the network for radical unschooling families

Unschooling in the news

I saw a short clip on unschooling from fox news about unschooling while I was browsing the net before the family gets up this morning.

I am not sure how to link directly to the clip. This links to the first video in the set which was the freak out about obama talking to school kids. You can skip; to the unschooling clip by clinking the link below the video.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=153...

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Permalink Reply by Meg Walker on September 5, 2009 at 2:24pm: Wow! That unschooling clip was ridiculous. The speaker against homeschooling was completely illogical!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JennyStar on September 5, 2009 at 4:00pm: The speaker against homeschooling was completely illogical!

She wasn't just illogical, she was very very inaccurate and ignorant. She actually said, and I quote here... "teens drop out because they are undereducated and underprepared" Really? I think that there are lots of reasons kids drop out of high school, but I highly doubt that either of those things are primary reasons for kids dropping out of high school. Kids that drop out do have the potential to be undereducated and underprepared, but that's not unschooling kids! Unschooling kids experience BEing prepared and educated, since that IS what their lives are all about!

She was equating unschooling with dropouts as if they were the same thing. Poor woman had no idea what she was talking about!

She also said something about teens needing to be exposed to calculus so that they could potentially become astronauts. Yes, because all kids exposed to calculus want to become astronauts AND all kids want the ability to become astronauts. (that was sarcasm, lest anyone think otherwise)

The ability to become an astronaut was there before calculus was mandatory in high school. So, one can assume that somewhere, somehow, aspiring astronauts learned what they needed to learn to become one without mandatory exposure to calculus in high school. Did Neil Armstrong take calculus in high school? I suspect not. Calculus wasn't even mandatory when I was in high school and I'm not that old.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by angie on September 7, 2009 at 4:09am: please can you help, i am in the UK so don't really get fox news can you tell me again how to get the clip...thanks

by the way what's calculus?

and because we are in the UK can we still become astronauts?
Angie; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Slinky on September 7, 2009 at 12:36pm: As far as I know you just click the link and it should take you to the clip page. then browse through the clips.

Calculus is a higher math according to wikipedia is a discipline in mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. Calculus being the mathematical study of change while geometry is the mathematical study of shape. It was not offered in highschool when I went. Math only went basic algebra geometry trigonometry and calculus was a collage course.

I thought her assertion that they could not be an astronaut if they wanted without taking calculus in high school ridicules. Unless your kid has a huge passion for space travel its probably folly to gear their education towards being an astronaut as there are only a very tiny handful of people who get to be astronauts and there are a ton of factors other then knowing calculus that will prevent it much of which you have little control over. If your kids not totally passionate about being an astronaut best to focus on their other interests rather then set them up to fall short of unrealistic expectations.

I see this like gearing every child's education towards becoming president of the united states. The odds of becoming president are so low for most kids it would be a waste of their time.

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little. Well until I thought about the realities of being one. Like tight confined spaces for long periods of time...... Claustrophobia is not an astronauts friend.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by angie on September 7, 2009 at 1:17pm: hello slinky,
i am sorry i was being a little sarcastic about other peoples presumptions about what qualifications are needed and was agreeing with you about the daftness of it all...anyway here is an example of unschooling our style: -
my son wants/wanted to be (depending on stimulus) a dog, a bionicle, a famous footballer, tall so as you can see it all depends how the mood takes him mind you he is into nature at the moment in a big way. here is a photo of him getting some experiential unschooling learning...
he really enjoyed this pond dipping and has discussed it and looked for information since he came home on the PC (using his ITC skills)- following his own autonomous path of interest?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JennyStar on September 7, 2009 at 2:17pm: I see this like gearing every child's education towards becoming president of the united states. The odds of becoming president are so low for most kids it would be a waste of their time.

Most kids in the world can't become the president of the US anyway. Potential other leaders of other nations maybe.... but still, you're right. Some kids don't even aspire to become a leader of that nature, I know I didn't.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JennyStar on September 7, 2009 at 2:24pm: please can you help, i am in the UK so don't really get fox news can you tell me again how to get the clip...thanks

Try this... It's got Pat Farenga in it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Slinky on September 7, 2009 at 4:54pm: lol sorry Angie I tend towards the literal when reading and as such tend to miss sarcasm in written form sometimes :)

Oh look he is prepping to study living organisms in space! You may have yourself an astronaut yet. ;); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by angie on September 8, 2009 at 5:30am: got it
thankyou
angie
JennyStar said:
please can you help, i am in the UK so don't really get fox news can you tell me again how to get the clip...thanks
Try this... It's got Pat Farenga in it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Monica Manzano on September 9, 2009 at 2:45pm: I saw it too! urgh, and double urgh. Always with the spinning.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Monica Manzano on September 9, 2009 at 3:54pm: It's going to appear like I replied to my own post! But I just remembered something. I tried locating the blog she mentiones in the news. I didn't locate a link for it! I believe the interviewer invites people to blog, but there wasn't an active link. I wasn't going to post, but I wanted to seek and find it andread others responses. This was dated sept 5? am I correct? then where is the link to blog?

Monica Manzano said:
I saw it too! urgh, and double urgh. Always with the spinning.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Monica Manzano on September 9, 2009 at 4:04pm: This news reporter announced go to http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/

Fox and Friends for the blog, I just don't find it. Nope, I checked again.; ▶ Reply to This