I am feeling a bit better, now that the season is changing and lifting my spirits. AND, time has gone by- there is space now since the Health Care Bill has been passed. The anger got bad for quite a while - especially with the Tea Partiers- but it has died down a bit. I don't believe the worst is over, but I was feeling pretty stressed when I last blogged and cut it short. :-)
I'm on to a new rant- Unschooling. A family from Massachusetts who unschools their two kids, were on Good Morning America a couple of weeks ago. There was SO much "buzz" about it online and I was actually really shocked at how mean and truly ignorant most people were on the topic. In reply to someone's post, another gal said something like, "Your ignorance is showing; you were probably raised in the public school system..." That really made me think. Most people do go through the public school system and all of these adults who were saying things like, "Those parents should be put in JAIL!" and "Maybe this guy should get together with the nut who put pretended to put his child in the balloon some months ago. They would seem to have in common the complete disregard for what is best for their children" are SO ignorant. These unschooling parents are spending TIME EDUCATING their kids themselves. They are sacrificing so many things, to make sure their kids know what they need to, in order to have a full, rich, meaningful life. Just because they don't send their kids to a government-run school whose system is FAILING, there is no other alternative to learn?? One parent said this," If my son only studied what he wanted to learn he would have no interest in history, social sciences, learning to write a coherent sentence, biology, geography and no school day would begin before 1pm." First of all- SO WHAT if the school day didn't begin before 1pm?? Secondly, is he saying that if his son goes to public school he WILL have an interest in the aforementioned subjects? It's been my experience (as a public school teacher and mother of three) that the exact OPPOSITE will happen. Children's love of learning and natural curiosity is SQUELCHED in public school. You can see the excitement for learning gradually, but quickly, extinguished between Kindergarten and Fourth Grade. It drains right out of them. Unschooling (and homeschooling) parents give so much of themselves. They create learning opportunities for their children and not just between 9am and 3pm, Monday through Friday, they do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I SO wish people would understand that.
