Astra Taylor on the Unschooled Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwIyy1Fi-4Q&feature=share

YES!! Wow did her talk make a lot of sense...

Here's a mainstream media (negatively biased) take...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYZrho7Th68&feature=related

Here's a rebuttal from an unschooler...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBaDS0eK64&feature=related

Very striking contrast.

Actually listened to this as I was working. It does make sense, but I think the family they featured in the Today show clip were bad examples. They really didn't show any positive reason at all to do it. It doesn't seem like unschooling would work for all families. There is probably a fine line between unschooling vs a parent not giving a damn.
Astra's parents helped mold her by supporting her curiosity and getting her to experience new things so she could decide what she wanted to learn. Letting your kid just do what they want without restriction typically doesn't expose them to new things to be able to make good learning decisions.
Basically what it probably comes down to is if your a bad parent, unschooling or traditional schooling doesn't matter. You still end up with a screwed up kid.

I decided I liked to work with computers and I pursued that myself, without anyone forcing me too. It all started with a basic program for creating a simple character creator listed in a Dragon Magazine. My dad had just bought an IBM and I typed the pages of code into it. Then I just examined it to figure out how to do it. I then took a couple of basic programming courses in high school, and that was it for my formal computer education. All the rest of was on the at home and on the job training. So all of that was a form of Unschooling, however having a few classes available in school is what helped increase my interest in it. If I wasn't in school with that opportunity to take the class in front of me I probably wouldn't have done it.

Both definitely have pros and cons, but a mix of the two is probably a better solution.

Yeah, I've learned more from 'unschooling' than schooling too.

Ross wrote:if your a bad parent, unschooling or traditional schooling doesn't matter. You still end up with a screwed up kid.

Concur. And if you're poor &/or have uneducated parents, in either system you'll be more handicapped than if you're rich &/or have educated parents.

Ross wrote: I think the family they featured in the Today show clip were bad examples. They really didn't show any positive reason at all to do it.

Yes, they were clearly trying to put it in a bad light. I posted the lecture I first heard (& loved), then a con view and a rebuttal to it. Did you watch the last one where the unschooled teenager talked about the RT expose?

Yeah, but once again I think that was in a positive light, instead of the negative, and his family is probably best case scenario. Someone in his situation would obviously hear of others like himself.
Kind of like everyone. If your in that crowd your going to know people in that crowd.

I believe in exposing your kid to lots of different things and see what sticks.
I also think public school overall is lacking, and private schools aren't that much better. As a parent you have to supplement the education at home because schools cater to the dumbest kid in the class.

What's nice though is the school gives the children a base, then we can teach them more at home. So like I said before, a mixture of home schooling, traditional and unschooling is probably best.

Well clearly TYT doesn't think much of it...

Here's another great talk on education (animated). Nothing to do with unschooling, but the problems/pitfalls of traditional education & some of the changes going on around the world to it. Enjoy!

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A0SO8Zvc4zpOHD4A1WL7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBncGdyMzQ0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZAM-?p=sir+ken+robinson+rsa&ei=utf-8&n=21&tnr=20&y=Search