The rise of unschooled children

Greg Bernhardt

K-12 is about discovering interests and good learning habits.

Yeah but at least those kids were given a chance to succeed. If you've never taken a proper english or speaking class, odds are you're going to be challenged in communication.

He didn't look nervous, rather he had trouble processing his thoughts and relaying a decent response.

Would you ever claim a feral kid has appropriate intelligence?

Evo

What benefit is intelligence without knowledge? The problem is that these kids are not choosing to pick up a book and teach themselves. The mother was proud to say that they'd never touched a textbook.

Perhaps they dredged the bottom of the barrel with this family, but right now that's the example we are working with. I wonder how representative of the people involved in this backwards movement they are? I haven't seen an outcry anywhere from families that believe in this type of lack of responsibilty saying "wait a minute, our kids spend most of their time learning!".

zomgwtf

You're just assuming that these things are only taught in school... if only it were true.

Most people can't grasp any economic policies really... How I would say no just to grasp the general idea presented by politicians on their economic plans you do not need highschool math. In highschool math I learnt courses like: Functions/relations, Advanced functions, Calculus, Discreet + vectors. I wonder if that gives me a better ability to grasp economic policies over someone who can add/subtract/multiple/divide and probably they know algebra.
Why do you need to understand history to know what effects YOU as a person, that's the entire point of democracy to vote for what YOU want. If there was a historical reason behind policies I can assure you, it takes 3 seconds to find it and understand it.
To understand science I do not think you need to take ANY science courses actually. That's why in college/university they have 'intro science' courses, for people who haven't taken prereqs to get into advanced scientific concepts yet. All of this can easily be learnt on your own. I'm sure the kids can read, the one kid is seen playing a video game online, I wonder how difficult that would be without being able to read. What does going to highschool have to do with your ability to read. I know I was reading chapter books prior to even kindergarden. Highschool english, although mandatory, hardly had anything to do with being able to read. It was mostly learning technical rules of english and reading stories.

Plus, I think you're making the incorrect assumption that because these children don't go to school they are 'primitive' or that they haven't learnt anything on their own. That's pretty arrogant in my opinion.

zomgwtf

There it is, the comparison I've been waiting for someone to make! These kids aren't feral by any means. Give me a break.

That's the whole delusion I'm saying you guys are under. No school = feral/wild/stupid/no motivation/no understanding.

zomgwtf

They look to be only pre-teens... the way I look at it is if they have the intelligence then their natural instincts will drive them to want to learn more. They'll thirst for knowledge instead of having a bunch of useless stuff thrown at them. In fact I believe that if one of these children decided to say take up biology as a hobby that they'd have a better understanding of biological concepts, given the proper resources, than your average highschool biology student would. People definitely learn more about what interests them and what they choose to go after.

Greg Bernhardt

I think they are pretty close. They have no parental guidance.

It would be different if Johnny was working on a car engine all day or Cindy was designing clothes or gardening, but these kids aren't developing any skills. They are watching TV and clubbing each other with bats.

You can look at amazon or african tribes. They don't have any formal education, but can be considered intelligent because they are essentially home schooled and tutored in skills by their family.

Evo

No, the girl would be a junior in High School, so 16, her brother is older.

But they AREN'T choosing to learn. They said so in the video. It's not important to them.

zomgwtf

That's all that you saw of them in that tiny clip so you assume that's all they do and are feral??? I'm pretty sure they do gardening as they had a vast variety of plants growing inside under a proper setup.

I think a lot of people here have a 'biased' view of education. Why would I think that? Because the vast majority of people here are EXTREMELY intelligent relative to the general population. Of course the more intelligent people love school... they have that 'thirst' for knowledge in that particular field. The only way that most people learn about these things is through some sort of formal education, however it's not needed by everyone.

Greg Bernhardt

Growing parsley in a tin can is not gardening! The are not getting any education or direction for the parents. That is the problem.

zomgwtf

I'll agree with this but that has nothing to do with going to school.

NeoDevin

So you would say it's acceptable to handicap them even more?

Just because you, and many others, choose not to apply the tool you learned in high school isn't an argument for not giving children the tools in the first place.

Because we all know that how the politicians claim a policy will affect you is how it actually affects you... A basic understanding of history and social studies is required to begin to understand these things.

Whether there is a historical reason for a policy is irrelevant. Understanding history is necessary (though not necessarily sufficient) for understanding the effects of a policy.

Are you attempting to speak of particular individuals, or the population at large? In the case of rare individuals who are gifted at self study, maybe. For the population at large this is a ridiculous statement.

Those are for people who want to proceed into more advanced topics, and completely irrelevant to the discussion of having a basic understanding of science/science policies.

Not for everyone.

I'm sure they can read basic sentences, I highly doubt they could understand anything remotely complex, like a grade 3 math text. The amount of reading skill required to play most games is minimal (many games, the only thing you need is "Go" and then the rest is done with auditory commands).

You are correct, it is about being able to communicate effectively in English, and to understand the communication of others. Hardly skills necessary to be a productive member of society...

The children interviewed could barely string sentences together (admittedly, I don't think much of their parents ability to speak either). I never claimed that they haven't learned anything, just that they are missing a large variety of important skills, and simply haven't been exposed to a lot of topics which they might otherwise have been interested in.

Edit to clarify: I'm not arguing against home-schooling, or necessarily in favour of the current public school system, just that a complete lack of education is wrong on so many levels.

zomgwtf

I never heard them say anything about choosing not to learn. I heard the parents talk about them not learning anything that's not important or doesn't interests them...

The boy I think is 13 and I guess your right about the girl 15/16 years old. The lady said the boy was 7 years old when he was in school and they had said that these two teens hadn't been in school for 6 years.

zomgwtf

I do agree with this but I disagree that school is the only method for people to be exposed to things that interest them.

I also don't think it's difficult for people to learn things on their own, all they need is to be interested.

Evo

It's not about them going to school, it's about them not being taught anything and they haven't chosen to learn on their own. It's about wasting a mind. It's about parents "choosing" to do nothing and saying how happy their children are that they are allowed to be dumb as rocks.

I don't know what video you watched, but the video I watched showed a couple of clueless humans a few years away from being classified as adults. Sure, miracles happen, they could, as their mother said, someday decide to learn algebra and so they will pick up a book and learn it, although they don't even have basic math skills, if we are to believe what she's said.

NeoDevin

Then you seem to be missing the point that many of us are trying to make: We're not arguing, necessarily, in favour of the current education system. Rather, we're arguing against a complete lack of education as a method of raising children. If you want to make a case for various alternative forms of education, feel free to start a thread on it. Everyone in this thread is discussing the complete lack of education and guidance present in the family in the video in the OP.

zomgwtf

All children are allowed to be dumb as rocks, going to school doesn't effect this. In fact the vast majority of people I met during school at various schools I would consider to be dumb as rocks anyways.

zomgwtf

I had originally stated that people are being unfair towards THESE people because they have decided to be 'unschooled'.

EDIT: None of us know them or their family, I don't think atleast. All we know of them is that their parents have decided to not give their children formal education and leave it in the childrens hands to learn what interests them. I do not think that this will lead to 'dumb as rocks' or stupid children by any means... and I also don't think that it's success/failure rate (in terms of understanding in particular fields which interest the children) would be any different compared to the same child who had gone to K-12 schooling.