As always, when I read an article about unschooling, it's more interesting to read the raw comments that follow. Take for instance
Libby Anne's little ditty about her unschooling concerns. Her evangelical turned atheist view of the world intrigues me. Apparently she was homeschooled in a strict Evangelical Christian home and has now forsaken that upbringing to become a feminist/atheist/progressive homeschooling mom.
What's important here is not Libby's opinion or the comments. What's important is the bigger picture of how parents are approaching homeschooling, unschooling and education in general. For decades and generation after generation, many parents have instructed their children in the only fashion they know how. They were schooled so they think they need to school their children by providing huge amounts of structure, including text books, schedules, assessments, team sports, educationese and gobs of busywork.
The bigger picture is how long will it take for parents and our culture to stop mimicking the public schools and start building a society of truly educated people. The past 20 to 30 years of homeschooling cannot compete with a public school system that has been in place since 1635 and is still going strong. Granted, the public schools of today are money sucking, debased hell holes and parents are taking their children out of them in droves, but they still reign supreme in the minds of politicians and those who have a stake in them.
It will take time for homeschooling to find its stride. Sure, we'd all like to close down the public schools, send everyone home and give everyone their money back, then reopen them as free and independent learning centers minus political and union influence. Meanwhile, in my humble opinion, any form of homeschooling or unschooling is valid, providing we are doing the best we can with what little education we received at the hands of government schools.
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