Live data from Hacker News

Unschooling: The Case for Setting Your Kids Into the Wild

outsideonline.com

201–202 of 202 posts

Re: Unschooling: The Case for Setting Your Kids Into the Wild

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know about the problems around the DSM. That doesn't make ADHD less of a "thing" though. Turns out that a questionnaire can diagnose ADHD. This diagnosis predicts anatomical, physiological and psychological differences, and on top of that certain negative consequences and suffering on the part of the patient. Treatment reduces that suffering. What more do you need?

Questionnaires are cheap but less reliable than brain (PET, fMRI) scanning or quantitative attentional testing. What is the impact of a false positive diagnosis on a still-developing young brain? Adults are a different story - they can make their own decisions.

I mentioned questionnaires as a means of reaching a diagnosis which is not dependent on instrumental testing, to make a point about the consistency of subjective evaluation, objective findings, suffering and treatment.

But in General, ADHD diagnosis is not based on PET, fMRI or EEG.

Re: Unschooling: The Case for Setting Your Kids Into the Wild

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just fair warning, most of the people who are responding to you in disagreement have never actually met a un/homeschooled person / person's parents in real life. The reason why unschooling is so bad is entirely social. Homeschooled kids are crippled socially. It sounds good, feels good, etc. but once you actually see it with your own eyes it makes sense why this hasn't caught on.

> It sounds good, feels good, etc. but once you actually see it with your own eyes it makes sense why this hasn't caught on. I doubt that. To me a more plausible and equally good explanation is that schools are primarily places where parents can drop their kids off for half of the day to be able to go to work. Homeschooling requires someone to stay at home and do the schooling, which is becoming less and less afforda…

Yeah.... no. I know people who were more than financially able to do this, and the kids still ended up messed up.

To reiterate, if you actually haven't seen this first-hand, it's best to keep your mouth shut. Confirmation bias only makes this whole thing worse.

Post reply on HN