Tiger Mom versus Unschooling Dad!

Such is the sensational premise of tonight's episode of Extreme Parenting on the Dr. Drew Pinsky Show.

A TV producer called me at 1:15 PM yesterday and asked if I could be a guest on the Dr. Drew Pinsky Show at 5:15 PM to discuss unschooling. It turns out that the segment is titled Extreme Parenting and juxtaposes a “Tiger Mom” family with an unschooling family. I taped my short bit last night via a remote hookup. I couldn't see anyone I was addressing; I just had an earphone to let me know what the panel was saying and I looked into two white lights, a camera, and a sound booth. It was a very shallow "conversation" and I had to be encouraged by a director's voice in my ear to "jump right in" and start talking since the others were talking over me and I was being polite and listening. The panelists were pretty clueless about unschooling and uninterested in learning more about it. Of course, that didn’t stop them from expressing strong opinions against unschooling.

Lisa Cottrell-Bentley and her family were the subjects of a video that is shown during the segment, but it isn't clear to me if the entire video will play on the show or just the short bit I heard through my earpiece last night (about a minute long). From what I heard, at least this video segment is objective. It will be interesting to see how much of the video is shown.

The producer also asked me for family photos, and I sent some I had on my computer ASAP. Now I'm wondering how they'll be used during the segment. My family may carve me up for Thanksgiving tomorrow if they feel the photos and show put them in a bad light!

I have over thirty years of helping people unschool and unschooling our family, yet unschooling is still being presented by the media as a recent "crazy" idea where the children rule the roost and hapless parents do nothing but provide benign neglect. Not one question about John Holt, the educational basis for unschooling, or about other data about unschooling. As I learned again last night, TV is more interested in generating heat than light on a subject.

The Dr. Drew Pinsky Show airs tonight, 11/23/11, at 9PM EST on the HLN network

Unschooling Featured on the Today Show, Oct. 14, 2011

I have heard from the producer of the unschooling segment for the Today Show that it will definitely air tomorrow morning, Oct. 14, around 8:17 a.m. EST. Due to time constraints (they cut the segment in half), I am no longer being interviewed on the show. However, the Cottrell-Bentley family of AZ is featured as the unschooling family and they are dynamic and articulate; I'm certain they will present unschooling in the best possible light and I hope the Today Show does, too. Zoe Bentley's website, Exogeology ROCKS!, is a great example of how a young person can follow their interests and learn many things in an interdisciplinary fashion without following standard curricula or school protocols.

Homeschoolers in Fiction and Non-linear Curriculum

Here are two resources that I think can be useful to homeschoolers of all ages and interests. The first is from Lisa Cottrell-Bentley, an unschooling mom from Arizona. She writes:

I wanted to let you know that my publishing company is actively seeking submissions for children's and Young Adult fiction about realistic homeschoolers of today—something that is lacking in the world. I'd love for you to send anyone my way if they mention they've written something like that to you. Send them to: http://www.facebook.com/l/c1c22heOgk9EqeLbsrxl9G33-zA;www.doliferightinc.com

I've started a KickStarter crowdfunding campaign to raise money so that I can publish even more books than the ones I currently have lined up. My company has three published books so far, with five more in the works (two of which should come out this year). I'd like to publish at least 12 books in 2011 and 24 in 2012.

__________

The second resource is a PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Marion Brady. I met Marion a few years ago in MI where I learned about his work in flexible, learner-centered curricula. Though his ideas are based on working with children in schools, any homeschooler can adapt them as they see fit, as well as use Marion’s conceptual structure as a way to describe their own reasons for not following conventional curricula and what they are doing instead.

Standards express

View more presentations from Patrick Farenga.