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Unschooling Valedictorian

Have you seen this yet? A high school valedictorian speaking out against schooling / The System in her commencement address:

I saw this posted around Facebook over the last few days, and Teacher Tom had it on his blog. I thought I was going to love it, but for some reason it's just making me a bit cranky. Can't quite put my finger on why.

Your thoughts?

Tags: graduation, school, speeches, unschooling

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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on August 17, 2010 at 3:07pm

She's railing about how school stifled her creativity and ability to express herself as she wants, in a speech everyone at school is allowing her to make and patiently listening to. In which, mind you, she cites a teacher she had AT SCHOOL for giving her materials and info that helped her form her ideas.

The unschooling thing, by the way, crosses all political lines. I wasn't meaning to imply I thought it was libertarian, just that in my line of work I tend to read a lot of Ayn Rand rants from seventeen-year-olds that lack nuance or decent argumentation, much as I saw her speech. This isn't to say that these people can't grow up and make Ayn Rand inspired rants with well reasoned argumentation (certainly there are universities with endowed chairs from Rand's people that could help young people with this), just that they don't in their essays, and in this case she wasn't making a terribly good argument for unschooling either.

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Permalink Reply by GreenLantern on August 17, 2010 at 3:23pm

Ah, I see. Thanks for clearing that up. The way she was talking made it sound like she was home-schooled or unschooled. There were a couple of kids in my town where I grew up that were homeschooled and graduated with those of us that went to the public high school, and I thought she happened to be one of those. When she referenced a teacher, I thought she was maybe talking about a private tutor.

Well then, since I know she is a product of the public school system, I now question where all the criticism comes from.

I've heard of the unschooling thing, and it seems kind of interesting, but also kind of scary to me. I know lots of libertarian folk, and they are all for it because they are convinced the public school system is a government indoctrination camp. Cool for them, I guess, as long as their kid can pass whatever tests home schooled kids are required to take.

How do teachers who teach in traditional public and private schools feel about home schooling?

mcglory13 said:

She's railing about how school stifled her creativity and ability to express herself as she wants, in a speech everyone at school is allowing her to make and patiently listening to. In which, mind you, she cites a teacher she had AT SCHOOL for giving her materials and info that helped her form her ideas.

The unschooling thing, by the way, crosses all political lines. I wasn't meaning to imply I thought it was libertarian, just that in my line of work I tend to read a lot of Ayn Rand rants from seventeen-year-olds that lack nuance or decent argumentation, much as I saw her speech. This isn't to say that these people can't grow up and make Ayn Rand inspired rants with well reasoned argumentation (certainly there are universities with endowed chairs from Rand's people that could help young people with this), just that they don't in their essays, and in this case she wasn't making a terribly good argument for unschooling either.

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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on August 17, 2010 at 3:32pm

Probably not one way or the other. Some people feel you need an education degree to teach and get really offended when someone suggests people could do it at home without that degree. Some people who teach in the system see what the emphasis on standardized testing has done to schools, not to mention budget cuts, and aren't really thrilled about that. I teach teachers, and while many of them will be excellent teachers others of them scare the shit out of me. Studies have shown that kids with highly educated moms suffer a bit if they go to preschool rather than stay at home, because the one on one they get with their educated parent is more academically advantageous than the preschool group learning setting.

I'm of mixed opinions, because while I know we could (between spouse and I) give small one a kick ass education, and I do want to encourage him to love learning, I think you need to learn how to demonstrate that you know what you know and to actually do work (I don't want him living at home forever in my basement). Spouse is brilliant, but never really felt all that motivated to actually do the work to show it, and he missed opportunities because he had a terrible GPA and work ethic for awhile. I've seen what you can get if you do the work and demonstrate your abilities to outsiders, and I want my kid to learn he needs to do work, he's not a special snowflake that should be rewarded just because. A lot of students seem to think they should be rewarded for effort, but in the real world you're rewarded for doing a good job, not just trying really hard. So I guess I think it should be some of both: learn to do the work required of you, and on your own time have the encouragement to explore your own interests. Just like it seems this girl got (though she doesn't appreciate it).

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Permalink Reply by Floor Pie on August 17, 2010 at 4:08pm

Studies have shown that kids with highly educated moms suffer a bit if they go to preschool rather than stay at home, because the one on one they get with their educated parent is more academically advantageous than the preschool group learning setting.

That's interesting! Do you have links?

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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on August 17, 2010 at 4:21pm

I'll hunt it up in a minute FP. At the moment I want to giggle about JTC's Taliban/Caliban mix up. :)

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Permalink Reply by GreenLantern on August 17, 2010 at 4:29pm

I agree. I don't think I was quite understanding what you were saying here, but mcglory cleared it up nicely for me.

I've been on the fence with the whole home schooling thing myself. I see good arguments for and against it, but it seems like it would take a lot of time that my wife and I just don't have. I'd worry that I'd end up screwing it up. I feel more comfortable having people that actually know how to teach educate my child.

John T. Capp said:

mcglory summed it up pretty well. Reminds me of Taliban's lines from The Tempest, when he says something to the effect that "You taught me your language, and my profit on it is that I know how to curse."

GreenLantern said:
How so?

John T. Capp said:
It strikes me that the fact of her speech undermines its major premise.

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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on August 17, 2010 at 4:37pm

FP, the study I was referring to is here, though in looking it up again (and reading the study and not just the reports about the study, like I should have to begin with), I have found a number of reasonable critiques that argue against this position. So that might be a totally unsubstantiated statement. :)