Unschooling concept

[Guest]

My problem with unschooling is that children don't necessarily have the discipline needed to push forward their own educations. Also, how is a child to know what it is they need to know and seek after? I've seen an unschooled child who was functionally illiterate way past the time he should have been able to read and study on his own, but he knew everything there was to know about dinosaurs. There are basic things that a person needs to know to succeed even on a very basic level. I don't have any doubt that some type of child-led learning can work, as long as that learning is built on parent-lead teaching of the basics. Unschooling concerns me because it can devolve into educational neglect, if unchecked.

[Vort]

My problem with unschooling is that children don't necessarily have the discipline needed to push forward their own educations.

The same can be said of publicly schooled children.

Also, how is a child to know what it is they need to know and seek after?

Unschooling is not all about letting the child roam freely. I suppose there are probably those parents who subscribe to "free-ranging", but the parents I know who incorporate unschooling ideas do so by providing their children with lots of different kinds of information and experiences and then let the kids soak in and explore what they find interesting.

I've seen an unschooled child who was functionally illiterate way past the time he should have been able to read and study on his own, but he knew everything there was to know about dinosaurs.

I have seen multiple publicly schooled children who were functionally illiterate clear into high school. And they didn't know anything about dinosaurs, or pretty much any other subject besides Oprah and partying.

There are basic things that a person needs to know to succeed even on a very basic level. I don't have any doubt that some type of child-led learning can work, as long as that learning is built on parent-lead teaching of the basics. Unschooling concerns me because it can devolve into educational neglect, if unchecked.

Then your concern is not about unschooling. Your concern is about negligent parenting. In which case, I agree with you. But as with most instances of subpar parenting, the solution does not lie in taking the children away from the parents, but in teaching the parents how to do a better job.