The Wall Street Journal has an “interesting” blog post about unschooling. Or maybe not. Actually, the piece chosen as a counterpoint to the author’s own child beginning his first full week of pre-kindergarten was odd, but I’ll get back to that in a moment. His contribution to the “juggle” (the theme of this particular blog) is all of two paragraphs. First, the intro:
This morning, our nearly 4-year-old son starts his first full week of pre-kindergarten (he had two introductory sessions last week, of an hour each). He’s got two years of nursery school under his belt already, so he’s an old hand at group learning environments. His sister, almost 7 and in second grade at the same school, had a similar early-education history. It’s safe to say my wife and I considered keeping them out of school about as much as we considered not feeding and clothing them. WSJ.com
The kid is four years old! As a former pre-K teacher and as a homeschool mom of children in that age group, I certainly understand the value of an early childhood education. But what exactly does that mean? Objectives generally have a lot to do with language development and the ability to follow directions. Children that age should be able to describe the location of objects using the correct prepositions, know their colors, recite the alphabet and follow three unrelated directions. They are skills sorely lacking in the children of immigrants, uneducated parents and many poor families, contributing to the vast educational disparity we see among children which is noticeable the first day of school.
But we have all gotten so caught up in the importance of an early childhood education, and we have so thoroughly equated “education” with “school” we forget that most of the divide existing between children exists because of socio-economic factors. Not sending your four year old child to pre-kindergarten is not by any stretch of the imagination related in any way to not feeding or clothing your child. Locking them in a closet? Yes. But keeping your child home to play is not denying them anything they need. In fact, it is fostering the parent-child bond, developing language skills and providing the building blocks needed for a child to attain an excellent education no matter the environment later in life.
Then we get into the summary of the post he is responding to in which a family has chosen to “unschool.” And here Edwards’ post sort of falls apart, if you consider starting with the importance of schooling toddlers a solid foundation to begin with. But what this family is doing isn’t unschooling. In fact, the author says as much, using her made-up term “unkindergartening.” But this is not unschooling:
[U]n-kindergarten for us means Benny can sleep late so I can write. It means we don’t have to worry about bedtimes and can go out on the town with friends any night of the week. We can go to Europe and visit my family when the flights are cheap. babble.com
I am not an unschooler, but I am yet to find someone who classifies themselves as such who has done so for their own convenience. Who homeschools so that their child’s schedule will fit into their late-night bar hopping. So that their child will sleep while they take the morning to write. So they can get cheap airfare. In short, the unschooling philosophy is not so parent-centered.
But my real question is, how reliable a source do you think a post on babble.com’s “Bad Parent” section is? The whole point is to stimulate readers’ voyeuristic fascination with other people’s dirty laundry, to create controversy and drive traffic. It is hardly where I would go to find an opposing viewpoint unless my purpose from the beginning was to build a straw man argument against something I had no better argument against.
Even as a father who’s been known to keep his kids up a tad late while socializing with friends, my reaction to all of that seeming indulgence is one of distaste. Maybe I’m hopelessly square, but I think early-childhood education—like education in general—provides structure and discipline while not necessarily stifling creativity. Readers, what’s your take? Would unschooling fit into your juggle—or has it already? WSJ.com
As it is presented here? Yes, my reaction to the described parenting (if you can call it that) is one of distaste. But not so much indulgence, other than indulgence on the part of the parents. The child isn’t being indulged in anything. He is just being dragged along for his parents’ rather social lifestyle.
Even as a blogger who has been known to poke fun at journalists and opinions I disagree with, my reaction to a piece which selects a bizarre rendering of a philosophy and tries to use it as if it were representative is one of distaste. I think blogging–like writing in general–provides an excellent outlet for presenting your opinion and promoting discussion. It ceases to be relevant, however, if you cease to be honest about the subject you are posting on. Can the featured parent be criticized? Certainly. The piece is great blog fodder That is the whole reason it was posted on that site in the first place. But to use her commentary as representative of a philosophy?
Not unless “get dragged along while your parents pursue their social lives and career interests” has become an actual philosophy of parenting. If it has, it isn’t called “unschooling.”
Hat Tip: Homeschool Buzz
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
No different than kids “getting dragged along” to extremist churching and anti-abortion rallies for example, like the t-shirt terrorist fifth grader on FOX news this week, schooled at home in anti-science and anti-reason, inculcated with ignorant prejudices, paranoia of society and government and academe.
It’s funny to me that good parenting (including any education choices, beliefs, practices and family lifestyle) is like what Ben Franklin supposedly said about rebellion:
“A rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as ‘our rebellion.’ It is only in the third person - ‘their rebellion’ - that it becomes illegal.”
We might say parenting and home education is always good in the first person, only bad in the third?
Just thinking how dangerous to democracy are the very twisted values some parents and public figures use in judging “good” journalism too –
The part that I found interesting was the part where the parents have a social life.
You get to have toddlers AND a social life?!? I think I missed a memo.
I don’t think that everything we disagree with can be classified as “getting dragged along.” The difference is whether we are making decisions with our children in mind, or solely for our own benefit as seems to be the case in the post.
We don’t have television, so I’m guessing this is what you are referring to?
Not something I’d do, or let my child bring to school although I don’t see quite where he could be considered a terrorist for a homemade shirt connecting Obama with terrorists, referring, I’m sure, to Bill Ayers. He hasn’t made any threats so far as I can tell.
And it isn’t as if there aren’t numerous anti-Bush t-shirts out there identifying him as a terrorist, not just a friend of one.
I’m not willing to judge that the parents of the kid in the article are paranoid of society, government and academe simply because the father has attended pro-life rallies and considers himself a conservative. The accusation doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but perhaps I’m misunderstanding what you are trying to say.
Just thinking how dangerous to democracy are the very twisted values some parents and public figures use in judging “good” journalism too
True. Most people seem to identify journalism as journalism which supports their viewpoint, regardless of what is left out or distorted. Like that whole “accountability journalism” over at the AP which means essentially openly inserting your opinion into your article, which would seem to blur the lines between news and editorial.
Interesting. I’d seen the “bad parent” portion already, but not the WSJ comeback. The comments section on WSJ is amusing.
What gets lost in this discussion is the fact that institutionalized schooling for very young children is a recent development. I’m in my early 30’s, and most of the folks in my generation never attended preschool. Those of us who did typically attended a non-academic one a couple of mornings per week for a couple of hours. My siblings and I mainly went in order to give my mom a chance to run errands without the hassle of little ones in tow.
Many of the folks in my parents’ generation never even went to kindergarten. My dad didn’t because the town where he lived didn’t offer it. Yet he managed to graduate with honors from Harvard and go on to a successful career.
If preschool and kindergarten were all that they’re supposedly cracked up to be, then why have student achievement levels remained essentially flat when so many more kids now attend them compared to the past?
Very true, Crimson Wife. For a child that age, they are just as well hanging out with mom. Or dad. Early learning is great, and it is good for parents to consider such things. But that isn’t the same as school, and we really need to get away from this notion that you need a certificate of some sort in order to prepare your children educationally, even in the youngest years.
I think the WSJ journalist’s attitude is typical of today’s consumer society - children are not brought up to love and serve others, but to become good consumers themselves - consumers of food, clothing, and,yes, educational services. And you just cannot start too early inculcating those values…
Hear, hear, Crimson Wife!
I did not attend either pre-school or kindergarten. We lived in Idaho when I was kindergarten age and they did not have kindergarten in the public schools at that time.
Although I joke that I would have failed coloring, my education was not adversely affected by that fact that I did not attend formal schooling in my early childhood. I graduated at the top of my high school class, I received scholarships for college and I am a successful academic. And no one once asked me whether or not I had attended kindergarten.
BTW, Dana, I read an article about these parents and it doesn’t sound like they are much different to you. I think one must be careful about taking articles like the one that people are up in arms about at face value.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/garden/16unschool.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3
Oh, my original point wasn’t about them so much as the article portraying unschooling as bad with this as an example. When someone posts something to a “bad parent” section of a website, I assume they are poking fun at themselves and don’t take it all that seriously.