After Good Morning America aired a piece on radical unschooling on ABC, many began engaging in a debate regarding the possible harms or benefits of the non-conventional form of education.
I wrote a column on Examiner to share my thoughts on the matter, and my opinions toward radical unschooling were largely negative. The column generated a great deal of criticism from those who homeschool or unschool their children.
There is a significant difference between homeschooling and unschooling. Homeschooled children are taken out of traditional public or private schools to learn in their own homes. Their parents have structured curriculum prepared for them, and they still receive some form of direction from adults. On the other hand, unschooled children are not forced to learn a structured curriculum. There is less direction from the parent, which allows the child to decide what he or she learns. In other words, the child will only learn what he or she finds purpose in.
Since I work as a producer and co-host on The Young Turks Show, I decided to invite someone to defend unschooling in an interview. Jim Gillam joined Cenk Uygur and I for an unschooling debate. He has been exposed to every form of education, including unschooling. In the discussion, you will learn more about unschooling and how Gilliam finds it beneficial. In the end, all three of us come to the same conclusion. Enjoy the clip!
Comments
I agree largely with Gilliam, as a current senior in high school who nearly dropped out in his sophomore year, not because I couldnt do the works but because the work was all so dull, unchallenging and uninteresting that I dreaded every hour I spent in a class room. I am all for letting kids in middle school decide what they want to do. By elementary school you already have that base in education and you are exposed at least slightly to most areas of education.
I was unschooled. In other words neglect and declined a human right to education. People should be made to either send their child to school. Or have strict rules on homeschooling and have regular assessments. I can't explain how bad and how hard life was for me as a teen and as an adult.
Thank you for being brave and speaking up! Too many of us who survived the ugly side of unschooling live in shame of entering the real world in a state of social, cultural, and educational deficit. For every advocate you see who describes a healthy version of unschooling and "get it right", there are 20 others who use unschooling as justification for abusing their children, educationally or otherwise. Please contact me if you want to talk about this more. I would love to meet other survivors, maybe start a support group.
I did enjoy the clip & appreciated the respectful attention you have given to this topic. I wanted to respond to your question about how unschooled children are exposed to things like history, chemistry, math, and such. Jim did a good job at pointing out that the kind of parents drawn to unschooling are those who want to be *more* involved in their children's education, not less, and are likely to work hard to expose their kids to as many avenues of knowledge as possible. A typical unschooling parent will create an environment rich in educational materials and opportunities. We use the abundance of available resources: books, TV, the internet, the library, magazines, Teaching Company courses & other online or DVD courses, all kinds of classes & workshops, and, yes, trips to the park (or museum or aquarium or living history village or police station). And lots & lots of discussion! It isn't "less direction": it's more connection, deep involvement, with kids' interests as springboards.
Wanted to add that while the label "radical unschoolers" does not fit my family, it's wrong and dismissive to label radical unschoolers as "nuts," as Jim did in the clip. Radical unschooling is the application of unschooling's educational principles to *all* aspects of life, such as chores and meals, not just math & science. You may not agree with or approve of the philosophy--as I said, my own family is an unschooling but not *radical* unschooling one; with six kids I find chore schedules to be of great benefit to family harmony, for example--but that doesn't mean the families living and thriving that way are NUTS. There are intelligent, thoughtful, involved parents raising their kids this way & the kids aren't neglected or feral. These families are putting a priority on relationships & principles rather than arbitrary rules. Even non-unschoolers can learn much from them! www.sandradodd.com/unschooling is a good place to start. I'm @bonnyglen on Twitter, unschooling my gang with joy.
I would like to comment that unschooling is not the same as "Iknow" writes above. There is such a thing as neglect, of many kinds.
Being unschooled is not the dictionary definition of "not schooled" but much more than that. Much of school is about constructing a child's behavior style and streamlining which trivia they're to memorize in order to fund schools through test results. I wouldn't even call that being schooled because the current system has deteriorated greatly from even the not lofty goal of producing workers to run the factories which is what it started off to be. It's still largely about producing workers and having some place to put the population after graduation.
Unschooling may not have presented AS Iknow believes in your particular case miss andersen, but if he went through what was called unschooling and it was neglect, then it was at least in his experience, it is wrong to devalue his experience and say what he went through was fundamentally NOT what he says it was.
Radical unschooling isn't about academics but being facilitated in learning from within a family dynamic based on relationships. It means that, in the absence of rules, the child sees the underlying principle of rules by experimenting with them. This is done in an environment with parents involved in their daily lives rather than figuring out how to deviate safely from the given set of parental and school rules after they move out on their own, where many mistakes can have more dire consequences.
A child doesn't have to attend any school to be exposed to how language and numbers work. Whatever is used frequently in day to day life is available to them, undivorced from the context in which it is used. And anything that seems abstract in school is also available outside school since school is only a subset in the world. Unschoolers probably have greater access to the world as a resource and place to experience life in the round.
About becoming digital natives, check sandradodd.com
Mr. Hoffman, my apologies for any misunderstandings. I would include any environment or methodology or approach in that estimation. Many types of childraising involve degrees of neglect in some cases. I know that people like "Iknow"'s experience is valid. Many children go through the same thing within the school system, other types of homeschooling, etc. It's not about unschooling per se, though what "Iknow" went through will look like that to "Iknow" just as a school kid whose experience is neglect will look like it's about school because a singular experience for one person doesn't have any basis for comparison. How would "Iknow"'s experience have been different in school? No one knows for sure.
I'm not invalidating the experience. I'm simply pointing out that radical (or wholelife) unschooling does not entail or suggest neglect.
Ana,
Thank you for broadening the opinions of this debate in your show.
As mentioned, our family are not "formal" unschoolers. I am simply a supporter of school choice of all sorts of flavors.
May I just point out that all of us learn through unschooling at one point or another. That's right, it is not limited to kids or homeschooling.
Think of it; Have you ever taken interest in a topic and spontaneously picked up a book or done internet research to learn more about the topic?
Sure, it happened in addition to your formal education, but you learned it in an unschooling way nevertheless.
Most unschooling families I know actually do guide their kiddos learning at times too. So the lines aren't always as clear as it is presented. For ex. a family who's business takes them to the farmers market on weekends will teach their children math, business, currency, marketing and much more. Call it homeschooling, unschooling, or what have you. (:
Ana,
Thank you for broadening the opinions of this debate in your show.
As mentioned, our family are not "formal" unschoolers. I am simply a supporter of school choice of all sorts of flavors.
May I just point out that all of us learn through unschooling at one point or another. That's right, it is not limited to kids or homeschooling.
Think of it; Have you ever taken interest in a topic and spontaneously picked up a book or done internet research to learn more about the topic?
Sure, it happened in addition to your formal education, but you learned it in an unschooling way nevertheless.
Most unschooling families I know actually do guide their kiddos learning at times too. So the lines aren't always as clear as it is presented. For ex. a family who's business takes them to the farmers market on weekends will teach their children math, business, currency, marketing and much more. Call it homeschooling, unschooling, or what have you. (:
I commend the fact that you this show is open to discusses the topic.
But it would have made more sense to have the debate with someone who actually understands both unschooling and radical unschooling?
I believe traditional schooling has the right institutions, because of the tremdendous resources availible to students. Unschooling on the other hand has the right mindset, because it developes a student's passion and motivation. The best outcome for any student would be to have the unschooling mindset while still attending tradition schools.
"I was unschooled. In other words neglect and declined a human right to education. People should be made to either send their child to school. Or have strict rules on homeschooling and have regular assessments. I can't explain how bad and how hard life was for me as a teen and as an adult."
Are you sure that you were unschooled? Did your parents intentionally take you out of school to homeschool, do lots of research on how children learn, unschooling and deschooling, and move forward to foster your passions? If that didn't happen, then I doubt you were unschooling. Please do not confuse dropping out of school with unschooling, they are NOT the same thing. A person who drops out of school can indeed unschool, but the simple act of dropping out, if not replaced with something else, does not equate to unschooling.
Kids who unschool are not left alone in environments that create unhappiness. I've never encountered that in all the 10 yrs that I've been an unschooling parent.
"I believe traditional schooling has the right institutions, because of the tremdendous resources availible to students. Unschooling on the other hand has the right mindset, because it developes a student's passion and motivation. The best outcome for any student would be to have the unschooling mindset while still attending tradition schools."
I've considered this idea too. If schools and libraries were like great hothouses of information and learning, where people could take classes and utilize resources, people would be drawn to them. If they were not compulsory and people, all people, children and adults could share that and pick and choose, it would indeed make for great learning experiences.
The sudbury valley schools or free schools have really explored this idea and are well documented.
Radical Unschoolers are "nuts"? I think if you knew any radical unschoolers you would know they are peaceful, thoughtful, leading edge parents who care deeply about their children and take seriously their role in the evolution of the species.
Don't assume they are "nuts" because they think about parenting in a more expanded way than most of us do.
Other than that disappointing set up, Jim did a fantastic job of pointing out the failures in the current educational system and the sense it makes to change it in a fundamental way.
The world will catch up with Unschoolers eventually. We'll wait...
Society at large assumes that the current educational system is beneficial, and all of the discussions start from that point. I would venture to say that unschoolers actually find that the current traditional educational system is terribly HARMFUL.
Yes, unschooling "happpens" when a schooled family goes to a farm or a museum on the weeked. But throughout the week that child is gradually and irrevocably turned into a mindless drone who repeats disconnected facts in order to get a smiley face or a gold star.
I would venture to say the "best" students (those who are good at memorizing and have no deep understanding of any subject or of themselves as human beings) are the ones that are most disillusioned and disconnected when they finally enter "real life".
Let's start with the basics, "what is the goal of traditional education?" and then work from there. If the answer is "to develop great test takers with no capacity for independent thought", then no change is needed.
Man, wish I had some unschooling. I have been doing it myself for the past couple of years. I am 32 years old, and have finally found what I want to do in life. I always picked up things quickly, but really had no direction. I guess I believed in the system that was set up for everyone, and after about a decade of being, well miserable, decided I need to find my own way. This is just my case though.
Different things will work for different people, so I would in no way totally condone the current educational system in Canada. It will work for some, giving the overall basics of math, history, literature and science. But one thing that is missing is spirituality. I'm not talking about religion, but the process of getting to know one's self. Some will pick this up in the constraints of our current educational system, but many will not, I was one.
I totally agree with Jim in the respect that the current educational system is meant for "grooming" people to fit into a well planned socie
http://www.ishmael.org/Education/Writings/unschooling.cfm Interesting take on Unschooling.
I am currently "unschooling" my kids. I don't know if our definition of unschooling is correct... To me, unschooling is engaged parents who have their children out of a school, but don't work with a strict curriculum. Many of the parents who call themselves homeschoolers have very strict schedules of up at 7, bible reading until 8, then breakfast, then reading of the classics,then an hour on a math text book, then lunch, then an hour on social studies tests, etc. As an unschooler, we don't follow a rigid schedule, but you would be amazed at the number of topics that have just come up in conversation and my oldest child is only 6. She already understands some pretty big basics, like reading, writing, basic math, and then other topics like earth's rotation and a whole lot about Abraham Lincoln and anatomy. She has observed surgeries, she wrote an essay on North Korea and understands some basics of politics... However, like I said, we are always talking to her and explaining things.
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