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When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

nytimes.com

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Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#171

Post by paperwasp42 »

eloff wrote: post #161
numakerg wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> famous sci fi author If it's the same author I found based on a cursory search from your profile, then "famous" is a bit of a stretch. > Where I think it hurt was we didn't do any group social activities and lived in remote places I got a similar feeling reading about Chris Paolini. Homeschooled, raised in a remote place. Fed a lot of his early life experiences, particularly travel, into his novels but felt alienat…

Well he's not JK Rowling famous, but he has sold over a million books which puts him in a pretty elite club author wise. Especially in sci fi, that's a lot. I'm very proud of my brother, he started down a very difficult career path and became very successful. All self taught.

Former publishing industry professional here. If he's broken the 1 million books mark, I wouldn't hesitate to call him famous. He's more successful than 99.99% of authors.

Makes me very happy you celebrate his success so openly. In my time in the industry, I saw a lot of fiction authors dismissed by their family/friends who worked in non-creative industries. Thanks for being one of the awesome relatives. :)

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#172

Post by mgh2 »

absolutelyrad wrote: post #169
mgh2 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might work for outliers/higher IQ/elite people in the HN community, but consider this: 1. School is probably the best public invention to systematically distribute knowledge to the masses. Some like to point out "dropouts", "self-taught" geniuses or the "lucky few" as models instead of exceptions to the rule. 2. Not everyone is self-motivated to learn. Children, at critical developmental ages, are more prone to…

> 1. School is probably the best public invention to systematically distribute knowledge to the masses. Some like to point out "dropouts", "self-taught" geniuses or the "lucky few" as models instead of exceptions to the rule. NO ITS NOT! This is a lie. There were reports in 1960's when the congress asked for an experiment to different ways of teaching. The children taught in a 1 to 1 way performed enormously better c…

Do you happen to have that report somewhere? If it was buried, can you try to find it online? Where did you see it? Would love to examine it.

Education is of great importance to me, if this shift is a great alternative, I would not ignore the paradigm.

Note: I won't deny the effectiveness of 1-1 teaching (ex: private tutoring).

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#173

Post by andrewflnr »

waterhouse wrote: post #110
sharadov wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this with my son who has an ADHD diagnosis. Pre-covid I constantly heard from school, that he was not paying attention, getting distracted. But since Covid, his output has been phenomenal - his reading/math has improved, he does really well one on one, we have a nanny working with him,. And I've never seen him happier. I know homeschool would benefit him immensely in the long run from an intellectual sta…

> am afraid that he will miss out on all the social aspects. Consider carefully and closely what those social aspects are. Check that your perception matches reality. For example, in the classroom, 90+% of the time students are supposed to be quiet, or to interact with the teacher (usually answering a question—in front of, but not with, the other students). Most of the social part of school is interacting with friend…

Can confirm, my social life improved when my parents started homeschooling me... mostly due to us finding a group of other homeschooling families whose children provided much higher quality socialization.

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#174

Post by xkgt »

Most of the anecdotes here are quite illuminating. But I am interested to understand this from parenting perspective. How much of time and effort a homeschooling parent need to dedicate.

And I wonder whether there is a selection bias in the outcome. Are we looking at a sample of households that are already well off enough to spend dedicated time and resources on homeschooling? Does the family background improve the chances of success significantly? It is hard to separate these tightly coupled factors.

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#175

Post by xkgt »

quesera wrote: post #131
ohazi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see homeschooling being potentially more interesting/engaging for a certain kind of student after the basics are out of the way, but this: > He didn't even learn how to read until he was around 10. to me, is fucking terrifying . All of the people I know who did better on their own than in a classroom were able to do so because they could gobble up half a library in a weekend. I think you need to be able to read…

> to me, is fucking terrifying. The non-intuitive thing about basic reading and math skills is this: If you delay the learning, you learn it much more quickly. So the (ordinary, with no developmental issues) kid who doesn't read until 10, can exceed his or her peers in just a couple years. The very unfortunate corollary, however, is this: The kid with developmental issues might go undiagnosed for a longer time than n…

// If you delay the learning, you learn it much more quickly.

Is there any source for this?

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#176

Post by phobosanomaly »

barry-cotter wrote: post #149
mgh2 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might work for outliers/higher IQ/elite people in the HN community, but consider this: 1. School is probably the best public invention to systematically distribute knowledge to the masses. Some like to point out "dropouts", "self-taught" geniuses or the "lucky few" as models instead of exceptions to the rule. 2. Not everyone is self-motivated to learn. Children, at critical developmental ages, are more prone to…

> School's purpose is not to teach obedience or even getting a job. It is there to teach us critical thinking, and consequently, how to be a good citizen. An educated population is also less prone to fall into totalitarianism. Germany was among the most highly educated countries in the world in the 1930s. The Russian Revolution was an elite phenomenon. In a country of peasants the Revolution was of and by the intelli…

The point of our system is that (as much as is possible) education is not limited to the 'elites' and 'intelligentsia.' Rather, it is distributed in a (relatively) egalitarian fashion amongst not just those who call for war and revolution, but those who rot in the trenches and die upon the bayonet. School is excellent at building the cohesive fabric of a society, including teaching it's boredom, authority, and pointless busywork.

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#177

Post by [deleted] »

mgh2 wrote: post #133
eloff wrote: post #87

My brother and I were homeschooled, but it was quite structured and we wrote the same provincial exams as every other grade 12 kid. My brother did the SAT as well. We had excellent scores. We both dropped out of college with near perfect GPAs. Today I'm a successful self-taught software engineer now starting a SaaS business. My brother is a famous sci fi author. He makes even more than I do. I think homeschooling let…

This might work for outliers/higher IQ/elite people in the HN community, but consider this: 1. School is probably the best public invention to systematically distribute knowledge to the masses. Some like to point out "dropouts", "self-taught" geniuses or the "lucky few" as models instead of exceptions to the rule. 2. Not everyone is self-motivated to learn. Children, at critical developmental ages, are more prone to…

[deleted]

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#178

Post by craftinator »

absolutelyrad wrote: post #169
mgh2 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might work for outliers/higher IQ/elite people in the HN community, but consider this: 1. School is probably the best public invention to systematically distribute knowledge to the masses. Some like to point out "dropouts", "self-taught" geniuses or the "lucky few" as models instead of exceptions to the rule. 2. Not everyone is self-motivated to learn. Children, at critical developmental ages, are more prone to…

> 1. School is probably the best public invention to systematically distribute knowledge to the masses. Some like to point out "dropouts", "self-taught" geniuses or the "lucky few" as models instead of exceptions to the rule. NO ITS NOT! This is a lie. There were reports in 1960's when the congress asked for an experiment to different ways of teaching. The children taught in a 1 to 1 way performed enormously better c…

Cite your source. Provide some sort of corroborating information, such as a link to the article, or a link to a an article about the article. If it's a Congressional Report, it is available on the web.

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#179

Post by klyrs »

1123581321 wrote: post #154
mgh2 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might work for outliers/higher IQ/elite people in the HN community, but consider this: 1. School is probably the best public invention to systematically distribute knowledge to the masses. Some like to point out "dropouts", "self-taught" geniuses or the "lucky few" as models instead of exceptions to the rule. 2. Not everyone is self-motivated to learn. Children, at critical developmental ages, are more prone to…

What is the basis for thinking public education is the best option for education or for political freedom? Must that always be the case if it once was true? Who would be letting a child go astray in a home education environment? Why would a reasonable parent in #3 not conclude that education can be provided via multiple potentially sources, including themselves and a good curriculum? Why would you not say homeschooli…

> Who would be letting a child go astray in a home education environment?

Several of my cousins' families.

Re: When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion

#180

Post by phobosanomaly »

waterhouse wrote: post #115
eloff wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's impossible to say of course. But I think at the least we would have led more conventional lives. For myself, maybe a darker outcome. I was struggling with peer pressure and getting into trouble. The family that owned our house before lost their daughter to overdose. She went to my school. I wonder sometimes how my life could have been had things been slightly different and we hadn't changed to homeschooling (aft…

I suspect it would depend a lot on whether you were allowed to accelerate academically, and the answer would likely have been "no" or "not much". You might take a look at the following study, and see if it rings true to the school you did experience, or to what you've heard from others you've met: "The considerable majority of [the subjects: young people with 160+ IQs in Australia] who have [skipped 2 or more grades…

Community colleges can offer an alternative option, even in smaller suburban and semi-rural areas.

I hated high-school, but I took classes at the local community college every night, my high school accepted the credits, and I graduated high school a year-early with transferrable college credits.

My night-school experience gave me an opportunity to push my brain as far as I wanted, and it showed me what the 'real world' was like since my classmates were in their thirties, as opposed to the 'high-school world,' or whatever my eccentric parents would have cooked up.

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