A number of families in the United States are beginning to try a radically new and different approach to teaching their children at home. It’s called “Unschooling” and it involves doing absolutely nothing to curb your child’s insane wants. If your child wants it, give it to him/her. If she wants to learn it, do everything you can to encourage him/her in that direction. If he/she hates math and never wants to see a number ever again, that’s ok too! It’s the path to success say some parents. I’d like to see a few of these kids in about 10 years time.
Thanks Pam!
Please don’t judge unschooling, or the Martin family, based on the recent mainstream media coverage. The Nightline story — as well as the similar Good Morning America piece that preceded it — was biased to the extreme, grossly misrepresenting and oversimplifying unschooling philosophy. The selective editing and prejudiced commentary purposely skewed everything to be as shocking as possible.
Both Dayna Martin and the mother interviewed by GMA (Christine Yablonski) wrote blog posts about their experiences with those shows; the posts are extremely informative, especially regarding what was edited out. Their blogs are also an excellent way to get to know the families better “first hand”. :-)
“Nightline Truth”
http://thesparklingmartins.blogspot.com/2010/06/nightline-truth.html
“What we wish the media shared about us…”
http://livingtheunschoolinglife.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-we-wish-media-shared-about-us.html
BTW, since you’re curious about how unschoolers turn out, there are MANY successful unschoolers living in the adult world! :) You can read several interviews with “Unschooled Grows Ups” here: http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Unschooled%20grows%20up.
Another interview is here: “Unschooling: An Interview with Everett Bogue” http://ontopthecage.com/unschooling-an-interview-with-everett-bogue