[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

'I saw the show and it was not "manipulative" at all IMO. The father of the children had hated school as a child and was a HS dropout. The only answer the mother gave to any of Dr. Phil's concerns was "whatever the children want". In her case, I got the impression that the inmates were definitely running the asylum.'

Using a couple like this as "representative" of the Unschooling approach to home education is like taking a pedophile teacher as "representative" of public school teachers. If you find such a selection of your "representative" unmanipulative, fine, but I think the good Dr.'s thumb is firmly on the scale.

[srmorton]

I guess I did not think it was manipulative because for me it was informative. Before that show, I did not know that there was such a thing as "unschooling" as opposed to home schooling. I think the average parent would not be as successful with this approach as they would with the traditional home school method. It seems to me that some children could end up running pretty wild without some sort of plan. The success of this method would totally depend on the parents and the children involved. I'm not saying that it could not or does not work in some cases.