Influencers neglecting their kids and modern trends are important to be aware of. I'd never heard of unschooling, and TBH, I'm pretty suspicious of something that seems to be about not educating people's kids (there's no plan, apparently waiting on the kids to magically become interested in stuff they could not possibly know exists). This is to me obviously different than homeschooling, where you're still intending to teach your kids.
I'm actually also pretty suspicious of homeschooling just because I tend to think education is a skilled profession, and while there are some exceptions that prove the rule, the vast majority of the time I'd like an expert to do things that are important, complicated and difficult. It's also a full time job, and most people I know have both parents working full time, so when exactly are they going to teach their kids? Weeknights and weekends only, around everything else they need to do during that time? Sounds like unschooling with more rationalizations to me.
I'll be one of the first to admit there are issues with the school systems - but I think there are good things too. Things that are really easy to miss with untrained people trying to go it alone no matter how many good intentions they have. Most of the fixes I've seen for things like socialization, sports, learning trees, and more advanced subjects are re-creating schools with less resources and more limited exposure to different groups of people.
I'd suggest putting some effort into improving the public schools if it was me - let's make things better for everyone and share the load in terms of cost.
As to being degrading - I disagree - it's calling out someone who's posting this as a way to do things that is horrible IMO. If you don't want to be judged, don't be an influencer? And why would moderators block discussing an interesting public video? Instead of calling for blocking or removal from Youtube, why not explain what you see that we're missing from the video? Explain why you support "teaching" being 'wait for a kid to randomly ask a question, but not when the parent is "busy making a video", and why going to the store and saying to a kid "pick the cheapest one" when you haven't apparently taught them how to read'. Etc.
“Explain why you support "teaching" being 'wait for a kid to randomly ask a question, but not when the parent is "busy making a video", and why going to the store and saying to a kid "pick the cheapest one" when you haven't apparently taught them how to read'. Etc .”
I do NOT support what is in the tic tock video for sure, just as I don’t support poor education in any method. But to be fair, there are those who do a good job unschooling. It is degrading to use one video as a true representation of a particular method as a whole. Here is an article that I hope all those unfamiliar with unschooling will read…it’s a study done on how unschoolers turned out….good to know, as all students deserve a good education and foundation for life after high school age.
Unschoolers weigh in on how their lives have evolved, including college, career, and overall happiness.
www.kqed.org
And I don’t have a lot of time, but I quick found a video made by an actual unschooled student who obviously does it differently than what was represented in the tic tock video first posted….now, you can’t judge a whole group by just one video but as you will see, there are requirements for each state which he articulates well for a young man still in school. As you can see, there are many ways to learn in life. And rest assured, there are regulations.
I don’t think it would be right to judge all private schools or public schools or even homeschooled or unschooled forms of education based off of a tic tock video. It would not be a true representation of each particular means of education as a whole. And you said you had not heard of unschooling….hopefully now you will be able to see that if done properly, with parents who care and guide their students without the constraints of a set curriculum(which for some, can be rigid and leave kids behind, which we see in the school systems, sadly), but with the freedom to learn as much as possible from extensive reading, research, travel, outside or online classes on different subjects to develop further into it, seeking out professionals in the field of observation in order to learn from firsthand experience, etc, etc, that it can indeed be a good education with positive outcomes.
I remember watching a television series on genius kids preparing for the national spelling bee or something to that extent. One of the boys was unschooled, and he was so smart and kind. But he had parents that cared. As you will read in the article, there are unschoolers that go on to Ivy’s, huge universities, smaller liberal arts colleges, etc, etc. and some continue on to higher degrees. And there are those who do not go on to further their education, just as there are in any form of schooling. And there are good teachers and there are bad teachers….parents, too. As I said before, there is no perfect school system, because no teacher or student is perfect, so there are flaws in all. The point is that ALL children deserve a great education with parents and teachers who care. And it is important not to judge all by just a few.
And different countries educate differently, too…not all countries begin formal schooling as early as institutional schools in the US. For example, here is something interesting….
“Finland, a country the size of Minnesota, beats the U.S. in math, reading and science, even though Finnish children don't start school until age 7. Despite the late start, the vast majority arrive with solid reading and math skills.“
