Tracy Oldfield

interestingly, our local commercial tv station ran a segment on a magazine show about a home-educating family, unschoolers though perhaps they would not like the label (I used to be on a list with the mother :-) which others have told me did a good job of showing 'a day in the life.'  The producers of that show wanted a 'round-the-table' bit, but since they don't do that, they didn't do it.  Don't know whether the show has a website or anything, but tv can sometimes do a good job of providing a taste of something.  Unfortunately, what it also does, seeing as it is mostly used by advertisers to promote unaccesible beauty and the accumulation of things, is put what it portrays on pedestals.  People see experts doing stuff, try to match it and fail, so give up and pay someone else.  Cookery programmes are a case in point.  There are more cookery shows showing more ways of cooking more different food, yet less and less people actually prepare food from scratch.  Anyhow, I'll have to wait a while for that episode of Oprah to reach these shores :-)
 
Tracy
 


This applies to us, too. Whenever I see a story about homeschooling on
television, there are images of mom sitting around the table with the
kids, the kids getting their schoolbooks, mom asking the kids
questions. This would not encourage ME to homeschool my kids. But this
is what television people are looking for because this is ALL THEY CAN
SHOW. They don't know that unschooling isn't about what you can
necessarily see on paper. It's about development, growth, independence
and love of learning - none of which can be conveyed on television in
a 2 minute video segment.

Just my opinion,
Hafidha

Portland, Oregon

[email protected]

Hafidha,
You're opinion is very well stated. I really enjoyed your post and I am
going to look for that book. Thanks! Jackie

Joshua Heath

"I believe we'd all be better off if we left homeschooling off
> of television and educated people about it through other mediums."

> Later, on page 324 he writes, "When dealing with primitive peoples,
> objective events such as hunting, building, fighting or dancing are
> easier to convey through television than subjective details of
> qualities of experience, ways of mind, alternative perceptions. The
> latter qualities, which form the heart of life for primitive people,
> are dropped out in favor of the former."
>
> This applies to us, too. Whenever I see a story about homeschooling on
> television, there are images of mom sitting around the table with the
> kids, the kids getting their schoolbooks, mom asking the kids
> questions. This would not encourage ME to homeschool my kids. But this
> is what television people are looking for because this is ALL THEY CAN
> SHOW. They don't know that unschooling isn't about what you can
> necessarily see on paper. It's about development, growth, independence
> and love of learning - none of which can be conveyed on television in
> a 2 minute video segment.
>
> Just my opinion,
> Hafidha
Havidha, I think I agree with your thoughtful post. Even though I didn't
watch the show (dont have tv) I did go to the site and email the producers
with the idea of doing a show dedicated to natural learning or "unschooling"
But now I am beginging to think that you are right... we are better off to
pass on information about uschooling in other ways... that the potential for
people to get the complete wrong idea is almost unavoidable, and very
likeley such a show would end up causing more harm than good...
My next thought was that an indepth documentary would be more appropriate...
does any-one know of any??

Joshua