Fear of autonomy

There's a blogger on the political left named Steve Gilliard, whose blog I no longer read as a result of his continual demonstration of his near-hatred of children. But he recently blogged about a CNN article on unschooling, and... well, I guess it's like picking a scab, but I went and looked at Steve's post after my mom mentioned it.

Sigh.

His co-blogger wrote:

One day, ONE of these kids will win some big academic post/scholarship/whatever.

Many more will open fire in assorted public places.

That's right, you read it here first: unschooling leads to mass murder. Because, as we all know, the only thing preventing humans from tearing each other to pieces with our bare hands is Structure and Discipline. (Never mind that most schoolchildren who open fire on their classmates do so as the result of bullying and torment which is widespread in schools. Just disregard this minor quibble.)

Steve himself wrote:

There are two problems here: one, the child has no sense of expectations. When you can do what you want, when you want, dealing with the demands of other people is difficult. You assume the world centers around you and your concerns.

People repeat this stuff, the old "Discipline is vital! Permissiveness will ruin your child's life!" but without much real thought behind it. Steve is a big believer in how all bad behavior or lack of interest in school or basically anything he doesn't find desirable in children is the result of bad (meaning inadequately structured) parenting. But then, Steve has no children.

Which child has a more accurate sense of their place in the world: the child who is out and about and actually in the world? Or the child locked up in an artificial environment in which being the teacher's pet, having the highest grades, being a top athlete or belonging to the 'in' crowd are all capable of instilling an exaggerated sense of importance? Further, given the frequent use of rewards and consequences in schools and the pointlessness of such external controls in an unschooling family, which child would be more often guided to consider what accrues to them? Which child is more likely to feel that what happens to them is the only relevant consideration? The kid with autonomy, who has a chance to develop intrinsic motivations for learning and civility and charity; or the kid who is incessantly bribed, whose greed and ego is constantly appealed to?

Steve then says unschooled kids will avoid difficult tasks. Yeah. Like, you know, that layabout Thomas Edison who never followed through with an idea in his life. Or that lazy, comfort-loving Margaret Mead-- when did she ever put herself out in pursuit of a higher goal?

He ends with this unintentionally funny sentence:

Sometimes you need to sit in a room and be lectured, so you can concentrate.

Ohhhhhh.... is that what I was supposed to be doing, instead of daydreaming and passing notes and doing my homework from other classes?

Numerous comments following the post defended homeschooling and unschooling, but there were also numerous comments which I can easily summarize as "Well, the world is a cruel and terrible place, and the earlier one learns to deal with hatred and oppression, the better." Some leftists want children to learn to obey and to accept and to toil in silence, yet simultaneously believe that dissent is more vitally important to our country's future than perhaps at any other time, because those in power are so evil and fascistic. I don't find this to be intellectually consistent.