Unspooling 'Unschooling'

Unschooling should be illegal!

My wife's sister does this "unschooling" with her two kids. All I see is total neglect. The two boys who are 10 & 12, do nothing but play video games and watch TV. There's a whole list of odd facts about these kids. They can't recite the alphabet. They don't read or write at all. The younger boy couldn't answer the question, "What's half of 20?" or even write the number 12. When you talk to them, they seem lost and confused. You always need to explain what basic word meanings are to them. These kids are sadly to say, dumb. What's even odder, they both still need to wear diapers at night. I like my sister and brother in-law. They're really good people. I think my sister in law got burnt out with home-schooling and some got brainwashed think that the boys slow development is normal in the world of "unschooling". What's next? Well, knowing that the boys wouldn't pass our state required home school test. My sister in-law has been told by other "unschoolers" to take the test for the kids. This is cheating and my next step is to report this. So, if your thinking about "unschooling" your children, don't. Kids do lack the foresight for learning. Your only going to handicap your child if you make this choice. Thanks for reading, Jeff

In my opinion, Jeff, your sister has given unschooling a bad name, and make people believe that that is what unschooling is all about. My daughter is unschooled half of the time, and goes to a half day kindergarten. In January we will be switching to only unschooling. She learns more with me than in school and tells me every day that she is bored and doesn't want to go. As far as unschooling goes, we read books, do crafts, go to museums and the zoo, spend hours at the library and learn about anything she comes up with and wants to know about. She is currently learning about cats, wild and domestic, and can name about 10 different wild cats. She is well spoken, can write and is determined to learn to read. She loves art and music too. I think that the point of unschooling is to allow children to learn about what they want to learn about and not force a subject on them. They will learn what they need to know when they need to know it. At the same time, however, parents must act as facilitators to introduce subjects and ideas of potential interest. It means exposing them to many different things until they find something that they enjoy, then it is helping them to explore that interest as much as they want. Anyway, I think that there is a difference between unschooling and helping your child to learn and calling something unschooling and doing nothing to foster learning.

Rose