When DROPOUT isn’t a bad word (Boston article)

When DROPOUT isn’t a bad word: Some local teens are thriving by setting their own schedules and learning by doing
12/9/06
The Patriot Ledger

http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2006/12/09/news/news01.txt


It's one of the best I've seen for a while, even though it follows the pattern of quoting two experts who know nothing of unschooling.

Near the end there's a sentence that doesn't make any sense. I hope it was a file glitch, because it doesn't even have all its punctuation:

‘‘If I feel like I’m ready to spend $40,000 to talk and learn things, but I feel like first I need to do some more soul-searching.

Poor girl being misquoted, but lucky girl having a life rich enough to be in the newspaper. She wouldn't have had that if she'd stayed in school.

Sandra

New York Times unschooling article

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/education/26unschool.html
November 26, 2006
Home Schoolers Content to Take Children's Lead


Pretty good article, but some of editorial touches reminded me of how others see learning. One of the captions within the slide show is "Hayden and Sydney postpone reading by goofing around in the living room while Ms. Walter selects the books." Most photos involve books.

"Gaby tries to practice piano while Hayden and Sydney run around the living room" was another loaded caption. Maybe she was PLAYING the piano, and they were dancing. But an editor decided to put a negative spin on it.

In the International Herald Tribune's running of the story (credited to the New York Times, and not quite as long nor with as many photos) the title was changed to this: In extreme form of home schooling, kids call the shots

What shots? Why should anyone "call shots"?

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061126-070148-9145r UPI report on NYT story, next day.

Two ends of the spectrum

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8143.asp

BellaOnline: The Voice of Women has an article on Unschooling by the site's School Reform Editor by their school-reform editor, Kristen Houghton, who was largely unschooled herself.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19225776.100
Home-schooling special: Preach your children well
11 November 2006
New Scientist Magazine

This is a print magazine is in the U.K. and the article deals primarily with revisionist science and with Patrick Henry College.

MSNBC article A new chapter in education: unschooling

Quotes are from the article which is here.
Comments are by Sandra Dodd.

"Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the lead in learning"

That was the subtitle of the article, which probably came from the editor of the site, and not from Victoria Clayton, the writer. It doesn't make any sense in the "home-taught approach" part, and as to kids "taking the lead," it clearly implies that either the parent "takes the lead" or the child "takes the lead," thereby ignoring how unschooling works.

"But not all unschoolers stick to the plan so religiously."

That followed on a bit about a five year old who had just recently started to read, as though she had had a plan and stuck to it.

A quote from a professor:
“If the parents are highly educated and/or from a higher socioeconomic level, the kids are going to get all kinds of rich experiences because the nature of the home is going to be about books, experiences, education and learning,” says Myron Dembo, a University of Southern California professor of education.

It's possible articles misquote professors as easily as they misquote unschooling parents, but the mention of "education" in that list didn't show very clear thinking, and the fact that he named "experiences" and "learning" shows, again, an ignorance of the very basis of unschooling.

Unschooling isn't easy to understand, even for those who work at it, with children, for months. Those who do get it are enthusiastic. I have yet to see a reporter really get it, even those who spend weeks hanging out with a family.

Kansas City Star article on Unschooling

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/15398950.htm?source=rss&channel=kansascity_living

A new article on unschooling.

What's coolest about it is the expert they quoted was basically supportive!

Someone said "I turned the TV off because I was tired of fighting with the cartoon network"
or something and I think the same person was quoted as saying "I 'strew their paths'".

Unschooling as a Radical Alternative

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/27/gutierrez.unschooing/index.html (yes, there's a typo)
Not new, but new to some people.

That was found when Kelly Lovejoy discovered an article by her here:
Three Stages of Unschooling. The main page of that site is
IALA
The International Association for Learning Alternatives

More on Kelly Lovejoy

Carnival of Unschooling

Unschooling Voices #2 is up at Joanne's place. This issue's topic is "Do you extend the principles of unschooling (trust, freedom, etc) into any other areas of your child's life"?

The topic for September is from Laurie: "I would love to hear other unschoolers thoughts regarding allowance or payment for odd jobs or whatever you want to call it. I see a major benefit from the kids managing their own money but I’m not sure that I want to pay an “allowance” to the kids every week. But if I pay per job, do I pay to have them clean their room or do I only pay for odd jobs? Anyway, I’d love to hear the other thoughts/ideas/methods other unschoolers incorporate".

Go to Unschooling Voices to find out how to submit a post.