DamianTV
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- Dec 7, 2007
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Parents used to teach their children a Family Trade. Smiths would teach their children how to Smith metals. Today, a Programmer could teach their children how to Program. So its understandable that a Family that programs as their Family Trade would not have equal skills in working with metals, construction, cullinary arts, or dentistry. The idea of a Family Business supports the Family Model. The idea of Mandatory Public Schooling destroys the very foundation of the Family Business. You seem to also be suggesting that Homeschooling is nothing more than staying at home, doing literally nothing except watching tv and playing video games. In times of old, kids used to go to work with their parents at their place of business. Kids had summer vacation because at the time, many kids were the children of ranchers and farmers. No longer allowed to be a Family Business.
Public Schooling promotes Obedience over Thinking and Understanding.
That is part of Unschooling. Undoing the psychological damage that is done by public schools. Not only do the public schools completely fail to teach children how to do anything, they further the problem by creating a Classroom to Prison type of mentality. It is scary how eerily similar Prisons and Schools resemble each other. Security. Metal Detectors. Barb Wire Fences. Excessive Punishments for trying to escape the system.
We used to be a much stronger society. Now it seems that the Govt has the power to declare all parents to be unfit unless those parents meet the qualifications that they arbitrarily decree. Parents must have paid a bunch of money in order to teach their children how to do anything. this also suggests that Parents of children that attend public schools have absolutely no Right to teach their children how to do anything unless Permission is granted by a False Authority to teach a child how to do something. It is suggested that my background in film and broadcast is completely irrelevant if I were to teach my kid about the workings of those businesses. I'd also have zero authority or permission to teach my kid about Electronics. Programming. Mathematics. Computational Algebra. Why? Because apparently Im too dumb to teach my own child how to tie their shoes or brush their teeth.
By todays standards, every child in the 1950s was severely traumatized because Spanking was legal. Yes, there are abusive parents out there. There are also good parents. These good parents are unable to take responsiblity for what their child turns into as an adult because someone is claiming an Authority over both the children and the parents and denying the ability of a parent to be a parent.
To answer your question, I engage in Unschooling each and every day. Its not done by attacking an existing system. Its done by constant encouragement to understand everything about the world around them. This is why I do things this way, and explain that the same thing can be accomplished differently. I encourage to learn from mistakes by understanding that mistakes teach us how and why something does not work so that we may overcome those mistakes. I do everything I can to encourage the questioning mind to continue to question. I encourage the understanding of multiple different perspectives simultaneously. I encourage Self Esteem instead of Emotional Dependancy of Appraisal. I actually encourage Disobedience so that the lessons taught can be learned through experiences over obedience.
There are lot of things I dont do in Unschooling. Many of these things are in complete and total contradiction with the current educational model. I dont create a rigid structure of 9am to 9:35am reading will be the lesson. Instead, when they're interested in a certain subject, I stay with that subject. I focus on what they're interested in and expand their understanding by showing how Linguistics can relate to Math, and vice versa. I show how things in this subject directly relate to that subject. Then they become interested in those other related subjects. This arbitrary structure of organizing what a kid will learn based on the availability of the teacher of a specific subject creates confusion and a lack of interest. No one is going to learn anything that they are not interested in. Jobs may be mundane but because the job rewards the person for performing tasks, there is an interest in learning how to perform the task. Too often, when a person learns by that method, they learn only as much as they need to do to get by, but without a genuine interest, they will be severely hindered in gaining a greater understanding of any subject.
Learning happens only when a person is interested in a subject. And we cant really build any time tables around when a person is interested. The idea of only learning from this period of time to this period of time is hogwash. Its based on when interest is shown, and availability to satisfy that intellectual hunger.
Thus, it isnt the Unschooling that stomps on my childs potential. My childs potential is both my Responsibility, thus my Right to encourage them to reach the fullest form of that potential. I believe that it is Compulsory Regulated Mandated Public Schooling itself that has become a menace to the futures of our children, and is what is stomping on their potenial as well as their ability and interest of achieving that potential.
