Confession time. I'm not a huge fan of the unschooling goddesses - namely Sandra Dodd and Dayna Martin. I'm sure that they're good people and very well-meaning. I do prefer them and their ideas to most mainstream parenting ideas. However, I don't quite click with them on their radical unschooling philosophies.
I was not impressed with Sandra Dodd's daughter when I saw her on a youtube video. In the video, Holly Dobbs states that she has no plans to go to college. She says, "I'm not interested in college......I've never been to school. I'm not that interested in going to school. College is school." What a sad statement! I've never done it, so therefore, I'll never try to do it. Imagine if everyone in this world felt this way. This seems to me to be the antithesis of what unschooling should be about. Isn't unschooling about discovering new things and trying new things? Isn't the whole point of unschooling to help a person to love learning. There is so much to learn in a college classroom. Why dismiss it without even trying it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pLqYn1OYdU
Now to my critique of Dayna Martin. Many of you may have seen piece that was done on the Martin family on Nightline. Dayna has since said that the piece was edited to fit ABC's agenda. While I agree that that may be, I still take issue with one of her remarks. When asked, "Doesn't a child need to know who George Washingon, and FDR, and JFK were?" Dayna Martin responds, "I don't know. Do you think they do? Do you think that's necessary?" Ahem, Mrs. Martin, YES I DO! I don't want my children to be idiots. I'm often amazed at how idiotic most mainstreamers are - even the college educated ones. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuhfhRLwTB0
So, obviously I'm not a total unschooler. I do believe that kids do need to learn and to know certain facts and certain skills. I also believe that there are many ways for a person to acquire these facts and skills. One valid method is through self directed learning, or unschooling if you will. Right now, my twelve year old son is being unschooled in the Civil War. My mother took him to Gettysburg this past Fall. Since then, he has become fascinated by the Civil War. We went to a Civil War Re-enactment recently and he was thrilled with that. http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4541451443353029226#editor/target=post;postID=642644591855641 I have bought him books, movies, and documentaries on the Civil War. He is practicing his writing skills by journaling what he has learned and writing essays on the Civil War. This interest in the Civil War did not come from any curriculum. I believe that this is unschooling at its best.
However, he also has been working from a Waldorf curriculum as well. The topics for this year (Grade 6) were Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome. We used our own resources for Egypt. Waldorf educator Charles Kovacs's books were used for Greece and Rome. The books are appropriately titled Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. We have also been using A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling Grade 6 by Melisa Nielsen of A Little Garden Flower () to guide us through the year. I'm allowing Liam to break from the curriculum for now while he pursues his Civil War studies, but I do like having these resources. http://www.waldorfjourney.typepad.com/
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