Mom Is Teaching

So, following up with what I posted before regarding unschooling.  I want to make sure I present you with as many details as I can find.  Here are a few of the criticisms that I found of unschooling (and my comments).  Some of those include:

• That many children lack the foresight to learn the things they need to know as adults.  (That’s why the educator has to be a facilitator or coach, no just leave the children to run willy nilly)
• Gaps may appear in a child’s education unless a professional controls the material that is covered. (Again, if the educator is there in place, facilitating is done, regardless of how.)
• Schools tend to have a ready-made source of peers and children who do not go to conventional schools may not make friends and develop social skills as well as their peers.  (This is a major concern for me since Walker is such a social kid in the first place.  I know that most homeschoolers have a network with which they share educational experiences and the children have plenty of time to interact.  This is one place where my concern remains though as my son thrives in situations where many people are involved and public school has by all means afforded him that.  And, public school peers with no parents veering over their shoulder have an opportunity to present themselves in a way that isn’t dictated by a parent or authority figure all the time, thus my child as more of an opportunity to learn from his peers.  I know that learning from “peers” is one of the major downfalls as well, and that’s where it is the family lives that can help predict the pro’s and con’s of what a child might learn and in effect still guide their own child.)
• Schools offer a diverse group of adults and students making it easier to expose the children to different cultures, socio-economic groups and worldviews. (Again, where I live, even in the public school, this is a fairly controlled situation for the majority of the situations.  Most people would be surprised to learn that I attended an all white school my entire 12 years of school.  And, the schools that I attended are still exactly that, all white.  Therefore the multi-cultural influence was basically non-existent for me, important?  Yes, it should be, but it simply wasn’t and still isn’t happening where we live.)
• Children are not motivated to learn anything and will spend all of their time in un-educational endeavors if not coerced into doing otherwise. (This is precisely what we were discussing yesterday, children are begging to learn, they are always seeking knowledge of some kind.)
• Not all parents are able to provide a stimulating environment or have the skills and patience required to encourage the student’s curiosity. (And, all public school teachers do? I am living proof that this is the case, I graduated and taught but I simply didn’t have what it took, yet I managed to get there.  I was just fortunate enough to have the support system to bail out of it where some teachers don’t and continue to teach in systems everywhere and no one every tells them, “hey, you don’t have what it takes, you aren’t doing a very good job and you  need to move on.” Once a teacher gets tenure, you can basically forget it, no matter how good or how bad, they are going to continue to teach.)
• The lack of accreditation and diploma’s may make it difficult for a child to get into college or get a job. (I don’t think this is as big of an issue as it once was with all the programs out there available to the parents/students of homeschooled or unschooled.)
• Children who direct their own educations may not ever learn to take direction from others. (I do have to admit that this one concerns me as well.  The reason being that so many children will balk at authority figures even when they are accustom to having someone give direction daily, it can only be worse if a child is left to only take direction from their parents.  Wait, that’s just my personal opinion on that last one.)

So, as you can see, I’m fairly easily swayed from one way to another depending on the issues at hand.  And basically, the only thing that proves is that no one system is better than the other, they all have their pro’s just as they all their con’s. 

The best we can hope for is that parents and educators are able to read the mind’s and personalities of the children around them and help make good decisions for them.

Who knew mind reading was such a big part of education?