutonian knowlege? A Mickey Mouse computer game my dad bought for me where Mickey explores the solar system looking for magic crystals or something

[datura_inoxia]

I think it's hardly surprising that I would be the voice of dissent considering I'm dedicating my life to higher education, but I'm dissenting for reasons you me be surprised at

[masterfedora]

Unschooling has also been described as World Schooling. Basically the idea that the whole world is the classroom and every single moment of every single day is your education

[datura_inoxia]

I can see that. I certainly think that the social aspects of school is very damaging to a lot of children, and quite a few would probably be better not undergoing a traditional education. I guess I'm more of a proponent of trying to fix the existing educational system than to dismiss it completely, but I also like the idea of allowing the space for alternative methods.

Unfortunately my side of education only reaches the "successful" kids--those who learned to "jump through hoops". But I'm going to keep my eye out for people who've had non-traditional background. I'm sure they're out there, and it would be interesting to see what sort of skill-set they bring to the classroom.

[joecloudheart]

Beth, you have no idea