A blog which is mainly about home educating in the UK.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Home Schoolers Taking the Flak
I usually assume that criticisms of the more unschooling forms of home education are motivated by a genuine if ignorant belief that the parents are being irresponsible and the children let down. An editor here thinks it can be pure jealousy.
Definitely jealousy is what is at the root of so much criticism of HE - it immediately rang true! Thanks for spotting this article and putting up a link.
There is jealousy of the parent who has (or finds) the time to be at home, and of course there is jealousy of the child which is particularly strong I think, who has the chance of experiencing a great life and doesn't have to get up in the morning. The early bird behaviour being one of the things that has been drummed into people's heads by their parental battle axes as the essential way to success.
I reckon this jealousy arises from parents and teachers feeling delegitimised by unschooling, especially if the unschooled are flourishing.
They apply creativity and effort to prodding and thwarting the children in their care. They can't face the idea that this investment may have been wasted (hello Concorde Fallacy). Thus, to relieve the psychological pressure, they invent a conspiracy theory that unschoolers are cheating somehow.
Time of rising from bed -- what an old chestnut. Surely it's past time to upgrade it to 'number of hours slept'? That would be slightly less silly.
What a moving piece.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely jealousy is what is at the root of so much criticism of HE - it immediately rang true!
Thanks for spotting this article and putting up a link.
There is jealousy of the parent who has (or finds) the time to be at home, and of course there is jealousy of the child which is particularly strong I think, who has the chance of experiencing a great life and doesn't have to get up in the morning. The early bird behaviour being one of the things that has been drummed into people's heads by their parental battle axes as the essential way to success.
D
I reckon this jealousy arises from parents and teachers feeling delegitimised by unschooling, especially if the unschooled are flourishing.
ReplyDeleteThey apply creativity and effort to prodding and thwarting the children in their care. They can't face the idea that this investment may have been wasted (hello Concorde Fallacy). Thus, to relieve the psychological pressure, they invent a conspiracy theory that unschoolers are cheating somehow.
Time of rising from bed -- what an old chestnut. Surely it's past time to upgrade it to 'number of hours slept'? That would be slightly less silly.