Comment Re:Good luck in university (Score 1) 1345
And woefully underprepared to deal with the social interactions required to advance through society. I would expect many of the parents of unschooled and home schooled kids to not want their children to 'advance' through society, but it is unfair to them to not allow them the opportunity of learning these skills (and other skills the parents are not strong in). A very interesting documentary, SURFWISE, investigates Doc Pascowitz and his form of unschooling. The perspectives from the children are especially illuminating and detail the benefits and pitfalls of this kind of education.
Of course this all comes down to the quality of parents. If you have involved, knowledgeable, curious, parents unschooling may be advantageous, but if the parents are ignorant we as a society are going to have huge problems down the line. The single biggest advantage schools offer is multiple perspectives. As my significant other says "I would hope my children would have access to more knowledge than I am able to provide."
I also expect that many of the "I am smart and I was was bored in school and don't use any of it now, so school is obsolete" commenters do not fully appreciate the impact school may have had on them. It seems difficult for me to think that they did not have at least one influential teacher in their past who had a unique view of the world, not to mention the smaller positive contributions from the many other teachers (liked or not) which are harder to evaluate. Surely, they can read and write, and I would expect schools to have at least some positive impact on those skills.
Of course this all comes down to the quality of parents. If you have involved, knowledgeable, curious, parents unschooling may be advantageous, but if the parents are ignorant we as a society are going to have huge problems down the line. The single biggest advantage schools offer is multiple perspectives. As my significant other says "I would hope my children would have access to more knowledge than I am able to provide."
I also expect that many of the "I am smart and I was was bored in school and don't use any of it now, so school is obsolete" commenters do not fully appreciate the impact school may have had on them. It seems difficult for me to think that they did not have at least one influential teacher in their past who had a unique view of the world, not to mention the smaller positive contributions from the many other teachers (liked or not) which are harder to evaluate. Surely, they can read and write, and I would expect schools to have at least some positive impact on those skills.
