Still thinking about unschooling

A few things today suggested to me why I'm afraid of the public school system my child(ren) are on track to inhabit for 13 years. Or a private school system, for that matter, should something dramatic happen in our family's station in life. Perhaps it's not so much being afraid of school as thinking there is so much more that can be done with 13 years of education. And so much damage that can be done in that environment. A large part of course is the dramatic loss of control over my child(ren)'s environment, particularly compared to my current state of stay-at-home parenting.

I, like the good upper middle class liberal that I am, have my car radio permanently set to NPR and hear a lot of Air Talk on KPCC. Both stories that I heard today resonated with my standing interest in homeschooling. The first was about a Toronto couple who are trying to keep the gender of their four month old private from the world, hoping to avoid gender stereotyping. The second about a recent book "The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth" about how quirky kids in high school who are social outcasts have better prospects as adults for creative careers and satisfying social lives. School, and the uncontrolled, or undercontrolled, environment of kids picking on other kids and picking up stereotypes from other kids, seems at the root of a lot of damage that happens to children. I think of middle school of this at its worst, when many children turning into teens have emotional awareness and can grasp the levers of social power but have not yet developed a sense of responsibility. If I can help my child(ren) avoid the artificially created world of 13 year olds out of the context of the full life spectrum of society I want to. Certainly spending year after year in a culture peopled by kids all the same age is preparation for no area of life besides schooling.

Later in the day, listening to yesterday's Marketplace podcast about online learning, I was struck by how expansive and impressive non-classroom learning tools are in the Internet Age. Featured was a group, Khan Academy, that creates and promotes short educational videos on typical school subjects, and promulgates a philosophy of learning at your own pace, sticking with one topic until you deeply understand it, in contrast to a classroom's pace set to a "typical" student which leaves some bored and some behind and discouraged.


Yesterday's menu:
breakfast: Bru's Waffles
lunch: Bay Cities Italian Deli godmother sandwich
dinner: leftover sandwich and pasta