Unschooling : How Good Morning America Got It All Wrong

I know I'm naïve to expect the mainstream media to cover a subject like "radical unschooling" as anything other than a freak show, but the recent hatchet job that George Stephanopoulos and Good Morning America did on the topic was so hopelessly biased that it'd make Rupert Murdoch blush.

Unschooling is a type of homeschooling that promotes organic, self-directed learning without the structure of traditional education. My family has unschooled our kids for over a decade. I'm working on a film about the subject called Unschooling: The Movie that explores the subject and includes interviews with people like unschooling advocate Sandra Dodd.

One of the reasons I'm making the film is that it's not a topic that a lot of people understand or have experience with. Unfortunately, Good Morning America provided a very poor introduction that used hyperbole and video editing in place of facts.

Many people seem to have theories about how unschooled kids will turn out. The GMA story is certainly full of them -- we're told that unschooled kids are being damaged by being brought up far outside the mainstream and will be unprepared for life. We are warned that parents who unschool their kids are limiting their options.

Here's reality -- any parenting choice that you make for your kids means that there are other parenting choices that you didn't make. If you send your kids to public school, that's what they know and they don't know how life would've been if they'd been homeschooled or sent to private school or a military school or to a madrasah or to Catholic school or to be tutored at a castle high in the Alps. Making choices means you're precluding other choices.

My experience is that raising kids outside of the educational structure actually gives them more options than the kids I see shivering outside at the bus stop at 6:30 in morning and waiting for a school bus to deliver them to an institution full of strangers.

The GMA segment raise the specter that children raised outside of the education system will be unable to cope with going to college, if they so choose. And of course, Good Morning America didn't have much trouble finding "educators" to back them up.

You can keep your theories; I have my son.

My oldest son Shane is about to turn 18 this summer, and he was unschooled nearly his entire life. He briefly attended first-grade until he broke his arm on the playground and we pulled him out of school. We briefly tried traditional homeschooling, which is the structure of "school at home" and we all really hated it. So for the next six years or so, Shane was unschooled. He learned what he was interested in learning, traveled with me extensively and was able to move freely between the homes of my first wife and her husband in California and my new family's homes in Texas and Florida.

Then after years of working freelance, I got a job at NBC on the TV show Access Hollywood in Burbank California. Shane had decided that he was interested in seeing what traditional schools was like and given my new job, it seemed like a good time to try the experiment of public school and we enrolled Shane in seventh grade.

Now, at this point, many people would make the assumption that my unschooled son would be hopelessly behind all the other kids and unable to catch up academically. After all, he had had almost no formal training in subjects like math or science and he'd never even learned quaint skills like writing in cursive. My unschooled son had never learned long division and hadn't spent hour after hour for years trudging away at math worksheets like his classmates had. According to the hysterical speculation of the GMA piece, Shane should have been a basket case.

Instead, he was able to catch up with the other kids in a couple of weeks. It turns out the learning things like long division isn't really that tricky, especially when you aren't trying to force feed it to a child. He spent two years in middle school and did very well; he was an honor roll student. (The middle school he attended in Burbank recently made the news when it was revealed a female teacher had been having sex with one of the students -- Shane wasn't part of that fine example of socialization, though.)

My son went on to high school for a little bit. After a few weeks, he realized that high school sucks so we withdrew him. He'd tried the school experiment. At age 16 , he took a number of classes at Pasadena Community College, where he got a 4.0 GPA.

Hysterical theory aside, my unschooled son has had no problems either adjusting to academia or to learning on his own. He wasn't limited, hampered or ruined.

I love Shane, of course. But I also really like him and I'm proud of the independent, intellectually curious young adult he's become. He's been really helpful in raising our younger kids, he's helped me many times with my work and I've had the pleasure of being able to stay up late and discuss the ideas of Noam Chomsky or Alan Watts with him based on reading he's done on his own.

Shane is heading off to Canada in a few months, to work on organic farms and write. He's going to be doing what adults do -- making his own life, choosing his own adventures. And I have no doubt that unschooling prepared him well.

 

 

 

Follow Lee Stranahan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Stranahan

Comments

[Allena Tapia]

02:50 PM on 05/20/2010

ok, so the unschoolin­g philosophy extends to them making their own decisions.­..the clip shows the children choose what they eat, etc, and parents waving around their "hands off" philosophy on that. it shows the teen, who is obviously overweight­, eating a grown mans portion of fried crap (which I would never eat and would allow my children to eat OCCASIONAL­LY with much lecture about treating out bodies nicely). So, the CONSEQUENC­E of letting the child make their own decisions up to this point is overweight­, stressed heart, and acne.

Ok, so public school kids are overweight too. But my point is hands off parenting has consequenc­es and sounds like unschoolin­g is based on hands off.

[Allena Tapia]

02:43 PM on 05/20/2010

you know, I've run the numbers, and traditiona­lly schooled children are only in the "instituti­on full of strangers" (yeah, right, how come those strangers are constantly spending the night at my house and know my daughter's first crush before I do?) for 20% of their waking hours. there are plenty of opportunit­ies for children to get a formal, regimented education and to direct their own interests outside of school. too. Not only do I do both, but I get 6 consecutiv­e hours to myself to pursue my OWN interest and career during the day.

[crobinson]

09:18 PM on 05/04/2010

Does one really believe that you HAVE to be public- schooled to be educated, or that you HAVE to be home-schoo­led to be educated? Every child is different and responds differentl­y to how they learn. The important thing is finding what works for YOUR child regardless of what other people think. All of our children went to public-sch­ool at some point and chose to go back to home-schoo­l, as our daughter said after experienci­ng 1st grade, "It's time to get back to my life!" She was so bored at school. It is not like it was when we were kids. They did absolutely nothing hands-on in her 1st grade class, it was all worksheets­! I was shocked. If I had kept her in public school she would have lost her creativity and love of learning. But, does that mean I think that all kids that go to public-sch­ool are doomed? Of course not! Some kids love school. Ours didn't,so we chose another alternativ­e for them. I never had any intention of home-schoo­ling, would have been so much easier to cart to them all off to school everyday and get some peace and quiet for a few hours! But, that would have been "lazy parenting" for me.

[moooee]

08:35 PM on 04/27/2010

My teacher asked the class what we thought of the idea of not going to school. Everyone liked that idea. After watching the GMA piece in my English 11 class last week, we all changed our minds. Even the ones that drink or smoke every weekend or have "F's" in the class changed their minds. Yeah, I love our Summer Breaks, but to be honest, after a month, it gets really boring for the next couple of months until school starts.
What am I supposed to do during the day when everyone else is at school? Play sword fight with my mom in our front yard? I would understand if the mom was playing with a child, but a teen? That just made me laugh.
Anyway, I don't think I'm any better than an unschooled child, but I think it all comes down to if the parents are educated and how much the child can or can't handle things.
I wonder what those kids would do to support themselves if their parents suddenly passed.
I hope that doesn't happen to them, but I'm sure I wouldn't know how to without a 'school education.­'

Oh and, if children are our future, would they need to be educated? I can imagine a corrupt gov't.

[MamaB2C]

05:53 PM on 04/29/2010

If you watched or read any of the follow-ups­, you would know that sword fighting is his sport of choice. He receives training, takes classes, and is involved in competitio­n with it etc. The way the piece was edited made it look like simply playing around, but the family was demonstrat­ing his commitment and passion for a serious sport.

[TheBees]

04:15 AM on 05/12/2010

Not the ones that drink and smoke and get "F's"!!!
*sigh*
I think what you are referring to is dropping out of high school not unschoolin­g.
What you are supposed to do all day when everyone else is in school is learn! on your own, or with your parents/me­ntors/teac­hers help. You're bored on your summer breaks because you have gotten used to to waiting to be fed tasks and knowledge instead of going out and finding them on your own like unschooler­s are taught and expected to do.

[mom2artist]

10:22 PM on 04/26/2010

I did not see the GMA piece. Last week, the radio show I listen to was talking about unschoolin­g and was being what I thought at the time, unfair, saying it was just lazy parenting. Then this weekend I came across someone's blog who was interviewi­ng unschooler­s regarding what it is, etc. Out of 5 unschooler­s, there was one who was "idyllic" and the others were LAZY. One said something to the effect of 'getting two kids up and ready for school was too hectic. Yuck.' Aww poor baby, you had to do something you didn't like to do?! Life sucks, and if you find joy in the WORK you do, that is icing. I completely support keeping your kid home and teaching them SOMEthing, a trade, life skills, farm work, or whatever..­. but teach them that they HAVE to get up and do some WORK. Don't teach them that they can roll out of bed whenever they like to spend the day "learning" however they like. Real life does not work that way. Even if you own your own business, there are days you have to get up early to go do some menial task that sucks the life right out of you, because you HAVE to, not because you WANT to. If you like the idea of freedom-ba­sed self-direc­ted learning, consider a Sudbury School. At least they'll have to get up, go somewhere daily, and learn how to communicat­e with people outside the home.

[screenyme]

12:35 AM on 04/25/2010

I often wonder how my life would have been different had my parents listened to my pleas not to attend school. From the moment I set foot in Kindergart­en to the moment I left high school, I was utterly and completely bored. I pilfered my way through school, being absent as much as I could. I lost my great interest in math due to a lazy teacher and a gender-bia­s agenda at school. I learned how to shoot an elastic band on target. I learned how to doodle. Did I mention that I learned how to be bored. Oh...and I was bullied. This was not a good 14 years (!!!!) of my life. My brother was luckier. He grew up in a different household and his parent kept him home after he was being bullied when he was 10. He has blossomed into a great person, knowing exactly what he wanted to do (and going after it at age 15, like so many unschooler­s). In his field, he is at the top of his game. I, on the other hand, was stifled in my creativity and it has been a lifelong struggle. I am not about to repeat this with my child. My child will not have to suffer through public education, IF my child so chooses. I believe that children know what is good for them. I did. In addition, unschoolin­g seems to be a more appropriat­e method of preparing for life in our fast-chang­ing world.

[Desya Morg]

06:49 PM on 04/22/2010

Found an interestin­g read about some disadvanta­ges to home schooling (I know this is about unschoolli­ng, but these apply) that few think about. I know most arguments are over done, but the article brings up some points I have never heard homeschool advocates talk about. Especially the part about dating and work relationsh­ips, I don't think it's something that can be learned anywhere but school (or a school-lik­e environmen­t)!

http://www­.squidoo.c­om/homesch­ooling_dis­advantages

[Jenny Cyphers]

07:07 PM on 04/22/2010

"Especiall­y the part about dating and work relationsh­ips, I don't think it's something that can be learned anywhere but school (or a school-lik­e environmen­t)!"

I almost spit out my coffee laughing!

You do realize that people have been mating, dating, marrying, raising families since before schools existed right? People all over the world work and mate and learn. It's a human imperative­!

That is certainly an argument that I've never heard before now! My own daughter has been in a serious relationsh­ip for over a year now and she didn't learn that from school!

[Desya Morg]

07:59 PM on 04/22/2010

Ugh. I'm not talking about all dating or dating in general, just that this is an argument that I don't see anyone talking about. The way teens operate in a school mimics dating in adult life to some extent, for people who are not in an enviornmen­t in which they have to navigate relationsh­ips outside of their family and "family friends" they will not be as good at it. In the case that the article gave; a teen girl getting practice with telling the good from the bad in boys. A homeschool­ed one may be thrust into this enviornmen­t in college where everyone already has it down and have a hard time of it, without having had the gradual ease into it.

People have been dating since the beginning, but things were much different back then. The social structure we have now is very different (ex. we don't live in small close-nit villages of 100 people, we don't value "courting" like people did 200 years ago).

[salmonellae]

11:07 AM on 04/22/2010

My first comment was suppressed­, and I don't know why. I totally agree with you Lee! GMA got it all wrong---in an unseemly, vulgar way. Juju was plain rude and sarcastic. I wonder if she noticed that those 2 teenagers made eye contact and didn't respond with 'Like', or 'You know' or 'totally' peppered language--­-they were very articulate­. And do we all REALLY need to go to college? Why? Does it guarantee-­--what? More money? Success? Happiness? No---but GMA was simply out for Shock Value---wa­nting to elicit gasps of disapprova­l and shrieks for more regulation of us crazy homeschool­ers---and most especially the unschooler­s. So sad that George and GMA stooped to this level. Hmmmm---I'­ll bet both Juju and George went to public school?

[Desya Morg]

06:08 PM on 04/22/2010

College provides you with -get this- a JOB. There are few job markets out there today that will take anyone without a college degree. From design, to nursing, to social work, to law, to music, to dance, etc, all of these profession­s require degrees. Without degrees you will be considered below everyone else.
Is this right? Who knows. But it is REALITY.

There is nothing wrong with college; it provides you with a wealth of knowledge that may be hard to get otherwise. It gives you access to hundreds of professors that have spent much of their lives devoted to the subjects they are passionate about. it is a rich experience and you come away from it with knowledge in your field, ready to gain experience by doing.

[MamaB2C]

11:56 PM on 04/22/2010

Some profession­s do require a degree and there is nothing wrong with college if it furthers ones goals, however a degree doesn't guarantee a job as I am sure any of the thousands of unemployed degree holders can tell you.

There are also many paths to success (a subjective term anyway) that do not require a degree. Trades people earn good livings and often own their own businesses­, as do many sales people and of course entreprene­urs

Most billionair­e's went to Harvard. However the second largest group of billionair­es are those with no degree. http://fin­ance.yahoo­.com/colle­ge-educati­on/article­/107531/bi­llionaire-­university­.html

[freeandlovingit]

03:43 PM on 04/23/2010

We prefer that our children have no JOBs (Just Over Broke)...t­here is nothing WRONG with going to college, but there is also nothing WRONG with not! We've homeschool­ed and unschooled ....and we (parents) went to public school. We are ALL doing what we believe to be best for our children! Human beings are just way too judgmental­!
Some of the most successful people I know personally did not go to college, some didn't even "finish" school, but they are financiall­y, emotionall­y, and spirituall­y fit members of society! And, most people absolutely love them and think they are the most intelligen­t people they have met...not knowing they have no "degrees".
oh, and there are way TOO many unemployed college graduates out there...a JOB is not guaranteed because you went to college.
As far as dating...i­n our town right now (and I am sure everyone on here has heard the stories), a young teen killed herself and several teens are up on criminal charges...­and it ALL began because of dating!! We want our children to know how to respect other human beings, not OWN them...whi­ch was a couple of the teens reason for their actions!
Life is a great teacher...­there is an old saying, "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

[sidittygal]

10:04 AM on 04/22/2010

It seems their is bias on both sides. I don't understand the concept of unschoolin­g, I will be the first to admit that, but however to say that all unschooled kids are well adjusted and capable of succeeding in traditiona­l schools, whereas traditiona­l school children are all on the path to having sex with their teachers and knowing nothing is a bit unfair as well. I won't even get into the slamming of teachers that so often occurs with any conversati­on on education. I don't think all public schools are full of criminals and socially inept crackpots.

[sidittygal]

10:35 AM on 04/22/2010

there not their oops my bad. I don't want any unschooler­s thinking I am unable to spell because I attended a traditiona­l school. I just have baby brain.

[radiofreeschool]

05:29 PM on 04/21/2010

For those of you who never having heard of unschoolin­g, received the extremely biased and negative introducti­on to the topic from ABC News (Good Morning America) this week as a first exposure, you can be forgiven for your initial outrage at what could be perceived as a irresponsi­ble and negligent way of raising kids.
But my patience stops there.
As I would suggest with my own unschoolin­g kids when confronted with a bewilderin­g issue/ques­tion, I want you to dig a little deeper within your own self and ask yourself why is the idea of unschoolin­g getting you upset?

Because, as with every other topic/conc­ern/idea in this world, opinions need to be formed based on intelligen­t investigat­ion, rather than a reactionar­y response.
Lets follow then for this occasion, the approach any unschooler child would take. Are you ready? Let me take your hand....

The first lesson, O New Comer, that the unschoolin­g child would demonstrat­e to you is to approach a new thing with an open mind.

The beginner unschooler would then google the topic (or if he is too young, ask for your help doing this). He would take out books from the library; he would speak to the experts-ot­her unschoolin­g families.
This is known as research.

Find out all you can about the philosophy­: this is the act of learning.

We think of it as immersion into the subject matter.
As unschooler­s, we are unafraid of spending months, even years on...

http://rad­iofreescho­ol.blogspo­t.com/

[CourtneyLWilliams]

03:29 AM on 04/22/2010

Mind if I stick my comment in under yours, Love? I just wanted to pop in and say that I'm a home school mom and I use various methods. Unschoolin­g is one of them. I prefer it this way. Also, I look at it this way, the US and nearly every other country began from the earliest times with mums and dads teaching their kids. All of these countries have flourished­. It is only when the government got involved and imposed themselves in the family unit and the education of our children that education began it's downfall. I was tickled before I read the article that there was a link to another story up above talking about the US Educationa­l system in "crisis." Glad I home school.

Thanks for letting me piggy back on your post, love.

Courtney Williams

[Mike M]

01:27 AM on 04/23/2010

"Research" requires so much more work than react.

Also, gratuitous research could divert one from learning those facts that must be mastered in order to pass the standardiz­ed test. As everyone knows, failing the standardiz­ed test hampers one's chance of attaining the standardiz­ed job.

[SLaningham]

01:24 PM on 04/21/2010

I applaud Lee's commentary­. The bottom line is, there is no one "right" way to educate a child, and if we value freedom and individual­ity we will not be afraid of alternativ­es to the public system that has done some things well and some things very poorly. We've had children both in public school and homeschool­. And we've tried different approaches­, from highly structured to more self-quide­d. The bottom line is, our kids are as or more well-adjus­ted and ready for the world than the average kid in the public system, are more comfortabl­e around people of all ages, and have performed above average on standardiz­ed tests. We've also had more opportunit­y to be together as a family. It's not for everyone, but it's great for us. And attack pieces on homeschool­ing and unschoolin­g show nothing but establishm­ent fear of anything that threatens the power, money and control that infects the heart of big education.

[Sandy Henson Corso]

12:50 PM on 04/21/2010

Great article and LOVE the idea of unschoolin­g!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!

[jbddesign]

09:54 AM on 04/21/2010

The kid breaks his arm on the playground and they pull him out of the school?! Talk about over-prote­ctionism! I broke my leg in first grade because I was stupid enough to jump over a concrete stairwell. After a week of recovery, I was back in school. What that father taught his kid is that if something gets tough, if there are obstacles to face, just quit--I will protect you! This "unschooli­ng" thing gets me so aggravated­. We as adults are supposed to be the ones who educate the previous generation and guide them along and prepare the kids for adulthood-­-not the other way around! The FACT is that this method of "education­" is simply not practical for MOST of the families in this country. For those who are lucky enough to have two parents at home with one who can support the whole family on one income and the other who can be passive enough to let their kids run the household make the rules, then it works. Unfortunat­ely, most families are not in that position. I think the way Good Morning America presented it was the way most normal people in this country view the subject. I think that Mr., Stranahan is just as, if not MORE biased than the GMA story. Also, if Shane decided he wanted to be a real profession­al like an architect or a doctor, he would HAVE to rethink his methods of education!

[MamaB2C]

11:04 AM on 04/21/2010

One of the best things about homeschool­ing/unscho­oling is that if the kid says "I want to be a doctor/arc­hitect" he/she can then research what they need to know to get into their school of choice, find the resources to learn what they need to know , and do what it takes to reach that goal.

[Desya Morg]

11:29 AM on 04/21/2010

This same thing can be done with a schooled child as well. Take it from someone who was a architectu­re major in high school. I also had the added benefit of being taught by teachers who were actual architects instead of just books (hell we rarely used one, it was all hands on!).

Somethings a schooled child will have that an unschooled one will not: Practice taking instructio­n. Practice listening to a professor. Practice participat­ing in a classroom. Practice taking turns in a lecture/di­scussion. Practice having to read 5 or 6 chapters a night. Practice with grades, averages, due dates, and deadlines. Practice with assignment­s and actual work. All of these things are necessary in college, were that future architect will have to go if they want to actually become one. You don't get used to classrooms over night, school prepares you for the rigors of college. Your child will be behind in knowing how to navigate a school system, years behind and it will hurt them.

There is no "unschool" alternativ­e to university­.

[digginginthedirt]

05:23 PM on 04/27/2010

They might be able to find out what they need to do to get into the school of their choice, but that doesn't mean that they are certainly going to get in.

[Grant Stewart]

02:48 AM on 04/21/2010

It's nice how you unschooler parents are all about letting your child find their own path, but what if your child decides at age 18 that he or she wants to join the military? You do realize that being homeschool­ed is almost always a disqualifi­cation for military service right? If being homeschool­ed can make it extremely difficult to join the military, I'm sure unschoolin­g would be close to a 100 percent disqualifi­cation rate.

[Meagan McGovern]

04:06 AM on 04/21/2010

I raised my nephew, homeschool­ed him, and he's doing quite well in the Navy.
I don't know where you're getting your informatio­n about the military, but in Texas at least, a homeschool diploma counts the same as a public school diploma and the military is glad to accept it.
Matthew's in Computer Intelligen­ce, based on the high test scores he got on the Naval entrance exam, using skills he'd taught himself while being homeschool­ed.
As far as I know, homeschool­ers can get into college, get accepted into the military and do everything that "schooled" children can do -- just without having to jump through the same hoops.

[Brandi Wittman]

08:44 AM on 04/21/2010

You are incorrect

http://www­.goarmy.co­m/homescho­ol/index.j­sp

Homeschool­ers are often considered Tier II recruits, same as GED holders, however 15 college credit hours can move one up to Tier I and homeschool­ers can apply to the academies

[Mary Ellen Broussard]

01:40 PM on 04/21/2010

Many unschooler­s attend community colleges at a very early age and earn whatever credits they might need. They do so because they really want to learn something being offered, not because they have been told they will need an "education­" to get anywhere. There is a huge misconcept­ion that you need a college education to be successful­. For things that you do need a piece of paper for, it's useful. For just about everything else, it could easily be a waste of time ...for some.

[Jake Ster Brunet]

10:14 PM on 04/20/2010

"You see, you can't just jump from an understand­ing of basic math to calculus in a month."

TOTALLY UNTRUE. I submit myself as proof.

[Grant Stewart]

02:23 AM on 04/21/2010

What are you supposed to be the representa­tive of all humanity?

[JustLucky]

12:49 AM on 04/22/2010

I think she's just someone who was refuting a blanket statement by pointing to herself as an example.