Astra Taylor and Dana Goldstein on the Schooling Debate

Hi-

Interesting program.

Because radio requires us to listen to a voice, I have to point out that Ms. Goldstein is very difficult to listen to. Her manner of speaking which combines both the new "growly girl" and teeny-bopper ways of speaking makes her hard to take seriously. A grown-up voice is much easier on the ears and allows us to hear WHAT is being said, rather than HOW it sounds.

Interesting piece. From what I have read about Astra Taylor's unschooling experience, it does not reflect the best of what unschooling can be. A great unschooling parent would never say "if you're bored, you're boring" or leave children entirely responsible for entertaining themselves. Tha sounds more like neglect than good unschooling to me. The parents should be actively engaged with their children, offering lots of fun opportunities and experiences and helping kids expand on their current interests and passions. Parents have more experience and know more about what is available than young children do.

I also found several flaws in Ms. Goldstein's argument. Does she also reccommend that progressive parents refrain from sending their kids to private or religious schools? I live in an area that does not have a progressive public school. Should my kids be subjected to the pitiful failings of the local public schools out of some misguided sense of solidarity with others who have no other options or who have no desire to make use of other options? I am very concerned with the current state of public schools. I am interested in starting a free school in my area--after I am done unschooling my children, who are still preschool age. But I would rather devote my energy, while they are young, to being with them and providing them with what I believe is the best learning environment I can.

I would also reccommend that anyone interested in what unschooling looks like when done really well check out this website

www.sandradodd.com/unschooling

Interesting piece, except for the constant drumbeat equating unschooling and homeschooling. They are very different in practice, even if from an outsider's point of view they look the same.

Also, as a mom of a kid with some pretty significant special needs, to be told that I should have her in public school because I'm a good parent advocate and fighter, is to deny what she needs as a child. Our public school system routinely fails kids with disabilities, which is why half of the patients of my child's pediatric neurologist are home schooled.

I now have a thriving student -- the same kid who had been sent home 38 times in 5 years of school for disruptive behaviors. What a difference truly individualized curriculum makes for a child with partially paralyzed hands. Our school district refused to acknowledge the physical disability and only focused on the behavioral manifestations of her brain injury. No wonder we bailed, and saved our kid's life in the process.

I am very disappointed by Dana Taylor's idea that, as parents, it is our obligation to improve the educational system by throwing our children into it, despite how little that system pays attention to our kids' needs.

We have two boys. One attends school, likes it, and does well. The other is homeschooled and is able to follow his passions -- art, music, athletics -- which school increasingly neglects and he can learn in the offbeat ways which work best for him. He does better at his academics and spends less time on them than he would were he to be in school.

As Ms. Taylor said, the reality is that school reform is being driven by teacher accountability and testing. NOT on what helps kids learn.

There are lots of ways to make them "better people" that Ms. Taylor seeks in her article. There are few ways to keep their curiosity alive and to prepare them for life, not tests.

I will not sacrifice my child for the good of a system which neither has the resources nor interest in helping my child learn.