I was pleased to find a recent article about unschooling in Toowoomba Queensland.
I think it's actually one of the most positive things I've seen about unschooling.
Usually, I find there's a story about a family who imagine they're doing the right thing. Along with that, there's a strongly oppositional opinion from a professional educator or psychologist. Then there's a ton of comments from people who equate the unschooling family to child abusers, fools, and the people who are going to ruin the world.
This Toowoomba article has no negative opinion from professionals. The only negativity comes from the unschooling family themselves. They describe their personal former opinion of unschooling.
The mother says, When I first heard about it, I thought what are those parents doing to that poor child?
Yeah. See those are the type of comments I usually see accompanying unschooling articles.
Maybe more people are starting to accept unschooling.
There's a poll on the article. Are traditional schools the best place for a child to get their education?
I had clicked on the poll, bracing myself to see a lot of people against homeschooling. I thought at best it would be something like 60% for traditional schooling rather than 95%
Well, guess what. 80% were NOT for traditional schooling.
That doesn't mean the 80% all support unschooling. But at least the majority of readers have the idea that there are alternatives outside the traditional schooling route.
When I saw the results, I thought, Well, it's not a scientific poll. Only people who care enough to vote are voting. But it says something to me that haters aren't rushing to the article to gawk and vote.
Maybe unschooling is becoming less sensationalized and less villainized.
That being said, at this point our decision is to move away from unschooling when Jack starts the high school stage. We're still going to do homeschooling, probably. But we're going to do a more structured program. Jack wants to go to university eventually. I do know there are stories of unschoolers getting into universities, but I feel a slightly more structured curriculum will increase his changes of getting into the school he wants.
I was just googling to find more websites about unschooling in Australia. I found this blog. Sparkling Adventures.
These people are living my dream life—a nomadic existence around Australia.
The most recent post has them conga dancing in Tasmania. That's very cool.
I think it's actually one of the most positive things I've seen about unschooling.
Usually, I find there's a story about a family who imagine they're doing the right thing. Along with that, there's a strongly oppositional opinion from a professional educator or psychologist. Then there's a ton of comments from people who equate the unschooling family to child abusers, fools, and the people who are going to ruin the world.
This Toowoomba article has no negative opinion from professionals. The only negativity comes from the unschooling family themselves. They describe their personal former opinion of unschooling.
The mother says, When I first heard about it, I thought what are those parents doing to that poor child?
Yeah. See those are the type of comments I usually see accompanying unschooling articles.
Maybe more people are starting to accept unschooling.
There's a poll on the article. Are traditional schools the best place for a child to get their education?
I had clicked on the poll, bracing myself to see a lot of people against homeschooling. I thought at best it would be something like 60% for traditional schooling rather than 95%
Well, guess what. 80% were NOT for traditional schooling.
That doesn't mean the 80% all support unschooling. But at least the majority of readers have the idea that there are alternatives outside the traditional schooling route.
When I saw the results, I thought, Well, it's not a scientific poll. Only people who care enough to vote are voting. But it says something to me that haters aren't rushing to the article to gawk and vote.
Maybe unschooling is becoming less sensationalized and less villainized.
That being said, at this point our decision is to move away from unschooling when Jack starts the high school stage. We're still going to do homeschooling, probably. But we're going to do a more structured program. Jack wants to go to university eventually. I do know there are stories of unschoolers getting into universities, but I feel a slightly more structured curriculum will increase his changes of getting into the school he wants.
I was just googling to find more websites about unschooling in Australia. I found this blog. Sparkling Adventures.
These people are living my dream life—a nomadic existence around Australia.
The most recent post has them conga dancing in Tasmania. That's very cool.
How lovely to read, I am that lady. It was a follow-up article after appearing on 60 Minutes, which was also surprisingly positive!
ReplyDeleteHi Rachael!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for visiting! It's great about the article and 60 Minutes.
A few years ago, there was an American unschooling family on the morning news and the segment was very negative. It's nice to see something on the opposite side of the spectrum!