I just read this great article that a friend had linked to on her facebook. It's called
Schooling: The Hidden Agenda
by Daniel Quinn
I thought I'd share it as it explains unschooling alot more eloquently than I ever have...:)
Here's a brief snippet but you can read the whole article here
Schooling: The Hidden Agenda - The Natural Child Project
The need for schooling is bolstered by two well-entrenched pieces of cultural mythology. The first and most pernicious of these is that children will not learn unless they're compelled to - in school. It is part of the mythology of childhood itself that children hate learning and will avoid it at all costs. Of course, anyone who has had a child knows what an absurd lie this is. From infancy onward, children are the most fantastic learners in the world. If they grow up in a family in which four languages are spoken, they will be speaking four languages by the time they're three or four years old - without a day of schooling, just by hanging around the members of their family, because they desperately want to be able to do the things they do.
3 comments:
I particularly like this bit, I suppose because this is where my daughter is at:
"Working on the kindergarten and first-grade programs, I observed something that I thought was truly remarkable. In these grades, children spend most of their time learning things that no one growing up in our culture could possibly avoid learning. For example, they learn the names of the primary colors. Wow, just imagine missing school on the day when they were learning blue. You'd spend the rest of your life wondering what color the sky is. They learn to tell time, to count, and to add and subtract, as if anyone could possibly fail to learn these things in this culture."
This thought always pops into my head when people make snide remarks about our unschooling decision.
Thanks for the link!
I loved that bit too Kel...it made me laugh out loud that this ficticious kid might go through life not knowing the colour blue.
I have happened upon your blog through the blogvine. It has informed me so much....love learning about Wwoofing and Austrailia. Also the fact that no matter where we are in this world, education is still a topic of ponder for parents. Up until now, I have felt like it was only the American standards of education that were messed up. Our children cyber school which is still a part of "public education" in the States but enables them to be home based. It is a good balance for us.
Looking forward to learning new things~Happy Summer!
Faith
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