ABC News, "Unschooling: No Tests, Books or Classes" - Page 2

[zebra15]

No comment. However you are more then welcome to come look at our books LOL

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by mary3mama

As to the family not being prepared, they were probably interviewed and filmed for hours. But the family had no control of how all that footage was edited.

That same thing occurred to me after my initial reaction. I really don't think some of them are among the most articulate unschoolers around - and I don't think they should have accepted the invitation to represent unschooling - but the brief shots shown were probably picked out to best represent the spin ABC intended to put on it. - Lillian

[Ygle]

wow, just wow, wow, wow... I found that so incredibly offensive... and to think I could've just continued about my happy day, but no, foolish me, I had to watch that, and I'm not sure if I'm more shocked at those two people (and that guy having to get his word in there for his kids not to get any ideas... what kind of sicko control freak is that obnoxious *$**##!!!) or my not so kind calm reaction, argh!

Oh, someone mentioned about the teeth brushing here... yeah, something seemed weird about that to me, I don't know if they were just going out of their way to obnoxiously make a point (which I am absolutely not above myself!) or that's really how it is, but I found it odd, and the mom checking on how much money the little kid had... I don't know, it was like they considered their children separate entities somehow rather than a part of the family, maybe? I don't know, it was just very peculiar to me all together.

And god forbid children should ever be allowed to play hooky.... gotta keep 'em busy, busy, busy with pointless busy work all day long! And, yes, I have not a single doubt in my mind that psycho woman's children would rather watch television than read a book (what is the deal with people's obsession with reading anyways? have they even read any of those recent books on the children's reading lists? not exactly brilliant -just saying)... it's people like her that give children a bad name. Evil, evil, evil.

[Ygle]

And another thing (can't believe I'm still steaming about this, haha!), as if asking the girl if she feels prepared for college means anything... does any sophomore in HS feel prepared for college? This was actually a BIG motivator for me to unschool my own children so they would be prepared for the real world and college unlike myself and my other top of the class, gifted and talented, straight A, honor roll, high IQ, etc. peers that found themselves experiencing a serious wake up call when we got to college and realized how completely unprepared we all were. Ugh! Clearly these people are not spending any time checking out what's happening with freshmen and sophomores in college (in addition to not reading popular children's literature).

'kay, I think I'm done and can move on... one can only hope! I am feeling a need to form my own country though....

[chaoticzenmom]

I thought it was funny when they said they disagreed with it because it felt like "playing hooky." They're not supposed to be anywhere, so they're not playing hooky.

We're always out of our house. We barely have time to do any sit-down learning. My kids definitely don't think that they're the center of the universe. Our rules are rules for the family in order to help our home-life flow. We really avoid arbitrary rules. Brushing teeth is not arbitrary and the kids know exactly why they have to brush.

It's funny that they talk about school exposing you to things that you may like. The truth is that school is sooo limiting. Would you like to play football or volleyball? Paint or draw? And if you want to do those things, you have to do them AFTER school...after homework, after dinner, etc. The interviewer doesn't seem to get how ironic her statement was. She was so condescending to the kids in the interview. I think the kids realized that there was no "right" answer and it made them reluctant to answer.

These "doubters" can't imagine that you could pick up a textbook and just read and learn what's in it. They've probably never had time to actually get interested in something and then learn it. My kids did chose tv or computer over other stuff for awhile, but then got bored (as people tend to do) and have been much more interested in creating things.

But, what can you expect from an ABC segment, really. It's just a reminder that people don't get it. I'm surrounded by so many home and unschoolers that I completely forget that people don't get this

[Piglet68]

I won't even watch this because I am so jaded as to mainstream media and what passes for "news" in our society. It is sensationalist, pure and simple. This has happened many times. Didn't Oprah interview a lovely unschooling family years ago and totally duped them into thinking they were truly interested in presenting their perspective and then turns out they just made them look like idiots, edited the heck out of everything, etc.

Mainstream society is threatened by any questioning of what it assumes to be "the Norm". People, IMHO, don't want to be challenged to think differently. And media contributes to this greatly.

But, what can you expect from an ABC segment...I'm surrounded by so many home and unschoolers that I completely forget that people don't get this

This is exactly how I feel. And I like it that way.

[LauraN]

So they brought the parents back and had them respond to some of the comments. Still not great, but a slight improvement over their first segment: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/...ry?id=10422823

And here's a blog written by an unschooling mom who's a friend of theirs and started her blog as a result of the GMA segment: http://radicalunschooling.blogspot.c...ica-piece.html

This whole GMA was such a fracas. Ugh.

[starlein26]

Originally Posted by LauraN

So they brought the parents back and had them respond to some of the comments. Still not great, but a slight improvement over their first segment: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/...ry?id=10422823

And here's a blog written by an unschooling mom who's a friend of theirs and started her blog as a result of the GMA segment: http://radicalunschooling.blogspot.c...ica-piece.html

This whole GMA was such a fracas. Ugh.

I just started to watch the clip...and right away, I'm struck with this statement by "Juju" (not exact quote but close enough): Our family takes it one step furter, extending the unschooling philosophy into parenting???

CLEARLY, they do.not.get.it and re-invited the family for further ridicule...

[purslaine]

I don't think it was awful. Maybe I have watched too many "Wife Swaps" and was expecting worse, lol.

I thought the parents with the teens did an adequate job. Really, I think they could have discussed love of learning more and showcased how USing led them to be able to delve further into interest - but they probably are not in control of what gets aired.

I think the female reporter was very hard on the teens - borderline disrespectful. As usual, I think there is a double standard at play- do they ever go up to schooled teens and ask them if they feel they missed out by being in school? The sort "we are trying to prove you are cracked in the head" questionning would not have happenned with typically schooled teens.

As the mother of a 14 yr old, though, I got to wonder what the parents were thinking. I would not ask my children to explain or defend our lifestyle choice - and I wonder why they did so? Maybe they felt the need to be the poster children for USing? Even if the kids were onboard with being poster children, they should have been better prepared and knew what they were going to say and point out going in.

I am less happy with the family of the younger kids - not brushing teeth? doughnuts for breakfast? If these are one-offs then they should not have done them in fornt of the camera as they can be and were totally misconstrued. Alternately they should have pointed out the yes, little Donnie does eat a doughnut if he wants, but we usually do not have donoughts in the house, and 4/5 of the time he eats oatmeal or bacon and eggs for breakfast.

The teeth thing is just baffling. There is no way I would do that on TV (or IRL) What were they thinking?

[Callimom]

Originally Posted by starlein26

Our family takes it one step furter, extending the unschooling philosophy into parenting???

CLEARLY, they do.not.get.it

I'm confused. I hear RUers describe it exactly this way. Why is it wrong for GMA to describe it that way?
I thought the discussion was pretty fair. I don't know that unschooling is suited for a sound bite kind of discussion so I don't know that it makes it much better but I thought it was fair.

[purslaine]

LauraN - Thanks for posting the follow up clip. I thought they did a much better job in the follow up.

Kathy

[TwinMomPlus]

Originally Posted by Karenwith4

I wasn't impressed with the kids' or the parents' ability to express themselves or get the idea of unschooling across to an audience that likely has little knowledge of or affinity for the idea.

I thought this too! I don't know much about unschooling at all and was excited to see the piece but even I could tell there was more to US than this family was able to portray. But, I think ABC did a good job of making them look bad by only showing them play around in the front yard and play video games. The only educational thing I saw them show was the kids pointing at some seedlings they were growing. I'm sure they do more than play all day and do more than random little "lessons" but ABC didn't make it seem that way!

[annakiss]

Originally Posted by kathymuggle

I am less happy with the family of the younger kids - not brushing teeth? doughnuts for breakfast? If these are one-offs then they should not have done them in fornt of the camera as they can be and were totally misconstrued. Alternately they should have pointed out the yes, little Donnie does eat a doughnut if he wants, but we usually do not have donoughts in the house, and 4/5 of the time he eats oatmeal or bacon and eggs for breakfast.

The teeth thing is just baffling. There is no way I would do that on TV (or IRL) What were they thinking?

The family with younger children was from a Discovery Health show called "Radical Parenting." They shot much much more footage and used very little. The doughnuts were brought in the day of shooting by the producer, so of course that got aired when they say "choose what they want to eat." The other thing is, the mom only said, "Would you like to brush your teeth?" That may have been really enough for her kids to get going on brushing their teeth. I'm sure with certain soundbites (I'm thinking of SuperNanny and the like) a more mainstream family could have a couple minute long battle with a kid to get them to brush their teeth and that would show how manipulated by their kids they are, ya know? It's all editing, really.

I can't imagine what I would look like if my whole day were condensed down to a few minutes. I could be manipulated to look like Supermom, a complete slacker, a screaming banshee, or an earth goddess, depending. And really, I'm none of those things!

[starlein26]

Originally Posted by Karenwith4

I'm confused. I hear RUers describe it exactly this way. Why is it wrong for GMA to describe it that way?
I thought the discussion was pretty fair. I don't know that unschooling is suited for a sound bite kind of discussion so I don't know that it makes it much better but I thought it was fair.

Oh, it just struck me as an odd statement. I don't view parenting and unschooling as dichotomous, maybe that's why it was odd to me.... I view unschooling as a natural/organic extension of a certain parenting/philosophical framework...not that one extends unschooling into parenting?

[starlein26]

Originally Posted by annakiss

I can't imagine what I would look like if my whole day were condensed down to a few minutes. I could be manipulated to look like Supermom, a complete slacker, a screaming banshee, or an earth goddess, depending. And really, I'm none of those things!

[Ygle]

You know I actually think they did a great job and when I showed it to my family my daughters commented on not seeing any sibling rivalry or teens vs. parents (as they so often see on tv)... and it was great to see a family having fun and enjoying and respecting each other, enough not to 'school' their children in how to respond to antagonistic questioners. They (my kids) also were completely confused that Juju didn't finish her comment about 'if my kids had the choice between television and tv'... I hadn't even noticed that she hadn't actually answered that, just left the assumption out there... they were asking me to rewind to find out what she said and then wondering how I knew. They haven't been exposed to the same incredibly negative attitudes people have about children and how they can't be allowed to choose for themselves and need to be forced to do anything all the time (I also had to explain what playing hooky was to them, ha!, they really didn't get that one) because those people never let kids choose and force them to do stuff all the time.... it really is evil, imao.

[momo7]

Oh I read it. I replied too (My ID was Carrots and apples). The article was slanted. No surprise there. The press is never friendly to parents who decide to take it upon themselves to actually be the ones to educate their own children. God forbid, I mean really.....people actually thinking for themselves? NO WAY!

[Savoir Faire]

As for the PE issue....


I went through the whole public education system (including PE) and I still hate volleyball.

I flinch when my 4-year-old tosses a ball in my direction.

[rumi]

well i haven't seen it yet (!) but ... someone said

I am perfectly capable of holding rational sounding conversation, but lose track of what I'm saying if someone approaches me with a pointed question

I am this way about some things as well, but after some practice i can reflect upon diverse views and make my point succinctly. One would think that someone practicing something as non-conformist as unschooling would have had ample opportunity to have such conversations - not only defensively but also in the spirit of open discussion, respectfully and constructively.

Perhaps unschoolers lean a bit too heavily on the "Pass the Bean Dip" response, which ends up stifling creative thining and even social skills, imho. iirc, the originator of that response later stated that it should not be overused, and that it could actually interfere with positive parenting approaches. I can't find the article where she said that though.

Of course some just aren't so skilled in talking on or off camera and if so should decline TV opportunities.

And though I tend to agree that unschooling is not necessarily something you can show in a short tv program, a skilled journalist and a smart family could have done better.
Some time back I saw a tv program where the journliast seemed fairly sympathetic and genuinely interested ... and yet the family came across seeming very inarticulate and unsure of what they meant anytime the journalist asked a probing question.

re PE: I'd like to add that I went through public school and never liked gym. But since I was a straight-A student, I took every opportunity to get extra credit so that I would also get an A in gym. These included things like writing a report on the hisory of Volleyball and even taking a shower after class (can you belive students had to be bribed with extra points in order to do this - it was actually the best part of gym class for me!)

[*Lisa*]

I thought it was interesting that the stats about the number of unschoolers was accompanied by a picture of an unhappy child.

I'm sure that they had more good footage (it seems likely that the kids talked more about the seedlings and other good stuff they were doing), but they chose not to use it.