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June 2011 Moms
Sunidaze
member
s/o the schooling
Sunidaze
member
First of all, never before had heard of unschooling and not sure this is something I could ever get behind from the brief description provided below. Someone care to explain it in a bit more detail so that I'm not giving serious side eye to someone even considering this?
Second...those of you that would or are considering the private school option...would you do boys only/girls only or coed? I had never previously been on board with segregating the sexes, but I think more and more, at least when she is in high school, this is the route that we will take.
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Re: s/o the schooling
Here's what wikipedia has to say about it.
I like to find the balance between my hippier theories/ways of life and the more modern practice. Unschooling may be a bit to hippy for me. lol
I never heard of unschooling before today too. I read a brief wikipedia description, but if I have time later I will try to do research with a more reputable source.
As for girl/boy private school, there are two very popular all-boys schools in Cleveland. One of the schools has a national reputation. Both of the all-boys schools are pricey. If I have a way to pay the tuition someday and DS wants to go to school there (once he's old enough to make that decision) then I will send him to the all-boys school.
I always thought it would be weird because the students wouldn't have any interaction with the oppostie sex. But my friends that went to all-girls and all-boys schools said they would have mixers together (in high school) and socialized a lot at church functions.
I can get behind learning through natural experiences because I personally learn the best from "doing" rather than reading or listening. However, I think humans need to learn to sit and focus on something, even if it is uninteresting to them. KWIM? How will you ever learn to sit still and pay attention if you've never sat through a reading lesson or math class?
Not to sound harsh, but as a teacher, I think its kind of ridiculous. Yes, your child may get excited about school, learn about what he/she wants, etc, but that is not what life is about. I hated math, but I needed to learn it bc I need it to be a functioning adult, kwim? Even in college, you have "core classes" that you have to take before you can get into your specific major classes/aka the fun classes. I just don't see the point in letting your kids have things their way when life isn't like that. I hate doing dishes, I hate taking out the trash, paying bills, doing laundry, but that is what life is about sometimes- doing things you don't want to so that you can reap the rewards later.
To be fair, I don't know too much about unschooling, but it just sounds like setting your kid up for unrealistic expectations to me. I have taught many kids who were "homeschooled" in some way, and they were usually very, very, behind. I think parents can be excellent teachers, but it requires MUCH work that most parents don't take the time to do.
I don't know if youre a newbie or a regular with a new screenname...but I think I love you.
bahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! rofl
Re the coed versus segregated private school - the school that we're looking at is coed. I have seen some of the research supporting segregated schooling, but I think that school is not just about learning in the classroom, but about learning to relate/compete/communicate with a wider spectrum of society.
interesting... many of the home schooled children i know have gone into the public highschools and been placed either a full grade ahead or in advanced classes. in those cases the parents had an education background, so maybe that helped?
our kids will be going to the quaker school that DH teaches at. it's co-ed. we'll decide on highschool when the time comes, but i'm not too keen on our public highschools here. i would absolutely consider homeschooling if we couldn't afford tuition, but again, DH is in the education field.
as for "unschooling" a friend of ours did something similar with her child (who has transitioned into public highschool beautifully) with arts. i think it depends on the child, but that's my feeling on education in general. each kid is different and might need to learn differently.
I know someone who is doing it (I posted in the post below) and basically whatever the kid wants to do that day they do. The problem I see with that is (take my oldest son for example) he LOVES trains, all he wants to do all day is trains, and if I let him he would play trains, trains and more trains. When would he learn letters, numbers, to read or write? Are you really going to tell me that you would let your child be illiterate because they are not curious about letters by the age of 8?
What if your child sees a chainsaw, and says, mommy, I want to play with that?! Are you going to let them, because THAT is what they want to do today.
Maybe there is more to it than what I see, but the families that are doing it have kids that only like one or two things so far, and with a world of things out there, how can you let a child decide what they want to learn when "they don't know what they don't know" KWIM?
For private school I would weigh the school for it's values, curriculum and extra curricular activities more than if it is co-ed or not.
When we moved to the US, I started home schooling my older 4. The 2 oldest are in college now the younger 2 high school. I do a sorta unschooling.
With unschooling when they say you go with what your child is interested with that doesn't mean they don't do anything but play. Someone mentioned trains above so I will go with that.
When they show an interest in trains you teach them all about trains. How the motor works, when they were invented, types of trains. You get into everything about trains. History is then taught, science and math also since you can't really learn all about a train with out getting into all your subjects. You can even do field trips so they can go see the trains in person.
Depending on the age of the child and what they are interested you can even teach them to wood work, mechanics etc.
They do learn the cores we just don't call them Math class, or English literature.
Personally, I hate homeschooling, unschooling, one gender schools, one religion schools and one race school.
Children need to learn to interface well with differnt genders, races and people with different religious background from an early age. Non "well adjusted" kids make non "well adjsted" adults who don't mix nicely in a large and varying social enviroment (i.e. a large corporate company).
This is a good explanation of what true unschooling would look like. It is something that would take a ton of energy to do properly, and while I said in the previous post that I would love to do it, I don't know that I will have the motivation and patience when the time comes.
I love the theory behind unschooling. When you look at the history of our education system and the goals in developing our current system, it is a bit concerning. Traditional schooling takes kindergardeners who are so excited to read and learn all this interesting stuff and turns them into kids who see learning as a chore.
I teach in a private school, and I have had homeschooled and unschooled students come to us for their upper level math and science before going into university and I have seen that they are much more inquisitive students. They look for connections between content and subjects, they ask questions, and they are genuinely curious and engaged.
I have definitely seen homeschooling gone wrong, too. I think a homeschooling parent would have so much work cut out for them. Especially in making sure their kid has the necessary social skills and getting them involved in extracurricular activities with the local public schools.
Sorry this got so long, just wanted to put in my two cents!
I am not sure where to begin with this. Where I live, the single gender schools do have mixers and various activities with other schools, the 'one religion' schools actually have a mixture of children from different religions, ethnicities, etc. (at least the catholic and lutheran schools...can't say the same for the Jewish and Muslim schools and am not sure about the Apostolic ones). But to say you 'hate' them just seems awfully...strong I guess is the word I'm looking for?
When I'm talking that we would considering sending to Stella to a private school...one for girls...this does not mean she is going to be sheltered from members of the opposite sex. I'm not sending her away to convent or something.
I know I don't hold a high opinion of homeschooling and unschooling, but part of it is from lack of knowledge. While you do seem like an intelligent person, is it possible that, like me, you lack the knowledge of the different types of education available to think otherwise about them?
And my final two cents...I work in a corporate environment. A lot of intelligent people here (much more so than me). And a lot of the 'locally grown' employees we have hired went attended one of the catholic high schools that were either all boys or all girls. Same at another large corporate I worked for in town. Where I live, the catholic schools (and an ultra private day school) offer the best choices in education.
I completely understand making lesson plans revolving around trains (sorry I didn't make that clearer above) Having different activities relating to how they were invented, why they were needed, what they were used for etc (my six year old can explain the differences between a steam engine and a diesel engine and how they work), but what do you do when you've taught them all about trains and they don't have a new interest?
If you aren't allowed to "force" your ideas on them how do you introduce the "cores" if they aren't interested in them?
This was my initial thought as well. I haven't done any research, nor will I as I don't see ever going this route, and maybe I'm wrong about the experience, but IMO it almost sounds like it could "hinder" the educational process of a child. I strongly feel that children (anyone really), needs to experience the differences in life to fully understand the world around them.
Heck public schools can hinder a child's learning just as much as homeschooling/unschooling. Also unless you live in a box out in the middle of the no where kids will be socialized. The parks are a social setting, churches, sports can be done just as much with homeschoolers. Many schools allow parents to enroll home schooled kids in sports/music.
If you ask any college their policy about homeschoolers you will learn that they have very good results of kids who do very well in college. The college setting is similar to the home school setting. So they tend to do well, just because they are home schooled doesn't make them less likely to get a great job.
Just like everything you have great public schools/home schools and you have crappy public schools/home school. Also not every child is Albert Einstein, some kids are meant to be a welder/mechanic heck some kids might only be a doctor oh the horror. But I guess someone has to do it.
As for unschooled some ppl do take it to the extreme and I'm sure we only really see the bad parts in that situation.
Sorry every time I try to add to my post it never adds it.
Ok with also with unschooling when the child stay focused on one thing and you don't want to push them to something they aren't interested, that is when you get creative. I don't have any examples atm cause I'm multi tasking as it is. Another thing is that sometimes it just takes longer for them to finish that grade. That is usually how I seen it work. So one year the child may take 6m to finish the 1st grade and the 2nd grade may take 2yrs type of thing. That tends to happen with the younger kids not so much teens but its not unheard of.
But I'm not a strictly an unschooler, I just follow some of their ideas.
I'll try to keep this short to clear up a few things about unschooling.
Like pp said for example trains, you then pour lots of information about trains how they work history etc. Count the cars on the train add and subtract cars as they learn new things about the trains they may start for example be interested in steam trains which gets them into steam and water and how water evaporates leading to atmosphere etc.... Or they might like how trains move on rails want to find out how they are made get interested in steel and iron making etc as they learn about something that started so simple as trains they have moved into geography, math, science, history, and many other topics I am sure I have missed.
Also you need to be willing to help them get that information do field trips etc also here we have a huge Homeschool network where people get together and do group trips, share knowledge of other parents do classes etc
They end up with the social side easily,
Many who Homeschool find there passions early for example one girl loved horses learned about them their sports her parents got her involved with a local stable where she got hands on experience, learned about training and has started training horses herself and is started her career as a horse trainer.... She has tons of skills for her passion that has lead her to a career
Unschoolers who get to follow their interests pick the topic do also get chores take after school sports etc that they learn patience, respect etc
Think back when you were a kid if you were given resources for your interest would you perhaps have that as your career and loving it? And be better at it than someone who hasn't learnt as in depth information as you had
OK ending this here as this has now gotten long