Unschooling - We don't need no education.

[JU 199]

http://www.unschool.me/

 

[Pac]

So this whole "unschooling" is basically Retards creating even more Retards. Lol. Which is worse, unschooling or antivaxers (People who oppose vaccination due to the retarded belief that vaccines cause autism)?

 

[Zeb]

It's not just parents who try and pull this bullshit.

school-survival.net

Ever wanna see a bunch of stupid teens and preteens gush about how awesome it'd be to not have an education? That's the place for you, then! That forum has been on my radar for a while, and it is a goldmine.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

It's not just parents who try and pull this bullshit.

school-survival.net

Ever wanna see a bunch of stupid teens and preteens gush about how awesome it'd be to not have an education? That's the place for you, then! That forum has been on my radar for a while, and it is a goldmine.

My god.

It's spreading.

 

[gummy]

I have some firsthand experience with these people, so since it's relevant to the topic: I was homeschooled/unschooled, and at these social meetups I'd run into these types all the time. I met and interacted with middle school aged kids who were illiterate and kids who did no work and just watched SpongeBob all day. I remember one 6th or 7th grade girl who could only write three word sentences, misspelling every other word and using those oversized letters a first grader would write with. There were a lot of kids like her.

 

[Asa_Spades60]

That A+ in Watching-Spongebob-ology is sure to get them far in life.

It worked for Mr. Enter and the myriad of Nostalgia Critic wannabes, didn't it?

 

[Squealer]

Any civilized country in the world should do the same. There's absolutely NO valid reason to homeschool (let alone un-fucking-school) a child, unless he suffers from some sort disease that requires strict supervision 24/7 or if he's mentally impaired and there's no special education available in the zone.

TRaveling families, celebrities,people who live in shitty areas,and of course people in remote locations

 

[Dr.Research]

This is our next generation of lolcows right here. Poorly socialized, Internet raised with unhealthy connections to their parents, parents who will make these kids believe that they are sooooo special.

No doubt public schools have significant issues and failings, but none of these kids seem like inner city youths, those kids who probably have a legitimate reason to not go to school due to gangs, bullying and poor curriculum. These all seem to be white kids that have the luxury of one bread winner parent and one stay at home pal. The ONLY way I could see this working is if the parent has a farm or a trade that the kid could be absorbed into.

I've never met a homeschool kid that didn't grow up to resent it a little.

The one homeschooled girl I ever met socialized like shit. She did find some friends, but she was pushy and tried to be the goody-goody. I was about 12 at the time and even then we could tell there was an issue, like a friend of mine even said she sucks with being around people because of being homeschooled.

She only spent that one academic year in school, or at least mine. I assumed she went back to homeschooling but you never know, maybe she just moved.

Now imagine that, but even less since at least homeschool presumably had a curriculum and expectations.

 

[Petronella]

So this whole "unschooling" is basically exceptional individuals creating even more exceptional individuals. Lol. Which is worse, unschooling or antivaxers (People who oppose vaccination due to the exceptional belief that vaccines cause autism)?

For real though, fuck these people. Public schools do have a lot of problems that need to be addressed, and if you have issues with schools then that's one thing. But if you're going on an autistics crusade against public education, don't sacrifice your kids' future for it.

 

[DykesDykesChina]

Lol, try this in my country.

You'll get a visit by these friendly guys:

And they'll courteously drive your kid to school in a pretty blue-silvery vehicle.

Compulsory education has been one of the great advances of humanity. The benefits of public schools are not only standardized education for all citizens and a social environment where kids learn to interact with people who are not close relatives -- they also more than often have to play the role of protecting the child against the parents. Many cases of parental abuse are first discovered by teachers, and for some children it's the only chance to get away from a broken or abusive family.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Bennett the Sage? Is that you?

I recognize that children are an oppressed class, and strive to both not perpetuate that oppression, and actively work against it.

I take it she wants to abolish child labor laws? That's what I hear when she says "oppressed class".

 

[Bustcakes]

I teach GED classes and honestly... it's obvious at a glance when someone coming into the class has been homeschooled (which, more often than not, translates into some form of unschooling, a.k.a. "parents too lazy to bother teaching anything," even if it hasn't escalated to an actual dogma). Their social skills are nonexistent; they're withdrawn, and their math skills in particular are absolutely useless. I had one student a couple years ago admit to me that he wasn't sure on his intake form what box to check as his last year of school, and he finally decided to put second grade down, since his parents stopped doing any work with him when he was seven. It's a pitiful set of circumstances.

 

[Kumquat]

To give these parents the barest, smallest amount of credit, I can slightly understand where they're coming from (since I assume most of them are from America.) In a lot of districts the American public school system is a complete joke, and a majority of kids usually trash everything they "learn" there anyways.

But to then completely abandon all schooling altogether? You've just moved from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other. Private schools exist, you could move to another district, and sometimes, homeschooling CAN work if you follow a good curriculum and you actually treat it as school (i.e. lesson plans, schedules, field trips, social outings, etc...) but these parents are just.... wow. I think they want to homeschool but are just so horrifically lazy and incompetent they can't follow any sort of curriculum and decide "nah, fuck it, I'll just do nothing."

Yes, I get it, sometimes the American public school system sucks. That's why there are alternatives like private schools or schools in other districts. But holy shit, just quitting school altogether? Have fun when your kid is 16 and barely knows what 2+2 is or how to read. I'll echo what others have said and just agree that this legitimately makes me angry.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Say what you want about the education system, at least they wouldn't fuck up as badly as these parents would. Makes you wonder if they themselves went to school. Or if they did, paid any attention.

Isn't it common practice these days that School standards go down and down and down so that students will pass more easily?

 

[Pronoun Party]

To give these parents the barest, smallest amount of credit, I can slightly understand where they're coming from (since I assume most of them are from America.) In a lot of districts the American public school system is a complete joke, and a majority of kids usually trash everything they "learn" there anyways.

But to then completely abandon all schooling altogether? You've just moved from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other. Private schools exist, you could move to another district, and sometimes, homeschooling CAN work if you follow a good curriculum and you actually treat it as school (i.e. lesson plans, schedules, field trips, social outings, etc...) but these parents are just.... wow. I think they want to homeschool but are just so horrifically lazy and incompetent they can't follow any sort of curriculum and decide "nah, fuck it, I'll just do nothing."

Yes, I get it, sometimes the American public school system sucks. That's why there are alternatives like private schools or schools in other districts. But holy shit, just quitting school altogether? Have fun when your kid is 16 and barely knows what 2+2 is or how to read. I'll echo what others have said and just agree that this legitimately makes me angry.

Yes, you took the words out of my mouth. I think a huge chunk of public education (the US version at least) is completely useless and basically exists to give parents a place to stash their kids to keep them from getting in trouble while the parents are at work. Let's be honest, who here uses the Geometry equations they learned in 10th grade as part of their everyday life or job? Once you get past basic reading and math, most of the stuff you 'learn' is never actually used in the real world or in a future job. Kids take it in, then regurgitate it onto a test and forget about it. And school, especially middle/high school here in the US, is notorious for being hellish with bullying and such.

So I can see where some of these parents are coming from... why not get rid of that compulsory fluff and let kids learn things they actually want to remember? I think they're tempted by stories of people like Bill Gates, who ditched schoolwork to pursue his real interests and turned himself into a computer genius. Maybe their little kid is a genius in the making too, they just need to let him pursue his true passion in life!

What they neglect to remember is that humans are lazy shitbags content to put in the least possible amount of effort to scrape by, and little Johnny's 'true passion' is probably going to end up being WoW instead of neuroscience.

 

[GolgoXIII]

These people should switch places with families in Africa where they either can't afford to go to school or there's no schools nearby, they'll love it and I'm sure the poor African kids will love going to school.

Now I know a lot of first nations communities have a lot of distrust and fear of the Canadian education system because until a few decades ago Christian churches had funded schools where first nations children were forced to go to and weren't allowed to speak their language and forced to learn english and were often beaten and abused in various ways. After they graduated they didn't fit into their old society and wouldn't be accepted into the rest of Canadian society so they were pretty much fucked. Anyway they're still pissed about it and I wouldn't be surprised if some first nation parents practice this form of "education" because it's the way their ancestors did it. On reservations the government pretty much lets them do whatever and have their own educational system seperate from the rest of Canada, also lots of poverty. That's fun

Admittedly, the deplorable conditions on the reserves are partially the fault of the people living on them. They have a tendency to protest against anything the government offers except free money and land. The kind of people who when they want clean water in their communities they'll ask the government to give them water. They'll offer to have government workers install a new plumbing system, and maybe a government run water treatment facility on the reserve. The people living on the reserve will then refuse this option and instead ask for the money to fix the problem.

There's an obscure instance of someone wanting to build a golf course on land that went unused for years, unaware that the land belonged to Native Americans, the guy was able to purchase the land and started turning it into a golf course. The Natives protested this, and ended up getting the land back from the man in the state that it was in (partially turned into a golf course) with the intention of continuing the work and turning it into a Native run golf course. They ended up leaving the land unused again.

The residential schools are one of those things that every Canadian knows about, since it's something that's required to be taught in schools (hey, that ties in to this thread!), so it always seems a little weird when people refer to the schools as a dark part of their history that the canadian government is trying to forget. It's like when someone mentions slavery in the United States in an effort to gain sympathy for minorities, then refers to it as a part of history that most Americans are unfamiliar with.

Sometimes I wonder why more people don't put pressure on pharmaceutical companies, since around a hundred years ago they prescribed heroin and opium as medicine for children. They should never be allowed to forget their mistakes and forever scrutinized by the public for the things they sell.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Sometimes I wonder why more people don't put pressure on pharmaceutical companies, since around a hundred years ago they prescribed heroin and opium as medicine for children. They should never be allowed to forget their mistakes and forever scrutinized by the public for the things they sell.

Because while still horrible, it's not nearly as intensely awful as slavery and as recent as the cane beatings and other types of child abuse in Canadian schools.

 

[GolgoXIII]

Because while still horrible, it's not nearly as intensely awful as slavery and as recent as the cane beatings and other types of child abuse in Canadian schools.

Yeah, that's a good point. Focusing on apologizing for past crimes instead of fixing current problems isn't a good thing.

 

[Kartoffel]

http://www.unschool.me/

View attachment 150054

Someone should get this woman a copy of "Getting things done". Perhaps then she'll be able to understand that you can live perfectly well with todays clutter and that you just a few consequently applied strategies can you keep afloat and chill.

 

[Kazami Yuuka]

It worked for Mr. Enter and the myriad of Nostalgia Critic wannabes, didn't it?

The grand irony is that those reviews essentially boil down into an essay, but with videos on the side. Now, if only there was some kind of place where you could learn to make effective essays.
That said, those kids in the news video might really enjoy being in the moment, but come a decade, are going to realize they got the short end of the stick. That girl-looking-guy seemed pretty illiterate in all honesty, if the reporter had pushed them a little bit further, I think the truth about the whole thing would have been spilled out.