That sounds like homeschooling. The difference for unschooling is, you don’t use “learning resources”.
Kids who aren’t exposed to the soul-crushing institution that is school, will learn things on their own. Having someone around to help them learn how to use reference materials and teach them to read is a good idea, but that’s about all they need. Unschooled children tend to do better and be brighter than schooled children (though most of that might just be selection effects). I know several siblings who were unschooled, and they’re all very interesting, intelligent people who are very well-adjusted.
It’s particularly helpful if you bring them around and do whatever activities they’re interested in together.
Please note that I don’t overestimate the quality of school system (I was a teacher and then I quit, because I felt the system is hopeless), and I also do not underestimate natural curiosity, especially of a child that has intelligent parents, so is naturally exposed to talk about interesting topics. Here are my two pieces of evidence:
Montessori education is based on giving children great freedom, and only providing them interesting learning tools. Are you saying that removing those tools would make education even more efficient?
Internet is full of distractions. Many people on LW suffer from procrastination (see, we even have a special word for “spending all your time on internet, accomplishing nothing”). I thank Bayes for not having internet access when I was of school age. Today many children play online games all day long. What makes you think that a child will be able to resist all that?
That sounds like homeschooling. The difference for unschooling is, you don’t use “learning resources”.
Kids who aren’t exposed to the soul-crushing institution that is school, will learn things on their own. Having someone around to help them learn how to use reference materials and teach them to read is a good idea, but that’s about all they need. Unschooled children tend to do better and be brighter than schooled children (though most of that might just be selection effects). I know several siblings who were unschooled, and they’re all very interesting, intelligent people who are very well-adjusted.
It’s particularly helpful if you bring them around and do whatever activities they’re interested in together.
This seems too good to be true.
Please note that I don’t overestimate the quality of school system (I was a teacher and then I quit, because I felt the system is hopeless), and I also do not underestimate natural curiosity, especially of a child that has intelligent parents, so is naturally exposed to talk about interesting topics. Here are my two pieces of evidence:
Montessori education is based on giving children great freedom, and only providing them interesting learning tools. Are you saying that removing those tools would make education even more efficient?
Internet is full of distractions. Many people on LW suffer from procrastination (see, we even have a special word for “spending all your time on internet, accomplishing nothing”). I thank Bayes for not having internet access when I was of school age. Today many children play online games all day long. What makes you think that a child will be able to resist all that?