I know the Parent family personally. While I don't know them extremely well, I have had the pleasure of being around their loving family and the honor of learning from Sarah at the Rethinking Education conference in 2009.

There are some unschooling families that practice what has become known as Radical Unschooling, and even Radical Unschooling, as I know it and understand it, is NOT unparenting.

The Parent family for that matter is NOT an unparenting family! I truly believe that the media here focused on what they wanted you to see, and not the beauty that truly is the Parent family! Sarah and Chris Parent thrive and greatly enjoy seeing their children learn in a variety of environments, and they continually encourage and facilitate that learning.

Why then was the son read to and not encouraged to read himself? WHO KNOWS! There are a thousand of possible reasons; it was staged for the filming and the son was uncomfortable doing so, anxiety of being filmed, preoccupied with something else, but regardless of the reason wanting to still respond understandingly and compassionately to your child without placing disrespectful demands to read it yourself, and so many more possibilities still exist as to why. We cannot and SHOULD NOT judge on one scene or experience.

Would you want to be judged and criticized because spouted a demand to your child, yelled at your child for no good reason, or spanked your child without even considering what might of been going on to spark the tantrum to begin with?

It is all about respect, compassion, and love. Unschooling families place show respect, compassion, and love at all times by entrusting things to their children to decide upon themselves that most other parents just habitually decide for them. Where is there any learning of responsibility, decision making, and consequences if the parent just habitually makes the decision. This is what is called life learning, and what unschooling is all about! WHOLE LIFE LEARNING!! Striving to learn in all situations and environments, and promoting and encouraging self-motivation and self-driven-learning.

I would hope that those that don't understand unschooling, would be self-motivated or self-driven to do some independent self-learning, unschooling, on what the heck unschooling is anyways, and not be close-minded and assume what the media portrays is truth!

I know the Parent family personally. While I don't know them extremely well, I have had the pleasure of being around their loving family and the honor of learning from Sarah at the Rethinking Education conference in 2009.

There are some unschooling families that practice what has become known as Radical Unschooling, and even Radical Unschooling, as I know it and understand it, is NOT unparenting.

The Parent family for that matter is NOT an unparenting family! I truly believe that the media here focused on what they wanted you to see, and not the beauty that truly is the Parent family! Sarah and Chris Parent thrive and greatly enjoy seeing their children learn in a variety of environments, and they continually encourage and facilitate that learning.

Why then was the son read to and not encouraged to read himself? WHO KNOWS! There are a thousand of possible reasons; it was staged for the filming and the son was uncomfortable doing so, anxiety of being filmed, preoccupied with something else, but regardless of the reason wanting to still respond understandingly and compassionately to your child without placing disrespectful demands to read it yourself, and so many more possibilities still exist as to why. We cannot and SHOULD NOT judge on one scene or experience.

Would you want to be judged and criticized because spouted a demand to your child, yelled at your child for no good reason, or spanked your child without even considering what might of been going on to spark the tantrum to begin with?

It is all about respect, compassion, and love. Unschooling families place show respect, compassion, and love at all times by entrusting things to their children to decide upon themselves that most other parents just habitually decide for them. Where is there any learning of responsibility, decision making, and consequences if the parent just habitually makes the decision. This is what is called life learning, and what unschooling is all about! WHOLE LIFE LEARNING!! Striving to learn in all situations and environments, and promoting and encouraging self-motivation and self-driven-learning.

I would hope that those that don't understand unschooling, would be self-motivated or self-driven to do some independent self-learning, unschooling, on what the heck unschooling is anyways, and not be close-minded and assume what the media portrays is truth!

I know the Parent family personally. While I don't know them extremely well, I have had the pleasure of being around their loving family and the honor of learning from Sarah at the Rethinking Education conference in 2009.

There are some unschooling families that practice what has become known as Radical Unschooling, and even Radical Unschooling, as I know it and understand it, is NOT unparenting.

The Parent family for that matter is NOT an unparenting family! I truly believe that the media here focused on what they wanted you to see, and not the beauty that truly is the Parent family! Sarah and Chris Parent thrive and greatly enjoy seeing their children learn in a variety of environments, and they continually encourage and facilitate that learning.

Why then was the son read to and not encouraged to read himself? WHO KNOWS! There are a thousand of possible reasons; it was staged for the filming and the son was uncomfortable doing so, anxiety of being filmed, preoccupied with something else, but regardless of the reason wanting to still respond understandingly and compassionately to your child without placing disrespectful demands to read it yourself, and so many more possibilities still exist as to why. We cannot and SHOULD NOT judge on one scene or experience.

Would you want to be judged and criticized because spouted a demand to your child, yelled at your child for no good reason, or spanked your child without even considering what might of been going on to spark the tantrum to begin with?

It is all about respect, compassion, and love. Unschooling families place show respect, compassion, and love at all times by entrusting things to their children to decide upon themselves that most other parents just habitually decide for them. Where is there any learning of responsibility, decision making, and consequences if the parent just habitually makes the decision. This is what is called life learning, and what unschooling is all about! WHOLE LIFE LEARNING!! Striving to learn in all situations and environments, and promoting and encouraging self-motivation and self-driven-learning.

I would hope that those that don't understand unschooling, would be self-motivated or self-driven to do some independent self-learning, unschooling, on what the heck unschooling is anyways, and not be close-minded and assume what the media portrays is truth!

Can you direct me to some online resources that you feel more accurately represent unschooling?

i absolutely loathed school… i was bored, smarter than most kids and wavered between A+ grades and failing grades because i either showed up and did the work or skipped and ignored it. formal education most certainly failed me… i spent 3 years in a challenge program with other students in the top percentage of the district from grades 3-6, but that program was cut due to funding issues. it was definitely my most valuable years of school on one level, however, it left holes in my education that exist to this day. because i didn't do regular classes for 3 years, i worked to my intelligence level, doing work meant for kids twice my age, i never learned to multiply for example. my spelling is atrocious. so while i benefited tremendously in some aspects… i suffered in others because i was deviated from “the program” of our education system.
when i did my math 12 provincial i had columns of numbers everywhere – adding them because i couldn't multiply. it was embarrassing and i'd been called out by more than one teacher for it, but it's something my brain just can't absorb this late in the game because that fundamental building block was skipped.

the social aspect of school was trying and painful at more junctions than i can count… but that's another story… but those experiences were integral to shaping me as an adult and if i hadn't had them i would be considerably different. in hindsight, i liked that i suffered. it taught me things about friendships, trust, relationships… existing in a crowd is good practice for later life… it taught me that when i worked for a major corporation, i shouldn't expect special treatment.

at the end of the day, i can understand frustration with the education system… it's not perfect and it doesn't work perfectly for all children. but it's not meant to parent kids, it's meant to play a role in their education. the parent still has a responsibility to carry on the learning process at home. every parent should be home schooling, but that doesn't mean they should remove regular schooling as well…
from my friends that are teachers, the most frustrating thing ever to them is when parents are angry because their kids aren't benefiting from school, yet when they talk to the parents, they say things like “well, that's YOUR job to teach them that, not mine”
the education process must be a partnership between parents and teachers. and that's when the kids benefit most IMO.
the parent knows their child best and the teacher knows education best. together they create the learning environment. and when you add in the trial-by-fire teasing-bully-filled-nightmare of public school… well, now you've really got some life learning happening.

again… might change my tune if i have kids, but that's my point of view on it now.

And, like I said, unschooling is certainly a valid course of instruction, as
long as it's done well (which, obviously, this documentary did not show a
family doing unschooling well). It's a real shame that your daughter's
school has failed her so much. She deserves better and as a tax payer I
think you should demand it. Get involved. Go to Board meetings. Let the
school faculty know that you're on the case and you won't let them slide.
And, if you don't get satisfactory answers (as it sounds like that's the
case) then removing your child from that school is the only thing for her
best interest.

Sounds like you're a really involved and perceptive parent. I'm sure
whatever you choose for your daughter, she'll prove successful!

I agree and disagree with what you say. I agree that America is completely slanted toward the advertisements/publicity of whoever has the most money to spend, or the loudest voice, or the most controversial viewpoint. That sucks, because it's taking away the choices from parents. It's creating kids who think it is TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE to have a cell phone of their own when they're 6 years old. (That's just my little example.)

However, I have to respectfully disagree that people who enjoy sending their kids to regular school are of the mindset that learning only happens 9-3, Monday through Friday. Or that it is good for them to learn how to sit still. I don't think regular school is the best solution for everyone, but I also don't think it's bad, as long as it's done the right way with good teachers and a healthy learning environment. Just like unschooling isn't for everyone, but it also is a viable way of learning, assuming it's done the right way with good teachers.

I like your last comment, about “It's not unschooling, it's unparenting.” While my experience with unschooling is very limited, I do know that ANY type of school experience will only be successful if a parent is involved. It's easy for typical schoolers to have uninvolved parents, but some typical schoolers have parents that make their school experience very successful.

One last point: I think having kids learn to sit still, and take instruction, and follow a set of rules, is a good tool for their future success as an adult. It would be nice if bosses let their employees come and go whenever they want, with no project deadlines, and no guidelines as to how they want a job done. But, unfortunately, until the rest of America changes, then we have to teach children the skills they will need to succeed as adults. I think THAT is the most important thing we can do as parents.

Those are my thoughts. Please don't hurt me. (*duckiing and covering*)