| | Kelly, I think your article is based on the premise that formal education kills the spirit of independent learning in children. This may be the case, but I don't think we have enough "data points" (of the unschooled) to tell for sure. How many children are there who have grown up without any formal education, and how did they turn out? (...I liked the "Tarzan" response, Stuart! ;-) )
We all recognize that infants learn at an astounding rate, without formal education. Many children keep up the pace through age 4 or so, teaching themselves to read. Is it school that puts the brakes on this progress, or is it the physiology of brain development? We know that it's harder for adults to learn a language. Is that because school sapped their enthusiasm, or because the adult brain is different?
Your child, if you stick with this approach, will at least be a data point. We will see if she becomes a Nobel prize-winner, or if she's living in your basement when she's 35.
You imply that we shouldn't bother to learn anything that isn't interesting to us. I guess you think that if something is useful, like mathematics, then of course the child will be interested enough to learn it. I don't think this is true. A small child simply isn't capable of deciding what is "important" to learn. I think that unless you start with a very unusual child who is interested in everything, you will end up with a very uneven education: a child who is a virtuoso pianist but cannot write, or a child who writes novels but cannot count. Actually, in thinking about it, this would be kinda cool in a way! Your approach may encourage excellence in the child's chosen area of interest, but still I think some "coercion" will be necessary to ensure that the child learns the fundamentals in areas that are not of particular interest to her.
One problem with this "don't study it if you don't care about it" idea is that you may end up with a kid who refuses to do anything she doesn't feel like doing. Most people start out in jobs that are not our chosen profession. It is important that the child recognize that there will be jobs she has to do during her life that she isn't crazy about. Even in her chosen field, there will be aspects of her job that she doesn't care for. But these things have to be done. Learning stuff you don't care about will promote responsibility and discipline. A good school should be able to do this without rendering the child comatose with boredom, however!
You give an example of a child who wants to be an astronaut, so she studies mathematics and physics. This may be the case with some children, but oftentimes, we discover what we are interested in while we are learning the basics! I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but by the end of junior high, I knew I liked math. I started out majoring in accounting in college, but found that I enjoyed my computer classes much more, so switched to that area. If I had been "unschooled" as a child, I probably would have spent all my time reading novels, and would not have discovered my aptitude or interest in mathematics.
My eight-year-old son is quite gifted, but if he were "unschooled", he would spend 14 hours a day in front of the computer playing the free games on wonka.com, pfgoldfish.com, etc., etc. He wants to be a writer when he grows up. But he needs encouragement to make that more than an idle desire, to actually DO some writing. And, in order to have some CONTENT to write ABOUT, he needs to study other subjects. Even he recognizes this. We discussed this article, and when I asked him what he thought, he said, "I think she's crazy!" An example he gave was, "Who's going to learn social studies without somebody making you learn it in school?" He understands that it's important to learn about many different subjects, not only to make you a competent and well-informed adult, but to help you determine what you are truly interested in.
As Kat noted, every child is different, and some of us (like me and my son) are a bit too lazy to do well without formal education pushing us along. My major complaint about my elementary education is that it was "learning in slow motion." I enjoyed it, and did well, but I felt that the pace was too slow and I would have enjoyed being pushed harder.
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