Just when I thought we couldn't get stupider - actively making kids ignorant apparently is a ticktok trend

[jp10558]

 

[Cornell]

I have joined a Facebook group called “Radical Unschooling” which is for parents who raise their kids like this.

I’m not one of them : just wanting to learn about this movement.

It’s pretty shocking TBH.

 

[PigsDad]

Yeah, the forehead tattoo told me all I needed to know about the "great" idea.

Kurt

 

[dioxide45]

Sounds like a way to bring up a child who won't be able to read nor write as an adult.

 

[jp10558]

I love how even in most of the comments there about it basically being abuse via neglect - there's a couple "All you need to know is reading and writing and maybe basic arithmetic". Or the "teaching how to shop" in the video of "you want the cheapest one". Even if a 6 year old could really understand that concept when not going to school or having a teaching plan at home, it's still mostly wrong for all sorts of obvious reasons to people ... with a little education, and to people with any life experience.

1) per unit pricing and expected storage and use compared to how long the product is likely to last.
2) Usually the cheapest one is also the worst possible example of a given product. Very often you absolutely don't want the cheapest one because you want the thing to be at least competent in what it does.

I also just think that even the guided online schooling much weaker educational advancement during COVID basically proves that as bad as the educational system is generally - it's loads better than "kidz teach themselves".

It's also a huge example of dunning-kruger and likely that the mom isn't exactly top of the barrel in educational attainment or brains given the content. With that as the example to follow, I expect it'd be lucky if that kid could even manage to do ticktocks like his mom at the end of this "schooling".

 

[jeffox]

It's almost as if foreign countries have an interest in a stupid America and have been pushing memes and ideas online to achieve their goals.

 

[rickandcindy23]

We were in a department store, Denver Dry, my daughter was about 10, and she heard two women talking about what they would pay with the 40% discount being offered on the rack of dresses. She was astounded at the not-so-educated guesses at the bottomline price. She walked around, looked at the price tag of the dress and told them exactly what the dress would cost. The women were amazed. She explained that the $60 dress would be $36 and told them how she did the math. It was hilarious. She was ten!

 

[easyrider]

It's almost as if foreign countries have an interest in a stupid America and have been pushing memes and ideas online to achieve their goals.

It's almost in line with conspiracy theory but it seems you are right about tic Tok, imo. Add in legal marijuana stores, government sponsored hard drug programs, lax laws on crime, universal income, right becomes wrong, wrong becomes right, dogs living with cats and mass hysteria and we end up with a bunch of addicts with no attention span.

Bill

 

[Cornell]

Radical Unschooling is a movement. It’s not “caused” or a result of Tik Tok.

 

[Cornell]

One recent post in the Rad Unschool post discussed kids age 8& 10 who stay up until 5 AM & then sleep until 3 PM.

All while mom& dad are on a “traditional” wake / sleep schedule.

 

[DeniseM]

I was an avid reader as a child, and I learned a tremendous amount from reading. But math and science were not my favorites, and I would not have studied them if I had the option not to. (I liked biology, but not physical science and chemistry.) When I move from one school district to another in 4th grade, I missed a whole year of math, because the new school was a year ahead of the old school and that pretty much doomed math for me for life. Don't get me wrong, I'm good with all the basic math skills, but algebra and higher are Greek to me! In college, I took business math classes to fulfill the math requirements.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Ben Carson's autobiography is an excellent read. His mom encouraged reading, even took away the TV set, and he and his brother spent hours in the library every day. His brother is a rocket scientist, and Ben Carson is a gifted surgeon. He separated conjoined twins with a team of doctors he chose for the task. The parents were told this couldn't be done, but Ben Carson was successful. Brilliant man. He also had a miracle happen in his life that to this day he is amazed by it.

Think of what a great world this would be, if the kids turned away from the garbage and started visiting the library regularly.

 

[dioxide45]

It will be interesting what kids of today are saying 50-60 years from now about the days of the Internet and social media. How all the new stuff in the future is ruining the youth of that day and how things were so much better back in the early 2000s.

 

[klpca]

Well, kids who have parents that value education are going to run circles around these kids.

 

[davidvel]

Sadly, this is not just a trend but a mission. A mission of social media, as well as the stupid.

 

[PigsDad]

Well, kids who have parents that value education are going to run circles around these kids.

True. And those well-educated kids will eventually be paying for the "Radical Unschooled" kids' welfare checks.

Kurt

 

[jp10558]

It will be interesting what kids of today are saying 50-60 years from now about the days of the Internet and social media. How all the new stuff in the future is ruining the youth of that day and how things were so much better back in the early 2000s.

If you've never listened to Pessimists Archive podcast, it really drives home how this is a very cyclical trend. Someone has been claiming "new stuff" is the downfall of kids education since the creation of writing! We all recall the "TV parents" of the 1980s, but there was the hysteria around bicycles in the 1890s IIRC. Just the history of pearl clutching has been so regular, and so obviously stupid looking back at the last ~200 years of these things, I have real trouble getting all that worked up about "iPad kids" etc.

But that's different from straight up not doing any education.

 

[jp10558]

True. And those well-educated kids will eventually be paying for the "Radical Unschooled" kids' welfare checks.

Kurt

Well, kids who have parents that value education are going to run circles around these kids.

Well, I think automation may make education less relevant unfortunately. I hope it doesn't happen as fast as some pundits say, but I do see AI and automation is more and more removing even professional jobs. Who needs an army of paralegals when you have lexis nexus rather than physical law libraries? As the AI summaries and source finding comes more and more online, who needs more than a single lawyer to fact check the AI and present in court?

We've already deskilled a lot of medicine from nurses to aides because most of what is needed is physical moving patients around and a PA to sign off on a diagnosis / spot check stuff. As the various robots come on line, we'll end up with more like self checkouts with a watcher.

Heck, America's Best glasses no longer has an optician in my local store - just an aide who tells you where to sit and they put a machine on you and a video call with someone who must cover dozens of stores.

Offices and call centers are being condensed and eliminated with chat where one rep can do 6 chats at once, and more and more chat bots a la Amazon. Now again with the AI chat bots more and more can be automated.

My main point is - I think more and more a lack of a job will be because there simply isn't labor there to be hired to do, so "well educated kids" may well be SOL also. We see it with all the underemployed today for instance. Being educated can help, but it's far from a guarantee.

 

[VegasBella]

This is not a tiktok trend.
This is the Unschooling Movement and it's been around for decades.
I'm familiar with it because I homeschool my son (NOT unschool) and many people get the two confused.
But the people who do unschooling correctly ARE teaching their kids. It's just not as obvious to the untrained eye. To do it right takes a lot of work.
Unfortunately there are bad parents who use it as an excuse to educationally neglect their kids.

 

[Cornell]

This is not a tiktok trend.
This is the Unschooling Movement and it's been around for decades.
I'm familiar with it because I homeschool my son (NOT unschool) and many people get the two confused.
But the people who do unschooling correctly ARE teaching their kids. It's just not as obvious to the untrained eye. To do it right takes a lot of work.
Unfortunately there are bad parents who use it as an excuse to educationally neglect their kids.

Agree with all of this.

There are entire books on it.

 

[easyrider]

This is not a tiktok trend.
This is the Unschooling Movement and it's been around for decades.
I'm familiar with it because I homeschool my son (NOT unschool) and many people get the two confused.
But the people who do unschooling correctly ARE teaching their kids. It's just not as obvious to the untrained eye. To do it right takes a lot of work.
Unfortunately there are bad parents who use it as an excuse to educationally neglect their kids.

Thanks for bringing this up. I didn't know anything about unschooling until your post, which made me curious enough look it up. In our grade school, for a couple of years, we had what is called an individual education program. The student attends what ever class they feel like but has to complete the objectives of the class. It was discontinued because some students couldn't meet the objectives without the structure of regular class times.

Bill

 

[davidvel]

In our grade school, for a couple of years, we had what is called an individual education program. The student attends what ever class they feel like but has to complete the objectives of the class. It was discontinued because some students couldn't meet the objectives without the structure of regular class times.

Bill

Shocker. The adults must have never read or believed in Lord of the Flies.

 

[Lakeshore]

This is not a tiktok trend.
This is the Unschooling Movement and it's been around for decades.
I'm familiar with it because I homeschool my son (NOT unschool) and many people get the two confused.
But the people who do unschooling correctly ARE teaching their kids. It's just not as obvious to the untrained eye. To do it right takes a lot of work.
Unfortunately there are bad parents who use it as an excuse to educationally neglect their kids.

We homeschool, too….my son got a 1520 on his SAT. Homeschooled, not unschooled, but we really let him explore what he loved, and still does, while making sure he got everything he needed. The truth is how much the parents care is very high in how much the child will succeed. I am grateful we live in a country that allows for many forms of education. And unschooling can work, but it’s a HUGE responsibility for the parents to be able to nurture, provide, and guide the child.
Plus, sadly, there are many more more children struggling and lacking in this country than there are unschooled children. But ticktock and the media will focus on what they want…the media especially.
By the way, I didn’t watch the video...from the comments it would probably make me upset. All I am saying, is that ultimately, it is the PARENT’S responsibility to make sure their child is educated. We are human and make mistakes, so no system is perfect.
And, for all of us timeshare lovers and lovers of travel, this is a wonderful way to educate our children…bring history to life, walking on the grounds that they read about in their books….make it all come alive and inspire them to make the world a greater place!

 

[Cornell]

We homeschool, too….my son got a 1520 on his SAT. Homeschooled, not unschooled, but we really let him explore what he loved, and still does, while making sure he got everything he needed. The truth is how much the parents care is very high in how much the child will succeed. I am grateful we live in a country that allows for many forms of education. And unschooling can work, but it’s a HUGE responsibility for the parents to be able to nurture, provide, and guide the child.
Plus, sadly, there are many more more children struggling and lacking in this country than there are unschooled children. But ticktock and the media will focus on what they want…the media especially.
By the way, I didn’t watch the video...from the comments it would probably make me upset. All I am saying, is that ultimately, it is the PARENT’S responsibility to make sure their child is educated. We are human and make mistakes, so no system is perfect.
And, for all of us timeshare lovers and lovers of travel, this is a wonderful way to educate our children…bring history to life, walking on the grounds that they read about in their books….make it all come alive and inspire them to make the world a greater place!

Respect.
There are many ways to educate kids.

 

[Lakeshore]

Okay, just watched five minutes of the video, and wonder why this was posted…it’s very sad. Obviously, it was made with a huge slant on many levels. Can’t believe it’s still up. To the original poster...why did you post this? And to the moderators, why is it allowed? It’s so degrading To those who really are working hard to best educate their children...and there are many ways. And there are many ways our children are failed in education…not just by what is presented in this video.