Today’s broadcast (Tuesday, April 24, 2007) of The Story (American Public Media) revisits unschooling, allowing Kate Walsh, former teacher and critic of unschooling, an opportunity to address her concerns about not sending children to school, in response to The Story’s original broadcast on unschooling (February 21, 2007) . Host Dick Gordon also invites Valerie Fitzenreiter, who unschooled her daughter Laurie Chancey and appeared on the original broadcast, to return to answer Wash’s criticisms. (Unschooled Laurie is now pursuing her PhD in sociology, without the benefit of GED or high school diploma).

Walsh’s criticisms of unschooling will be familiar to all homeschoolers, who’ve heard it all before. The Story’s website notes that she “was less than enthusiastic about the idea of unschooling”:

“How charming, for people who don’t need, or dismiss the aspect of, general education.”

Whether you are an unschooler, unschool-ish, or a homeschooler of any other stripe, both broadcasts — the original “School? Not” and “Unschooling Revisited” — are well worth listening to online.

You’ll also want to follow the links to Chancey’s website and Fitzenreiter’s book, The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School.

posted by Jeanne Faulconer

The author makes a mention of unschooling in a Seattle Times article on the Clearwater School, modeled on the Sudbury Valley democratic school.

Clearwater is one of about 30 schools that follow the philosophy of the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts. Such schools are sometimes called “free” and “democratic” schools, where students are responsible for their own learning and have a significant role in governing the school. They also have many parallels with “unschooling,” a movement embraced by some homeschooling families who don’t follow a set curriculum.

The writer goes on to describe what some of the students do with their time at the school and what some of the graduates have done after leaving Clearwater. There is the ubiquitious critic who:

[questions...] whether students at Sudbury schools truly learn what they need, and whether they are exposed to enough to figure out which subjects they might love. Even Alfie Kohn, a well-known author and harsh critic of public education, says Sudbury Valley is too radical for his taste. He prefers the Sudbury approach over what he considers public schools’ “enormously counterproductive practices like grades and standardized tests.” But he doesn’t think students learn best left entirely on their own.

“There’s a role for teachers to initiate possible avenues of inquiry, to spark interests that kids might not have had before. To coach and guide and observe,” he said. “I don’t take the view that the kids have to take the lead all the time. I think we miss a lot that way.”

Pondering these comments, I sense something missing in this view of child-led learning, as if there is some invisible essence that isn’t easily perceived from a spectator’s point of view. What is missed is that all such learning involves relationships with people of many ages and interests and accomplishments: parents, family, friends, mentors, and, in the case of a school like Clearwater, teachers who support and respect each child.

This kind of learning doesn’t rely on scope and sequence and testing and grading. It is informal and invaluable. It doesn’t preclude formal academic pursuits but encourages one to embrace the learning and adventure inherent in the human experience. Maybe that is the most important lesson of all.

Posted by Sandi

The Friar at Reason and Revelation caught my critique of one of his blog posts and appears to object to my neglect of fully fisking his original post, my conclusion, and my anti-defamation league comment*.

I guess I can rectify all that.

*(as to my seriousness, sir, the pajamas-with-feet that I proposed should be on the league crest ought to give you insight into that)

Reason and Revelation, Homeschooling 3

My statement was qualified stating that some were dissatisfied with the lackadaisical nature of the homeschool community in a certain town. The fact that they were does not decrease the value of homeschool. It only criticizes a certain aspect of homeschooling that exists in a particular place. The blogger does not even note this fact.

So noted.

What you may not have taken into account is that participation or non-participation in communal activities is not what makes homeschooling, and isn’t even a defining feature. Some families homeschool while sailing a boat around the world. Having a little help from your friends is useful, of course, but it isn’t something that can be guaranteed to anyone. It is not the obligation of one homeschooling family to provide whatever another family lacks any more that it is incumbent upon one neighbor to finance the house, raise the children, or mow the lawn of another, although if there is a need, neighbors often help out. But one doesn’t move into a neighborhood for those reasons. If one does, it is usually a commune. Much of the point of homeschooling is independence of action.

Also, over-organization can (but doesn’t always) badly affect a family’s homeschooling. The energy given to the group, especially a high-needs group with dues, meetings, committees, and co-operative teaching is subtracted from the energy available to the family in their daily lives. The entity’s needs becomes the focus instead of the family’s individual needs.

The kind of support to supply to group members is one of the key decisions the people who want to form a support group must hammer out at the beginning of the process.

• Is the group meant to be one that is informal, or formal?
• Will the group be a playgroup?
• Is a main focus field-trips?
• Will the group be mainly a social group — for the parents or for the kids?
• Does the group have forming a co-op as a goal?

Your writing leads me to the conclusion that you presume that only groups that are formal and supply significant support are worthwhile, something that the group in the Raleigh area apparently did not do. I presume that, because of this, you use the word “lackadaisical,” which is not generally known for its positive implications.

I homeschooled my children, usually without any local support. When I first started I was the only homeschooling parent I knew, and that condition persisted for almost four years. My only supports were two magazines, and many catalogs. At this time we were also living in the infamous Germany, which had yet to fully enter the public cyber-age, but our Commodore 64 wouldn’t have been able to do anything with an Internet connection even if we’d had one. Because of this, I had no online support although I read in my magazines about these mysterious things called “bulletin boards.” I could only imagine what they were. Finally, a group came together, but after two years or so, we moved (to the also-infamous Belgium). For the final two years of my children’s homeschooling I was again a loner. I was also of the unschoolish persuasion, so I used no prepared curriculum, and rarely asked for guidance.

By what I infer from your writing, our homeschooling would have been ineffective because of the lack of ‘support.’

Further the blogger does not address the critique (or vices) I raised, which was the point of my post.

(and now we revert to the post that caught my eye)

• But homeschooling is not a panacea. Not every student out of a homeschool environment is better off it seems to me. One private school, located in Raleigh, was founded because some homeschoolers were dissatisfied with the lackadaisical nature of many homeschools.

See my original reply, and above.

By the way, I have an aversion to referring to young people and children as “students.” That seems to place their entire lives solely in the context of schooling.

• The support system among homeschools was also lacking discipline.

See above.

• 1. Expectation: Some homeschool students that I have had the pleasure of teaching believe, upon arrival to a college (secular or otherwise) they deserve high grades, and when I mean high, I mean “A.” A “B” is like an “F” to them. They have usually gotten wonderful grades in their homeschool and they expect the same results. The reason for this is my next point.

Grades? Sorry, I didn’t ‘do’ grades, or assignments, or testing. John Holt was my guru, and GWS was my magazine (along with HEM).

• 2. Achievement/Smarts: Homeschool students usually believe they deserve all “A”s because they have been told (usually by their mother) for years that they are special, bright, smart, and will be successful. While well meaning, this is probably not the wisest thing mothers do for their children. It actually hampers them when they get out into the real world and have to deal with people who are not their mother.

Hmmm, just as I didn’t take into consideration that you were writing about a local lazy league of learners, so, too, you do not take into consideration that what you’ve written is meaningless in the context of unschooling.

The closest I can get to giving you an idea of our outlook is to quote some signs that I hand-lettered (I liked calligraphy), and that were hanging around for a while.

If you can’t be a good example, you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.

If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re probably right.

Richard Maybury‘s Two Laws as enumerated in his book Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (and others):

Do all you have agreed to do.

Do not encroach on others or their property.

Floss [under hand-drawn picture of the Cheshire Cat's grin]

As for the ‘real world,’ what world do you think we live in? Do you think the world of school is ‘real?’

• 3. Narcissism: Homeschool students who go to college find it unnerving when their professors do not lavish attention on them the way their homeschool teacher did. In fact, some are downright offended when a prof does not lavishly praise them, spend time with them, etc., as they are accustomed. After all–and I have heard this from numerous students: “my parents told me I am special, and thus, you should pay more attention to me.” This is reflective of a bit of narcissism, and it’s unhealthy.

The kids you know say, “and thus?” My.

[calling out in a fluting voice to daughter, who commented on the last blog post] Rose, darling! What was it that Sue-J. said to you at college? (arch aside to readers: Sue-J. was the professor urging her to go to grad school) Wasn’t it something along the line of she was glad you were homeschooled because she didn’t have to coddle you? And who was the teacher you student-taught with?

[I'll have to shout louder for the other daughter, as she doesn't look around much online] Cindy, dear! What was it your chemistry grad-student-teacher said about your homework? Wasn’t it how it was so much more fun to grade because of the (copyrighted-by-my-daughter) King Monkey cartoons explaining your work? Mummy got that right, didn’t she, dear?

The boys don’t read me, so it’s no use yelling for them.

I’m assuming, sir, that we are at an impasse as I can see your experiences-with-homeschoolers-in-college, and raise you two grads-with-honors, and one doctor. Our publicly-schooled son also graduated with honors, so either I did as well as the public school teachers, or they did as well as I.

• There is one thing I have seen from homeschool students in the college setting that does not bespeak of narcissism–the penchant for some to want to show up to class in their pajamas–so careless are they with their appearance.

Guilty as charged, she sez as she sits blogging in her pajamas. (t-shirt that says “Front” and “Bach” — with appropriate image –, orange, pink and green-striped britches from WalMart, and black-patent leather Birkenstock sandals) I’m formal today.

Working in pajamas, by the way, is ecologically sound. If there is no need to dirty a second set of clothing there is a decreased need for laundering (which, to my credit, I’m doing concurrently with blogging) and that saves on the Seventh Generation laundry detergent, the wear and tear on the machines, and provides a decrease in the use of electricity and water. If the ‘good clothes’ do not wear out as fast, they don’t need to be replaced as often, and, as mentioned in … Zoolander, was it?? where the reporter is chastised for asking questions-of-little-substance and then goes for the jugular, …. the textile industry is a source of significant environmental pollution.

• And I should add that my experience is anecdotal–that is I should state that the 3 vices above are not generalizable.

Ditto on my replies.

Now to return to the current post:

However, many parents do share resources and some in my example found that wanting. THAT was the motive for some to start a private school. Where’s the illogic in that account?

In itself, that is not illogical, but your argument drifts away from homeschooling and into alt.ed. This is the source of a lot of online discussion where ‘ideas from all over’ butt into each other: where does homeschooling stop and ‘something else’ begin?

Again, is it really that difficult to understand that some people try homeschool, and find it is not for them in one way or another? And then, resolve not to put their kids into public school, but put them into a private school. Sounds reasonable to me and other homeschool supporters who responded to the original post.

Founding a private school isn’t at all unreasonable, but it isn’t about homeschooling. It is about the personalities and needs of people who decided that homeschooling, with its inherent independence, didn’t fit them. This lack-of-fit isn’t a failing of homeschooling any more than not having a bat with which to hit the ball is a failing of football.

You are ascribing the founding of a school to a failure of homeschooling to meet the needs of these people who apparently ‘aren’t homeschoolers’ — which isn’t to blame them. I am not a rock-climber, or an airplane-flyer, or a person who enjoys buildings of over … say … 4-stories in height, so is this a failure of rock-climbing, flying, or skyscrapers? No. They haven’t failed. What’s more, I haven’t failed. I am just an ocean-swimmer, train-rider and ranch-house-liver, which leaves more room on the cliffs, in the airport waiting lines and in penthouses. Win-win, we’re all happy.

The school in Raleigh was founded because that is the framework these people needed. Founding a school is fine, maybe even wonderful. But you don’t have to blame homeschooling because independent home education didn’t meet their needs.

And that is where the illogic comes in: one thing doesn’t have anything to do with the other in the context you gave it: ie, the founding of a school by people who are ‘not homeschoolers’ (at their core — it’s just ‘not them’), because of homeschoolers whom you find to be insecure, narcissistic, and slovenly.

The blogger also does not mention the many positive statements I made about homeschooling (which I support–mine was not an attack on homeschooling).

Uh-huh.

Homeschooling is a viable and worthy alternative, but we ought to be aware of some of the natural(?) and potential pitfalls of such an endeavor. With the continued failure of many K-12 public schools, homeschooling should be considered. However, to avoid some of these pitfalls, it might be worthwhile to check out the private arena.

I think that’s called ‘damning with faint praise.’

posted by Valerie

So suggests Peter Cookson Jr., dean of the Graduate School of Education and Counseling at Lewis & Clark College. He wrote up a introspective piece that you would hope to see from an educator called: If our high schools were like Google . . . . in The Oregonian, March 5, 2007. Mr. Cookson went on to consider the 10 things that Google uses as its guide, as compared to schools; high schools, in this case.

Our home isn’t like Google in the quest to know, except for our many good books and other resources that include the great outdoors. We use Google every day, along with a lot of other potential answer givers. This article is listed under the category of Education Reform in the publication, but the learning or curiosity search has been going on for centuries (or make that thousands of years). And that was with and without Google or the internet or compulsory attendance laws.
So this philosophy can also be compared to homeschooling. As pointed out in the article with the very successful Google strategy and this educational dream venture, one should “focus on the user and all else will follow”. (But the users in our case are our children.) And all I can compare it to is our Ryan homeschooling family life, as we all do it differently. So goes the beauty of homeschooling.

The one constant that holds true that Dean Cookson, Google and we have discovered is that “There’s always more information out there (knowledge is infinite, while textbooks and worksheets are finite)“. So true and yes, our life is most definitely not boring. We’ve developed a love of learning, little acting out and plenty of joy in the richness of a boundless world of experiences.

Posted by Susan Ryan

Unschooling continues to have ‘its recent’ higher-than-it-used-to profile in the news. First, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, we have an article from the Feb. 26, 2007, Sun-Herald, which focuses on the Morris family and how they decided to unschool. The article, Unschooling: Unconventional Teaching Approach Gaining Popularity by Carolyn Norton also features comments by Shana Roynane Hickman of Live Free Learn Free magazine. Norton also interviewed the director of admissions at UNC-Chapel Hill, from whom we learn that the selective university accepted 25 students out of 86 homeschooled applicants last year.

In another story, KUSA TV9 in Colorado has a Feb. 27, 2007 story by Nelson Garcia,Unschooling Method Grows In Popularity (is there an echo in here?), which features both an unschooling family and a school-at-home family. The mom that uses a structured approach comments about unschooling

“The kids run the parents and to me that’s just unacceptable,” Terri said. “When the mom says to Johnny,
“What do you want to learn today?”and Johnny says, “Nothing,”you know, okay, so what happens today?”

The reporter uses a “wife-swap” type approach for the story, which takes care of airing the standard stereotypes of unschooling — Curriculum Mom expresses every usual doubt and misunderstanding of child-led learning while Unschooling Mom gamely explains how it really works.

As a side note, the surely unbiased reporter uses a truly value-neutral word (that was sarcasm if you missed it) and pronounces Colorado homeschool law “lenient:”

Basically, the government views them (homeschooled families) as small private schools so they are not regulated, making unschooling or child-led learning legal.

Yep. Homeschooling is legal. And an excellent way to educate your kids.

posted by Jeanne Faulconer

Chris over at O’donnellWeb mentions an interesting article in his post The Power of Praise. He links to New York Magazine’s How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The Inverse Power of Praise by Po Bronson (February 19, 2007 issue), which discusses potential negative side effects of praise, long noted in some homeschooling circles. Alfie Kohn’s book Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes is frequently mentioned on homeschooing lists as an eye-opening “other view” of a reward-and-punishment approach to education, work, and living.

Carol Dweck, one psychologist featured heavily in the New York Magazine article, is a busy bee. She and NYM’s Bronson are interviewed on NPR’s On Point about praise and about her new book MINDSET: The New Psychology of Success, which seems very relevant to how homeschoolers go about educating their children. From the Amazon review,

“Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as… well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity.”

Developing this “growth mindset” sounds a lot like an approach many homeschool families take, and it sounds very different from what seems to be happening in many schools, where emphasizing testing and praise seems to create a more fixed mindset. (Given the attention unschoolers have been getting in the media lately, I can’t resist noting this “growth mindset” is especially prominent among unschooling families, and is probably a key ingredient in what seems to be a mystery to many as to how unschooling works). I made a mental note to put the book on my never-ending “to read” list.

It is one of those lovely serendipities (not to mention a well-executed book promotion) to have Chris point me to the NYM article and realize the substance of the article is from the MINDSET author. I am reminded how much we homeschoolers can potentially learn about learning from non-homeschooling resources, especially if we are willing to use more than the occasional grain of salt if homeschooling myths are promulgated or, more usually, homeschooling is not acknowledged. Often, these books validate things homeschoolers are already doing instinctively.

I often wonder about the education establishment’s belief that school systems have so much to offer homeschoolers — when it seems so clear to me that homeschoolers’ perspectives are the ones that should be valued by the education establishment. We are living the learning theories, which, in the hearts of our homes and our children, seem both obvious and feasible.

by Jeanne Faulconer

Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, 6 January 2007, Lessons are fluid, and there is no plan: Popularity of ‘unschooling’ grows for Hoosiers

There aren’t any statistics on unschoolers yet, but their popularity is reflected in the number of unschooling message boards on the Internet, the frequency of unschooling conferences and the slow but steady movement of unschooling into the vocabulary of educators.

The obligatory naysayer was left until the end.

“With regard to unschooling, I believe this is best described as utopian,” Haring said. “A minuscule few youngsters may have the high intelligence and motivation to inquire broadly and also learn how to learn. The vast majority, however, have no idea what might be learned and why it is important.”

Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, 11 January 2007, Education Extra: Unschooled: No core subjects, no imposed curricula? You must be unschooled (subscription required)

Buchanan had become influenced by the work of John Holt.

Holt, a teacher turned reformer, believed people didn’t need to be taught to learn. Humans were born with natural curiosity and a desire to learn what they needed to know. Holt thought teaching and schools squelched that natural desire. He advocated unschooling.

The naysayers got in a few more paragraphs in this article.

Lax or not, it’s entirely legal.

…

“A private school affidavit provides an exemption from the compulsory attendance law in California,” she said. “There is no accountability. They are basically outside the public school system.”

And why would family accountability be owed to a school system?

Public education is a service owed to the children should their parents desire to take advantage of it. It is not an obligation parents are required to honor with the presence of their children.

Any “accountability” would be that of the parents owed to the children for whatever type of education the parents allowed the children to have, whether it be public school, private school, or home education.

Comments are enabled at the site.

Southern Pines Pilot, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 23 January 2007, ‘Unschooling’ Appeals to Some

The idea behind the movement is that children are capable of educating themselves at their own pace and their own interests. The parents, instead of determining curriculum, accommodate their child’s interests.

Daily Californian, Bereley, California, 27 January 2007, Kids Take School Into Their Own Hands

From stock whips to ballet, Dungeons and Dragons to NASA, some Berkeley students say they are studying subjects they would not have access to in a traditional setting by pursuing a new kind of education called “unschooling.”

I’ll cop to it being a pet peeve, but “student” is not a synonym for “child,” especially in the context of unschooling. That usage is an artifact of school-think. However, in reading the article, the writer definitely seems to have an organizational outlook complete with a statistic for the number of unschooled kids, so using “students” instead of “children” is not surprising.

Naysayer opinions are included.

… joined the 10 percent of home-schooled students participating in unschooling nationally …

… Sam’s 7-year-old brother Nicky has also begun unschooling. …

… “I want educators to make decisions about what kids need to learn,” said school board member Shirley Issel. …

Ashland City Times, Ashland City, Tennessee, 28 January 2007, ‘Unschool’ parents: Kids can be own best teachers

(this article has the naysayers front and center in the sub-headline below, but the article is more accomodating of both sides)

Many educators fear free-form style leaves learning incomplete

…

That’s not to say there is no parental involvement.

Rather, these parents said, they must be totally aware of the needs of their children and able to find resources to seek out information, whether that’s the local librarian, an entomologist at a nearby college or the grocer who can explain an exotic fruit.

The comments at this site are far less angry than the comments at the Sacramento Bee.

Free Market News Network, Pompano Beach, Florida, 29 January 2007, Unschooling: The next horizon in education?

This article is a friendly review of the Ashland Times article above.

posted by Valerie

The Tennesseean, Nashville, Tennessee, 31 January 2007, Unworking dreamy but unworkable

Unschooling, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a trendy education technique used by a handful of home school parents. They let their kids decide what they want to learn and when they want to learn it. If the kid shows no interest in reading until they’re 9 or 10, fine, say the unschool advocates. If today the kid wants to make Valentines instead of memorizing the solution to three times seven, well that’s perfectly acceptable.

In other words, they’re training children to believe they can do anything they want, whenever they want. … And when they grow up (will they ever grow up?), would you want an unschooler assigned to your project team? I think not. Thus, for the sake of equality and fairness, I give you unworking.

…

Steve Jones is chief operating officer of the X-Treme Sports Group in Nashville, … Teamwork, he said, is “everything.” And there’s no room for former unschoolers who want to unwork on a given day.

“If we get a weak link, we have a problem,” Jones said. “My gut reaction would be to say, ‘Does that mean you want to unemploy?’ “

I’ve heard comments like this before, but in connection with the freedom associated with homeschooling: “My kids have to [insert disliked activity at school], so I don’t see why your kids don’t have to do it, too.” Those who want everyone to follow the same path they do, or did, don’t get it.

Unschooling (to me) is not about being lazy, it’s about following your passion. When we’re working at what we want to work at, we often work at it longer and harder than we would do about something we didn’t care as much about. I’m reminded of an excerpt from Free At Last, a book about the Sudbury Valley School that was first published in 1987.

In this part of the book, a group of children want to learn arithmetic, and the adult tries to talk them out of it by saying that they aren’t the ones who want them to learn the arithmetic; the various ‘pressure groups’ around them want them to. The children disagree, and they and the teacher strike a bargain (as was usual at Sudbury).

And ‘Rithmetic

They were high, all of them. Sailing along, mastering all the techniques and algorithms, they could feel the material entering their bones. Hundreds and hundreds of exercises, class quizzes, oral tests, pounded the material into their heads.

Still they continued to come, all of them. They helped each other when they had to, to keep the class moving. The twelve year olds and the nine year olds, the lions and the lambs, sat peacefully together in harmonious cooperation — no teasing, no shame.

Division — long division. Fractions. Decimals. Percentages. Square roots.

They came at 11:00 sharp, stayed half an hour, and left with homework. They came back next time with all the homework done. All of them.

In twenty weeks, after twenty contact hours, they had covered it all. Six years’ worth. Every one of them knew the material cold.

Unschooling’s not about doping off, it’s about finding where you want to go, and going there.

posted by Valerie — who has been unworking all morning

Unschooling has gotten a lot of attention recently in the mainstream media. An academic has made it the focus of her masters thesis in Comparative Media Studies at MIT.

Vanessa Bertozzi has posted several excerpts from her thesis, Unschooling Media: Participatory Practices among Progressive Homeschoolers.

Bertozzi does a good job giving a general description and overview of unschooling on her website. In the pdf files she provides over in the right column, she demonstrates that she has understood many of the and unschoolers.

She points out interesting differences of opinion among unschoolers about potential positive and negative uses of the media, including the internet. Her research seems to be grounded in a thorough review of the basics of unschooling, from Holt and Illich to personal interviews with honest-to-goodness unschoolers. It is a lovely extension of the “thesis of her thesis” that she found honest-to-goodness unschoolers by using the same methods that unschoolers use to find one another, through social networking on the internet.

Unschooling is more multi-dimensional and diverse than Bertozzi’s excerpts show, I’m sure due to her need for a tight focus; still, this peek at her paper demonstrates that her thesis is probably an academic work that is unusual: She “gets” unschooling, she realizes that there are people other than Christian conservatives who are educating their children at home, and she treats unschooling as a legitimate educational methodology with a real and rich history.

The fact that she then takes an interesting look (using a case study approach) at how unschoolers use and view media is almost a bonus in addition to the refreshing perspective on unschooling in general.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, unschoolers don’t like to be studied. But this is a little different, because it’s not unschoolers’ educational or social “outcomes” that are being tracked; rather it’s a look at unschoolers’ interactive practices with media. It’s only been a few months since I participated in an online debate where I cited home/unschoolers’ use of the internet as a type of “professional development” for parents. The non-homeschoolers made fun of me, strongly doubting the serious value of such networking. Bertozzi makes my case far better than I did.

Valerie mentioned this thesis on NewsComm a while back, after Bertozzi’s work was featured on one of her MIT professor’s blogs back in July. Now that I’ve read some actual excerpts, I hope the parts I haven’t read demonstrate a similar understanding and attempt to illuminate unschooling.

Posted by Jeanne Faulconer

Education Week News, Bethesda, Maryland, 19 December 2006, Unschooling’ Stresses Curiosity More Than Traditional Academics

As yellow school buses rumble through Nicole Puckett’s Spokane, Wash., neighborhood, her eight children are often asleep in bed. When they wake up, instead of heading to school, they go downstairs to begin another day of “unschooling,” an educational approach that is the subject of much debate among home-schoolers and traditional school advocates.

If it’s one thing I don’t see much of any more on the homeschooling discussion lists I’m on, it’s “debate” about unschooling. Unschoolers seem to do their thing, and everyone else does theirs. Most of the interaction between list-members focuses on resource sharing, and daily logistics, not how everyone else learns at home, although hints do come out in conversation.

The article has a large, pleasant selection of unschooling vignettes, and quotes from unschooling advocates such as Patrick Farenga and Sandra Dodd, as well as homeschooling advocate Brian Ray. Still, the whispering voice of doubt is woven through from top to bottom.

• Risks Involved But critics, including some of those who opt for more-structured home schooling and proponents of “child centered” classrooms in regular schools, say that there are risks involved, and that learning deficits can result from letting children basically learn whatever they want.
• Of course, those from more traditional education circles worry that such free-form education could make it difficult for a child to adjust as an adult to the more structured world of college or work.
• But some educators, even within the home-schooling world, argue that unschooling can leave children with a lopsided education.
• Mr. Kohn said “there’s no question that unschooling leaves behind most of the bad stuff in a lot of schools. The question is whether some good stuff or potential good stuff is missing.”

Then there is just a hint of a sneer.

The term “unschooling” was coined by the late John Holt, one of the godfathers of the home-schooling movement, who wrote a stack of books about alternative ways of educating children.

Nothing you can actually put your finger on, but the scent lingers.

With the progress through society of the professionally-unproctored experiment of not only homeschooling but also unschooling, I have to wonder if the officials see this social experiment in the same light as the professionally overseen experiments in classroom teaching in schools?

Exam question: Is it one thing to have professionals conduct social experiments, but another for the people involved in the actual living to do so? Compare and contrast.

My sister and I, both the subjects of never-professionally-repaired elementary school classroom experiments in math instruction, and who still both find manipulating numbers a challenge, have strong opinions on the subject. Dad worked in Air Force comptroller offices, and was later a bookkeeper, so our innumeracy wasn’t wholly genetic (if that can be a factor). In our homeschooling talks together, she and I wonder if we would have had better checkbook balancing skills if Dad had been given the job of teaching us math (yes, I had business math in high school, as well as algebra and geometry).

It is nice that Education Week noticed unschooling and published a report on it, but one has to wonder if the magazine had existed when the public schooling experiment began, would writers have labeled it risky, too? Or even in today’s hothouse success climate with young people under the educational microscope, is less formal schooling even considered something valuable? Probably not: “Paying Attention Earlier On”.

posted by Valerie