Thoughts on the Dr. Phil show
If you didn't get a chance to see it, scroll down to the next post watch it.
Dayna Martin, who appeared with her family on the show is a member of an unschooling group I belong to. She gave me her permisssion to reprint some of what she posted to our group about the show.
My husband and I were guests on the Dr. Phil show. We flew out to Hollywood from New Hampshire to represent Unschoolers on the show. A few days before flying out, a film crew filmed a day in our life. The day the crew was here was fabulous! We had so much fun and the crew shared openly with us how "real" we were and they all (I'm serious all 3 of them!) asked me more information about Unschooling for their own children! It was a joyful day and I looked so forward to sharing our awesome life with the world! (50 million people watch Dr. Phil).
The kids waited in the dressing room for 3 hours with a friend whom we brought to watch them. The only other family on the show that brought their kids was the other unschooling family! (They spoke from the audience and Deanne did such an awesome job!) It spoke volumes to me that only the Unschoolers brought their kids!
About the show, It was a heated debate and Dr. Phil certainly didn't understand or agree with our way of life, but I feel we held our own and were respectful.They put together our video a bit dishonestly because it was half-truths. They only used portions of some things I said instead of my reasoning behind them. I knew it may happen. Unschoolers may have an entirely different take on the show than the traditional homeschoolers in the audience.
I have no regrets about doing the show! I am proud to have represented us and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think the positive will shine through for Unschoolers! We tend to be an optomistic group of people.
On the Dr. Phil site, they conducted a poll asking "Which style of schooling do you think is best"? Here are the results of that poll.
6% (935) Public school
3% (816) Private school
80% (17062) Homeschooling
11% (2403) Unschooling
6 comments:
I think that's an odd poll, because there's a gray area between homeschooling and unschooling; it's not black & white.
I am glad I didn't watch it, Dr Phil is bad for my blood pressure.
I just watched all five on your blog.
I think the unschooling mom did a fantastic job of presenting her case.
The young 26 year old woman at the end, who felt "socially retarded" was interesting. I went to public school, and I felt the same way at one point in life. Personally, if she wants to become something more than what she is, then it's up to her to do something about it. She is definitely old enough. We can't blame our parents forever. I can empathize with her, because I have been in her shoes (despite the differing school choices of our parents), however, I did something about the way I felt about myself looooong before age 26.
I also missed my prom (because the next morning, my father wanted me to help him sell junk at the flea market, lol). I don't regret it. Not one bit.
My parents didn't even know that that was prom night- they found out five years later, and suffered this horrible guilt for not ensuring that I go.
What's so important about prom?
Actually, it was a comment that I made about this program that started my blog!
I am glad you did post the whole show, though. My comment was a response to comments made on the message boards rather than on the show itself.
I find myself underwhelmed by these talk show hosts in general. It's pretty hard to respect a guy that ends the show by saying: Well, you basically have to choose what is best for your children. I don't really need someone with a doctorate to tell me that. I can call my mother--no doctorate except in the school of life--and get real advice from her any time I want! LOL
I was very interested in his take on the "science of teaching." You know what we are told in schools of education? "Good teaching has always been good teaching." That is a direct quote from one big name guy who was brought in to help my state move to "inclusion" methodologies.
What is taught in schools of education is how to manage other people's kids that are cooped up together for so long each day with no choices about it!
Finally, I did not go to Prom when I had the opportunity. My high school class had a number of girls that were catty and downright mean. I was not part of the in group there at all. On Prom night, I went out with some college friends to dinner at a very nice place and then we went to a coffeehouse and listened to folk music.
It was just as fun, and I did not have a hangover after, unlike the kids who went to prom. Like them, I was up all night, though. I forgot to ask for my cup of Joe decaf!
"It's pretty hard to respect a guy that ends the show by saying: Well, you basically have to choose what is best for your children. I don't really need someone with a doctorate to tell me that."
Lol, I thought the same thing.
I found the show interesting, but not sure how I feel about unschooling. I think children need some sort of structure in which to learn and to gauge what they have learned.
As for the 26 year old girl at the end, I think if the people she hangs around with at that age still obsess about high school, maybe they are the problem not her. If all these people have to do is talk about their high school glory days, they must not have great lives.
I wouldn't have minded not having to go to a traditional high school because the private school I went to wasn't a great experience for me. Basically, I was an outcast for a variety of reasons and actually going messed me up for many years after that. I would bet if you look around, you can find people who would say homeschooling saved them as opposed to hurting them, I know that would have been the case with me.
I never went to the prom, school dances, football games, or anything like that. It just wasn't my thing and I don't think I missed out because of it.
Between grades 1-12, I went to 6 private schools and 1 public school. In some cases the school was flawed, in some cases it was I got a bad teacher, in others it was both. Private does not always equal better. As for socialization, the further along I got the worse it got. If I applied what I learned about socialization in high school today, I'd probably get arrested.
Just my opinion.
Post a Comment