First, one of the ignorant comments. Then a link to what she was talking about.
Sara APRIL 23, 2010, 1:25 PM
The children, after they’ve all grown up, seem positively average. College is the easiest way to get yourself a successful career in this day and age. The kid who works at Blizzard? He is probably an unusual case. He had raw talent, knew what he wanted, and got there. Good for him. I’m jealous of his fulfilling life without real school.
However, the current jobs of the other two seem to be only helping more families that choose to go the same route.
It’s tough for me to imagine what kind of lives the rest of the unschooled kids of America will lead. I can’t imagine it to be easy for them.
Julie Taylor did the article, and called it Why I Unschooled My Three Kids, but except for the title, the intro and the questions, it's all straight-up my writing. And she put in those links to my site (the blue words, not the underlining). I spoke with her by phone for quite a while on Wednesday, and her questions were based on that conversation.
7 comments:
I stumbled upon it and I thought it was a great interview. A whole lot better than what was portrayed on GMA. And I have no comment for the person who left the rude comments about unschoolers. It's obvious she has not spent any time with or around unschoolers.
Nice article. Interesting comments.
Now that I'm somewhat on the other side of the unschooling journey, comments like the one you quoted amuse me more than anything. I'd like to introduce that commenter to my 18yo unschooled kid who works at a daycare and is in college and planning to be a family doctor.
The most vocal opponents always seem to be people who have no real grasp of the concept of unschooling. Most of them don't even seem interested in learning about it. They just want to rant against it and make predictions of failure and doom and gloom for our childrens' futures. If people truly seem interested, I hand them my copy of your first book. Otherwise I don't bother arguing.
My kids are fantastic people, full of joy, kind and compassionate. That, to me, trumps any degree or certificate or educational what-have-you.
-=-If people truly seem interested, I hand them my copy of your first book. Otherwise I don't bother arguing. -=-
The second one is better, I feel obligated to say. Falling down on the job, I didn't know until last night that they were out on Amazon. I re-listed it and got an order within an hour. oops. ;-)
It's crazy, this week, but will settle down.
I keep thinking about the "insult" that they seem "positively average."
Maybe they are!! If they are positively average in every measure the critics know to use, that doesn't bother me. Because there are measures the critics have never imagined. Being unharmed by grades, tests, bullies, bad teachers, mean teachers, hours of boredom. My kids are not average in that. In relationships with parents, my kids are above average.
I didn't get the "positively average" insult either. But then I don't find the word "average" to be offensive.
I'm short, so to be average-height would mean I'd be taller than I am now -- that would be nice when I want to reach things up high, or when I find that even "short" length jeans drag the ground when I have on shoes. I'm heavy, so to be average-weight would mean I'd be lighter than I am now -- that would make clothes-shopping easier. Some needleworkers might classify my embroidery skills as "average", but I love doing embroidery and I do it *because* I love it. If my embroidery skills never progress beyond what they are right now, I'd still be happy with my needlework.
In our family, happiness has a much greater value than other people's definitions of success. In that respect, we are far above average.
It was a great article, read it and most of the comments out loud to my husband and sons. The youngest didn't have much to say on the topics being discussed (being only 20 mos ;) ), but the husband and oldest son had plenty of fun talking back to commenters that had clearly not read, or had decided not to understand, the article. It made for a pretty interesting discussion - unschooling and WoW can go hand in hand (husband was on WoW and oldest was watching over his shoulder and commenting on gameplay and article).
"the current jobs of the other two seem to be only helping more families that choose to go the same route"
This made me laugh. If taken out of context it could easily describe anyone working in a school - what else do school staff do but help other families that chose to go the same route?
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