Posted on 01/28/2006 7:49:24 AM PST by Clintonfatigued
Call me crazy, but letting kids school themselves sounds like a bad idea.
This is an offshoot of the hoomeschooling movement which is gaining support. There are differing views on it, but it's essentially a detox of the public school experience before going on to homeschooling, rather than making the transition immediately and abruptly.
It seems to be most beneficial to children who have been subjected to extensive bullying and/or unfair teachers.
My poor son. He didn't get any time off. I figured since he had been on vacation for 5 years that it was time to hit the books.
It seems to be most beneficial to children who have been subjected to extensive bullying and/or unfair teachers.
This is one reason to deschool. Another is if you have a very gifted child, and they seriously need some down time, Or you will lose them all together. Usually, there IS some homeschooling involved.
Deschooling, or unschooling, as it used to be called, has always seemed impractical to me. (I homeschooled for 8 years.)
If you happen to live in a state where you know your child will need to be tested each year to show they are at "grade level," I don't know how you could just sit back and let the child "choose" their own course.
In certain subjects, history, reading, and science, I did follow my son's lead on what we taught each year. But on math, grammar, and writing, it's just like many things in life, a discipline that must be learned, whether you want to or not.
This sounds like the kind of crap they teach in ed schools.
I'm considering home schooling my oldest son(youngest isn't in school yet). He is ADHD and stuggling so bad, and no he is not medicated, although he may end up being, i haven't decided. Anyhow, his teacher can't fuction with him in her class and I feel my son's self esteem is so low and he feels like no one likes him in his class. I hate that and don't want that for him. Both my sister home school their kids and I'm considering just yanking my son out and see how homeschool goes for a while. He needs some one on one attn and more focus.
What a bunch of crapola this is. No wonder why kids are so screwed up today.
This sounds like what they are given in a public school. Bad idea......
Yeah, right - the ed schools teach teachers to "let go" and "let the child direct his own education."
Did you ever wonder why 90+ percent of first graders think that they are good learners, and that 90+ percent of high schooler think they are NOT?
I thnk what this overlooks is that only children with certain types of learning styles will do well in this environment. The gifted child with the ability to teach himself may thrive - but others require a more structured learning experience. I like the idea of "unschooling" in principle, since it's essentially what I did for myself while learning nothing of consequence in school during my final eight years or so. But it won't work for all children.
I know someone who was unschooled very well, a US soldier who was in one of the first to go to Iraq. I know another studying in the IVY league. I don't think either has dragged the HS movement down but the NEA and the Dems would like to smear the HS movement and use this modus operandi of homeschooling to vilify everyone involved. The whole idea is to renew the natural curiosity and joie de vie in learning while allowing healing. When the public schools fail, there are plenty of walking wounded.
Did you ever wonder why young kids are so eager to learn stuff, and public-schooled teenagers have to be bribed / threatened / cajoled?
Is it possible, just possible, that schooling, as it exists now, crushes the desire to learns stuff out of you?
Then you don't understand what "unschooling is".
We homeshcool and maybe I can shed a little light here. A child seems to learn a lot better when they are interested in a subject. For instance, our daughter is nuts over the prairie days and settlers. You can let her take off on this subject and bring in aspects of each traditional school subject in relation to this topic. For example, reading is accomplished by reading materials related to the subject. History is a given - but so is civics and geography. You can teach math using this as a backdrop in creating examples. You can teach literature by using books about the period in history. Grammer and spelling can be taught using examples from this area of interest.
The idea is to break down the structure and give a little more freedom to teach what needs to be learned by using areas of interest of the child. Another type of unschooling that we have used in unit studies. We used the Little House books as a basis for unit studies. Once again, we were able to teach a variety of subjects using the books as a backdrop.
I hope this makes sense. But, it has been very effective for us to use a curriculum for each child that has a lot of room for what interests each child. It's just easier to teach an interest kid.
She recommends a "vacation" after withdrawing from school, as a "detox" mechanism.
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