Unschooling concept

[Avrham]

Children and people do not need to be taught to learn. For example, a baby may be guided to reach developmental milestones but they do it in their own time. You can't force them to learn things before they are ready. Same it is with older children.

"If he's not interested it's like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating."

Have you heard of unschooling? What do you think of it?

[pam]

I've never heard of the concept of unschooling. Except in cases where people have been brainwashed.

[Avrham]

With radical unschooling I'd imagine it impossible to be brainwashed as it requires no teacher - brainwashing yourself?!!! . You are responsible for your own learning.

What happens in schools


What is radical unschooling?

[pam]

Let me ask this. Do you believe in unschooling? Frankly I was appalled at the message presented in the 2nd link.

[Avrham]

Yes I do believe in unschooling could you explain what you find appalling about the 2nd link would like to hear you thoughts

[pam]

The idea that parents should not be in control of their children by providing limits for them. The speaker argued about something as simple as bed time. That children would find their own natural limits. I totally disagree with this.

[Avrham]

Originally Posted by pam

The idea that parents should not be in control of there children by providing limits for them. The speaker argued about something as simple as bed time. That children would find their own natural limits. I totally disagree with this.

yes it seems like a hard concept to understand but do you believe that children need to be controlled or do you/parents trust their kids especially about bedtime or eating do you tell the kids you must eat all this or do you let kids decide how much they need to eat Do you disagree with the idea that kids can know their own natural limits just really interested in your opinon

[pam]

You know..I'm not going to defend my right to raise my kids the way I do/did. I believe kids need limits. I believe that we as parents need to set those limits. If one of those limits is 9:00 bedtime..then we as a parent have a right to do that. Whether that's right or wrong isn't for anyone else to say. It's what is right for me and what I feel is right for my children.

What I found ridiculous was the way the woman in that video kept comparing children to her spouse. Would I set a timeframe for watching tv for a spouse? No. Would I for my children? Yes.

And no I never made my kids eat everything. The rule was they at least had to try it if it was something new.

[Loudmouth_Mormon]

Yes, I've heard about unschooling.

No, I'm not a big fan. Got no problem with people who like it, but it's not for us.

LM

[Jenamarie]

Unschooling, to me, is learning something when you want to learn it, and not waiting for a teacher or someone else to hand you that lesson. At least, that is how we present it to our children (they're in public school currently, but will be coming home next school year, and we'll be doing a bit of non-radical unschooling, in addition to more structured learning for subjects like math and language arts). For me, it's following my kids' interests, rather than dictating them to them.

For example: when setting up a science curriculum for my kids, if they want to learn about ocean animals, then we'll check out a bunch of books and movies about ocean animals from the library. It won't matter to me if the kids their age in public school are learning about weather patterns in their science class because that's what the state-approved curriculum dictates. I imagine at some point they'll get really interested in the shapes clouds can make, and that will spark an interest, and they can learn about it then.

I agree with the marshmellow analogy a bit. Do you remember those moments in school when you were bored to tears by what the teacher was teaching? Do you remember a word of what was being taught during those times? How about when what the teacher was covering was something you really enjoyed, like dinosaurs or thunderstorms, how much do you remember? Probably a lot more? That's unschooling. Being aware of your child's interests and inborn curriosity, and then feeding it.