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Originally Posted by mr dave
so... how is that going to prepare a young person for the working reality of doing what the job needs you to do as opposed to doing what your ego wants to do? it's the same logic that has people trying to validate wearing pajamas to the office.
i'm not a fan of watching articles so here's the text version if anyone is interested - Unschooling: Homeschooling Without Books, Tests or Classes - ABC News
on one hand i totally agree that there needs to be an overhaul to the public education system in north america (i'm only familiar with the Canadian side of things - the biggest difference seems to be scale rather than policy). on the other putting full control of the education in the child's hands has me wondering how they're eventually going to deal with legitimate conflicts of interest.
it's like one of the doctor's in one of the related articles states - "The whole concept of cooperating with your kid, it's kind of cool in theory, and if a child was a little adult I think it would be great, but he's a child."
^ this is the fatal flaw in the parent's belief that their special little angel is more special than all the other special little angel snowflakes out there. not unlike this great quote from the mom - "They have experiences and knowledge that other people don't," - really??? i'm pretty sure that happens to absolutely everyone as they progress along their individual paths through life. last time i checked i didn't limit myself from learning about things that interested me because i had to learn about things that did not, nor have i ever met anyone that did.
just how much preparation for the realities of working for a living do these kids have or do mummy and daddy plan on taking care of them until they're in their 40s and all of a sudden it's the kids turn to start taking care of the parents? |
Okay, so you make some good points and maybe I was a little premature to jump on the boat with this one. I do still think that the US Education system is absolutely horrible from 1st Grade and all the way through College. I think we need to look at the (much more successful) European systems.
I still believe that if structured a similar system could easily work well within the public schooling system. For example, at high school age, if the kid plans on pursuing a career in biology, give him/her a biology course. If he/she doesn't and would rather pursue a career involving history, give him/her that. If he's undecided, give him/her the general courses until he makes up his/her mind.
And college... don't even get me started on what a waste of money that is.
I don't know I think i'm ranting now... but my main point is that schooling should be about
learning... about gaining knowledge of the world around you. Not about passing the state-mandated test or striving after a stupid little piece of paper that says you're qualified for something.
But the point I had that I never actually made was movements like this and homeschooling will hopefully send the right signals to the people that can make change happen.