Regarding Nov. 27th’s editorial “Unschooling isn’t the answer,” I’m going to have to… Regarding Nov. 27th’s editorial “Unschooling isn’t the answer,” I’m going to have to disagree that unschooling and home schooling are far inferior to traditional schooling. The editorial says that unschooled children “lag years behind their schooled counterparts in reading and math skills,” but fails to give evidence. It is even stated two paragraphs later that there is not enough data to judge the success of unschooling.

I would also like to know some examples of the “basic education fostered in school environments needed to perform in the ‘real world.'” Surely it is not what is taught in the class on memorization, which is given the misnomer of “mathematics,” or how to write an essay on symbolism in “The Scarlet Letter.”

Unfortunately, the classes that have real-world applications are the ones that are marginalized and/or poorly taught: shop, visual arts, electronics, computer programming, health, etc.

Furthermore, saying that many people do not have enough resources to educate their children outside of school is just false. With the Internet and a public library, I see no school subject that cannot be easily learned besides the few that require special and hard-to-get equipment.

The editorial also raises the concern that unschooled students will have trouble adjusting to the structure of college or the working world. While it is unfortunate that the structure of traditional schooling is usually similar to that of a workplace, the structure of traditional schooling is much different than that of college; the former focuses on discipline and standardized tests while the latter focuses on learning. In college, students have much more freedom in deciding where they go, which courses to take, and how many they take.

Furthermore, colleges do not give detention for arriving a minute late, encourage students to independently pursue topics they are interested in, do not have ridiculous dress codes, allow student-teacher interaction, and do not take up seven hours a day, thus allowing students some free time to pursue other interests.

While home schooling is not a perfect or ultimate solution, it brings attention to alternative forms of education, weakening the monopoly that most schools enjoy. I will agree that unschooling isn’t the answer, but until the current educational system drastically changes, it is definitely an answer.

But hey, I could be totally wrong. After all, I did have traditional schooling for 13 years.

Eric Korman [email protected]