4 day school week.

[Mom70x7]

Mom, I 'm glad you've heard of unschooling. Personally I'm a little skeptical.

I'm not a fan of unschooling. I think it's similar to those who say give a monkey a typewriter and eventually you'll get Shakespeare. (or whatever that saying is - but I think you can get the gist of what I mean.)

homeschooling doesn't necessarily bar them from learning what they want. It in fact allows greater freedom for the kids to explore what interests them.

This is what's good about homeschooling. if kids are interested in something, then the adults have to help them explore what interests them - show them the resources where they can learn more.

I think that's what good teachers do, whether in a public school, a private school or a home school. All have good teachers, all have bad teachers.

Some schools are more structured than others; some kids need more structure, some need less. They all need guidance of some kind, however, and from what I've seen and heard about unschooling, it doesn't provide any.

[Diane Amberg]

I'm in favor of whatever works! One size does not fit all. Kids do need some structure as far as I'm concerned, some more than others.  Time management skills are important too and free wheeling it day after day won't help with that at all.
Some adults who were never fit to be parents are better off having their kids somewhere else during the school day. I know that sounds rough, but we all know some of those.

[twirldoggy]

Very interesting discussion.  Susan

[Varmit]

From what I've seen kids (aside from those with special needs) need regiment and discipline.  You want to see a child excel?  Place them in  a Bootcamp like enviroment, set the standard high and accept nothing else.  If a child doesn't give 100% towards an assignment make them do it again, until it becomes habit.  And for the love of all that is holy, quit giving children an award for every little thing they do.  Recently, at my oldest boys 6th grade "graduation" every single child in his class recieved an "achievment" award.  I was expecting the teachers to start with the "and here is little johnny's award for showing up with a pulse" bit.  Make the children EARN their awards by meeting the standards.

[srkruzich]

From what I've seen kids (aside from those with special needs) need regiment and discipline.  You want to see a child excel?  Place them in  a Bootcamp like enviroment, set the standard high and accept nothing else.  If a child doesn't give 100% towards an assignment make them do it again, until it becomes habit.  And for the love of all that is holy, quit giving children an award for every little thing they do.  Recently, at my oldest boys 6th grade "graduation" every single child in his class recieved an "achievment" award.  I was expecting the teachers to start with the "and here is little johnny's award for showing up with a pulse" bit.  Make the children EARN their awards by meeting the standards.

Yeah that is a big problem, it turns awards and achievements into meaningless pursuits.    1st 2nd and 3rd place awards should be what is needed to spur excellence.
Did you see that crap about someone wanting to make words easier to spell???  Sheesh. WHat happened to learning how to spell the darn word instead of reducing the english language to the texting crowds

[redcliffsw]

You're contrary & disputing the experts in the gov't education system.
But, you're right and you have the right to do so, so stay right in there.

[Wilma]

Yeah, what's wrong with the way words are spelled now, if people would just learn to spell.

[pamagain]

From what I've seen kids (aside from those with special needs) need regiment and discipline.  You want to see a child excel?  Place them in  a Bootcamp like enviroment, set the standard high and accept nothing else.  If a child doesn't give 100% towards an assignment make them do it again, until it becomes habit.  And for the love of all that is holy, quit giving children an award for every little thing they do.  Recently, at my oldest boys 6th grade "graduation" every single child in his class recieved an "achievment" award.  I was expecting the teachers to start with the "and here is little johnny's award for showing up with a pulse" bit.  Make the children EARN their awards by meeting the standards.

Whats the difference betwen this and what you call government school indoctrination. You all aren't against indoctrination....you just want your kids indoctrinated YOUR way LOL

Kids do need rules and structure.....they DON'T need to be browbeat ( as in bootcamp like environment) and they DON'T need to be coddled ( as in everybody wins).
In my humble opinion any kid worth their salt is going to rebel against ANY kind of INDOCTRINATION and think for themselves.

and yeah giving every kid an award whether they are good at something or not is doing that child a DISSERVICE......they never find their TRUE talents if you blow smoke up their ass that they are good at everything. They never learn to try again when they fail. The ones who are TRULY good at any given thing don't realize they are BETTER at that one thing. 

[Diane Amberg]

Ahem... my turn too. Thanks Pam. Some of our language and words are based on other languages that we picked up over the years. Why change the spelling? As you know there was a time when spelling wasn't standardized. When everyone lived in the country or small villages it didn't matter much, but as we began to travel and broaden our horizons it did matter. Last names needed to be spelled the same as the generations passed by. Look at all the variations some names have.  In some cases peoples' lives depended on it.
As far as rewards for kids achievements, it's important, but the pendulum has swung too far now in some cases. I remember being pleased,when as a first grader I brought home a star on my paper and Mom praising me for it, but that was it. They didn't throw a celebration.  I was expected to get good grades and that was that. It didn't take a boot camp atmosphere. Not every elementary school kid should be treated as if he/she is going to be a Marine and that is very short sighted to think so. Most parents wouldn't stand for it anyway.
How do you know what 100% is for any given child?  Every child is different and every day is different and every subject is different. That's what the teacher works on. If a child comes to school in tears because he just found out his parents are divorcing, the teacher doesn't tell said child to "suck it up" and get back to work. The teacher also can't get carried away with sympathy either. (By the way Varmit, the word is "regimen" not "regiment"...they are not in the military!)  Consistency is a good word too. I do agree that overdoing the awards can cheapen the success, but doesn't everyone enjoy their high school band letter or sports letter, or earning their way onto a team? We even had a reward of sorts for spelling. New words were introduced on Monday with an introductory test followed by the usual "use it in a sentence" etc. A trial test was given on Wednesday. Then the final test was given on Friday. Words that were spelled correctly on Wednesday could be skipped on Friday. Many kids never took a Friday test. That's a well earned reward.
Some kids can be real discipline problems who have the notion that even scolding is attention and they want and need it. Then we try to catch them doing something, anything, to compliment. Usually after a short time they find that a nice compliment is much better than a grumpy  criticism and they begin to turn around. It doesn't always work, but often does. If you saw me quietly complimenting a child for putting his books neatly away you'd think I was nuts. But get the whole story!
 I don't understand all the graduations either. We didn't/don't have that. I graduated from Kennett High School, period. I think some kindergartens have graduations because the moms want cute photos? I'm not sure.
 I agree that the self image thing can be over done, especially when the parents get overly involved, but boot camp? How about a child version of a horse whisperer instead. I could wither a child just by giving the kid my third grade school teacher double whammy look. Still can. I rarely ever had to raise my voice to my own classroom kids.
  Red ......ya remind me of the little kid on the play ground who stands on the sidelines and encourages  the other two boys to punch each others' lights out.
What branch of the service were YOU in?

[greatguns]

What I have seen on unschooling makes me believe it is completely INSANE.