Monday, November 27, 2006
UNSCHOOLING??? I am putting this one out there to encourage discussion. Check out this article in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/education/26unschool.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th It talks about a growing trend in the homeschool crowd called "Unschooling" which the article defines as: "a philosophy that is broadly defined by its rejection of the basic foundations of conventional education, including not only the schoolhouse but also classes, curriculums and textbooks." Now I realize that this country's public education system is pretty messed up and is turning out kids that can't read, can't write and can't do basic math and I am a strong believer that people will probably put forth more effort to learn about something that they are interested in but my knee jerk reaction is that this trend towards "unschooling" may be going too far. (if you were paying attention, you probably have figured out I never learned about run on sentences in public school, or maybe I just chose to not pay attention during that lesson plan). Give me your thoughts.
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7 comments:
Hi pwny,
I don't know you but I'll take this opportunity to trample all over your blog comments anyway. My wife spent three years at a public elementary school in Illinois with a teacher who basically set up a school-year long role playing curriculum. One year the students would pretend they were craftspeople in pre-industrial revolution England, and the next they would be explorers, on their way from North America to Asia by boat, with a long stopover in Hawaii. The teacher set up the curriculum to capture all of the material they were supposed to be learning, but it was done in such a way that each student had an active role to play in learning the material as well as sharing their areas of "expertise" with their classmates.
The experience made a deep and long lasting impression on my wife, and, in fact, she just returned to Illiois last spring at the invitation of that teacher to spend a week with the current group of students. The teacher has been widely recognized for her innovative contributions to teaching.
Anyway, I think the parents behind "unschooling" are taking a big risk by withholding their children from anything like a "conventional" education in favor of a totally unproven alternative. At the same time, I don't think society should try to ban people from taking these sorts of risks; it's their choice and if they think the risk is worth it, they will probably feel pretty bad if it backfires.
I personally am a believer that as citizens and taxpayers, we have a vested interest in making sure that the public school system works, and being proactive about making it better, rather than running away from it entirely.
Anon: I don't want my call for discussion to be misinterpreted as anti-home-schooling or anything like that or that I am against thinking outside the box when it comes to education. Far from it.
In fact, I have helped introduce and teach a program in a local school system that is somewhat similar to the one you have described. This particular program uses Adventure Education in the PE class to promote and strengthen physical fitness and wellness. The construct that we use is preparing for a major climbing expedition to climb Denali. As part of their preparation they have to excercise outside of school and keep a journal describing their activities. Although the main point of the unit is to promote lifetime fitness and get the kids thinking about excercise, we also touch on other subjects: math (how much fuel do you need to take if you use "x" liters of fuel/ person/ day?) history (history of exploration on the mountain; why it is known as Denali and McKinley?), first aid, map and compass work, geology (how do mountains form?), geography (where is it?). Team work, trust and communication are also stressed in the unit.
So my point is that I am all for this type of curriculum and the type of curriculum you described that your wife helped teach. If I am reading this article correctly, "unschooling" is a technique where no curriculum is used and the kids decide what they want to learn and when they want to learn it. That seems like a slick slope to me.
Hi again,
Sorry if my comment came across as confrontational. When I said "trample," I was more trying to make fun of myself for butting into your blog for the first time with such a long comment.
The PE program you describe sounds really awesome. It encourages kids to take real ownership of their education. I can also see the case "unschoolers" could make for their concept having the same effect. But as my wife and I discussed last night at dinner, try selling such an education, which -- not so much lacking standards, but rejecting them -- to a college admissions officer. Of course, it's hard to imagine this type of anti-establishment attitude embracing the idea of a college education anyway, but to me, that seems like a way to really short-change the opportunities available to the kid, who is supposed to the one benefited by this approach.
BTW, my name is Bryce and I race bikes.
Sundt is home schooled. I've been trying to "Un-school" him for years. It has been a slippery slope indeed.
Good to meet you Bryce and thanks for Posting.
To AD: aah that slippery Sundt slope...
To the defense of my parents decision to home school my siblings and I. I am the "black sheep" of the family, and my brothers are quite well educated despite not going to a single day of public school. One is a Lawyer with his own practise, and the other teaches our military how to speak and understand Arabic. Our parents let us choose our own path in life, and offered the help they could. and I will fight any school teacher who disses them.
I think we found the chink in Cat's armor.
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