Unschooling Does Not Mean Uneducated

Unschooling is different from traditional grade-level structural education in every aspect of its design, rather than placing a child in a classroom of four walls and teaching what the government has constructed it allows the child to determine their syllabus. The controversy about unschooling is the freedom that the students receive. The teachers sole purpose is to provide an environment to nurture the students interest, in the students own way while providing what’s needed to follow those interest (Morrison, 2016). This system of homeschooling allows an extraordinary amount of play for students under the philosophy that through play will arouse learning within the student and most importantly the student will entertain learning while progressing on their own terms. The end goal that parents seek is to embrace and nurture their child’s desire to become life-long learners that seek

When students think of educational schooling, they think of grueling hours of sitting in a classroom and getting lectured about things they do not believe they will ever apply to the real life. Maybe it is just me. Not many students in the more richer and developed countries will ever realize how privileged they are. It is so easy to say that they do not like or want something even when it is presented to them. However, there are still places that are not given the opportunity to improve their lifestyles because they do not have an access to schooling. Access to education is a very important factor to bridge the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries. It is also the reason that humans have gotten this far in history. Without teaching

Mandatory, enforced schooling is common all over the world, and is generally seen as a public good, and a privilege of first world countries. However, author and teacher John Gatto argues that mandatory schooling destroys your ability to be free thinkers and therefore should not exist, in his piece “Against School”. Despite his effective use of ethos, Gatto’s argument fails to be convincing due to logical fallacies, and a lack of evidence or first hand experience.

Marty Nemko, in the article, “We Send Too Many Students To College,” acknowledges that colleges have become obscenely expensive and that it is possible to be successful without going to college. Arguing that too many students are sent to college without realizing that it is not imperative, Nemko targets parents in his claims that colleges focus on educating in the cheapest way possible and most importantly, that the advantage of past college graduates in the job market is declining. One of his main reasons is that even though the average college graduate makes more money, hundreds of thousands of students in the bottom half of their high school class do not succeed in higher education. Nemko’s article is the most persuasive article on whether college education still has value as he argues that college is not beneficial to everyone through demonstrations of hyperbole, and figurative language.

Bruni quotes the President of the National Center on Education, Marc Tucker, “ Our students have an inflated sense of their academic prowess.They don’t expect to spend much time studying, but they confidently expect good grades and marketable degrees”(par.25). From a young age we need to teach these children you succeed from hard work. Many parents have been exempting their children from test and are expecting them to learn? In order for kids to be able to learn what they need to, parents need to allow them to deal with the difficult times.

Education gives common people the means to turning dreams into reality. Education allows common people to open up their minds to various possibilities, that will arise from becoming educated. But, yet there are times where our education systems do not uphold student/learners to a high norm. Although, problems with education systems rarely occur, inadequate performance in school can be feasible if there are issues within the child’s household. Nonetheless, students who face inconsistent dilemmas, fail since they attempt to solve both problems.

Parents believe their kids are too young and immature to make a decision by them selves, therefore they pressure their kids into attending college believing it is the best thing for them. The author does not agree with these actions and thinks that students should decide for themselves whether or not they want to continue their education. If students feel that college is not for them, they should not stay there just because somebody expects them to. Furthermore, she states that if everyone got a higher education everybody would be on the same intellectual level, and there would be no difference in people.

Kozlowska explains that the concept of unschooling is a natural way of learning that all children experience before they start traditional school. She uses logos in the following quote: “‘...There is no reason to believe that this ability to make mental connections, to ask questions, would disappear by the age of 5 and 6.’” to try to convince the audience that unschooling better prepares children for the real world. Kozlowska gives an example of a family that was able to successfully utilize the method of unschooling to allow their two children to learn at their own pace and explore their own interests instead of being forced to learn about topics they believe will never be present in their adult

Educational Researcher by Gloria Ladson-Billings looked into the ratio between education and achievement and what the gap was between them and how to fix it. According to an interview with strict economist Professor Emeritus Robert Haveman of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Economics he makes it clear by stating that “ In order to reduce the debt or gap in one being achievement you must then close the gap of the other being education” Ladson-Billings also goes on to recognize the parallel between not only your economic status when it comes to education but how well your parents did before you among many other things including your health along with your overall well being playing a factor into your education ( Ladson-Billings, Oct 2006, P 5). Additionally the first teachers of a student are their parents whom in the home are responsible for teaching their children the basic fundamentals they must adhere to within society in order to navigate throughout life.Thus giving them many opportunities to experience cultural and life development (Wilburn, Smith & Hill-Carter, 2013, P 242). This research ties into chapter three of our book where education is discussed and one such topic that Michael’s remarks upon would be annual family incomes and how depending on what is made shows what the students of the

Society has put so much emphasis on attending college after high school, making it a social norm. During the last two years of high school guidance consolers, teachers, parents and their children begin meeting and have discussions on whats next after high school. Many parents such as the ones in the study conducted by Holmstrom, Lynda Lytle plan to send their children to college after high school. One parent stated “ what kind of economic future do they have if they are not educated.” Participating parents were from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and those who’ve attending college and some that did not were in agreement that the benefits were everlasting. When asked what they received from attending college parents gave responses such as “ I was well served, it was a tremendously exciting place, along with gaining new prospective on the world, boosting self confidences and broadening and opening their minds. Other parents expressed the ability to obtain a job they were about to provide for their families along with gaining personal benefits like health care. The parents in this study were faced with the truths of having to pay for their children’s higher education and overall they were willing to go the extra mile so their children were able to go to college and not be struggling to make ends meet in the years

Homeschooling is a type of education which typically occurs in the home with the child’s parent or guardian serving as the primary educator. Currently, homeschooling is legal in all 50 states and is considered to be one of the fastest growing segments of K-12 education in the United States. In 2007, homeschooled students represent approximately 3 percent of children attending K-12 in the United States (Cogan 19). Since homeschooling is outside the control of the traditional education system, questions have been raised as to whether or not homeschooling can adequately prepare students for a college environment and the rigors of college academics. One side of this argument claims that homeschooling does not adequately prepare students for a college environment. Supporters of this side believe that homeschooling isolates students from the outside world, rendering them socially and educationally handicapped (Romanowski 125). Since their schooling experiences are limited to their homeschool setting, they are at a disadvantage with their postsecondary studies (Romanowski 127). The other side argues that homeschooling is an adequate form of schooling for college preparation. I BELIEVE THAT HOMESCHOOLING CAN ADEQUATELY PREPARE STUDENTS FOR A COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT.

The decision to obtain a higher education beyond high school is no longer a question of if, but when. This is the question that author Caroline Bird discusses in her article, “College is a Waste of Time and Money,” written in 1975. This text strives to convince students, parents, and advisors that obtaining a degree might not be in the best interest for those involved. Circling around the idea that college is a requirement and no longer an act of free will. Bird starts the article off strongly by building her credibility through her own personal research and other credible sources as well as appealing to readers through logical reasoning using numerous statistics, but fails to convince readers and discredits her ultimate goal through a disconnect in her use of analogies.

Hyper parenting has not allowed individuals to form their own identity. Such individuals are faced with economic and social problems and lack skills to solve such problems on their own. Skills that are needed to cope with the difficulties of society are now being fought by their parents. University psychologists report that today’s students have higher levels of anxiety than any generation before and employers are now required to provide extra supervision because of their self-entitlement behaviour (Barlett, Lerose 2010). Hyper parenting removes the ability of one’s agency and creates structures that forces children to be socially constructed. As a result several individuals are unemployed and about 53% of individuals under the age of 25 do not have a stable job (Koslow, 2012). This has caused several individuals to move back with their parents and ask for assistant with paying off debts. David Foot states, that the boomers are staying in the workforce longer because they have little savings and this has caused individuals in their 40`s to be stuck in their career path and little entry level positions are available for the younger generation (Kennedy, 2012). Having a higher education level does not always lead one to live a successful life. Success can have several paths and education is not the only way. No one really knows what success

Written eighty years ago, these same ideals of parental involvement in education ring true today and are the basis for educational goals in involving parents in their child’s education.

“The Right to Control One’s Learning”, by John Holt, is an article that focuses on how people should have the right to control and direct their own method of learning. Holt goes in depth by claiming that the school systems are corrupting the students and their right of controlling their own learning is in jeopardy. The article has pro-learning and anti-schooling as the overall tone. Speaking about this, I do believe that general schooling is necessary, students can still achieve similar results without being forced in an unjust and strict environment. Holt provides various points which includes students’ freedom of choice, school being too oppressive, and unnecessary teachings at school.