The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School
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The Unprocessed Child is a work of nonfiction about a child raised with no coercion and no curriculum. Laurie Chancey spent her childhood immersing herself in topics of her own choosing. She was never forced to learn something simply because tradition and/or society said it was necessary. No one was looking over her shoulder to make sure she was learning the "proper" subjects.
Having never seen a textbook or taken a test, never used workbooks or any type of teaching techniques, Laurie scored in the top 10% of the state of Louisiana on her college entrance exam. She enrolled in college when she was eighteen, and graduated summa cum laude three and a half years later. Laurie is a bright adult, but her IQ is not why she did so well. She spent her life learning to learn and it’s something that now comes easily to her.
The Unprocessed Child was written by her mother and is full of examples of raising a child with respect and dignity. It is the first book written about a radically unschooled child who has now reached adulthood and is a responsible member of society.
Questions about the radical unschooling lifestyle are answered on topics ranging from socialization, parental responsibility, self-discipline, chores, bedtimes and much more. The book shows that it is not only possible to befriend your child, but that it is highly preferable to the struggles that so many parents go through with their children. It proves that school is not necessary for learning, socializing or motivation.
DESCRIPTION:
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780972941600
ISBN: 0972941606
Label: Unbounded Publications
Manufacturer: Unbounded Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 264
Publication Date: 2003-07
Publisher: Unbounded Publications
Studio: Unbounded Publications
SIMILAR ITEMS:
• The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom
• Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
• The Unschooling Unmanual
• Learning All The Time
• Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better
CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting, yet preachy
Comment: This was the first "unschooling" book I have read and the beginning had me hooked. I think the author has some very interesting things to say about a child's ability to self-regulate, what is needed to help that develop, and also about respecting a child's feelings.
However, the second half of the book lost me a little. The author's conclusions become overly simplistic and often smug. I am happy her daughter is successful, however she does begin to express that attitude that anyone who makes different choices than she did is wrong. Period. Many of her conclusions fall apart if one or more siblings are brought into the picture. Also, the authors relationship with daughter does take on some creepy undertones when we read about her fallowing her daughter to college and still sleeping with her daughter into her 20's. Not saying anything inappropriate was happening, it's just a bit odd.
While the book did get me interested in unschooling and I will do more reading on the subject, this book was more of a memoir than the how-to book I expected, and a little too smug in judgmental in it's generalizations.
Edited to add:
I was also a little bothered by how small a role Laurie's father seemed to play in all this. In the beginning of the book he is thanked for working lots of overtime so the author could stay home with her daughter, but the only other times he is mentioned is when the author wants to point out that he had some option about raising his child and it was wrong. And she was right. The one-sidedness of the parenting is a little unfortunate I think. Children can learn a lot from fathers, too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The only book I have ever thrown in the trash
Comment: We are an AP family, homeschoolers, with a definite leaning toward unschooling. I expected to love this book, and yet it ended up going in the trash because I couldn't even bear to pass it on to someone else. The author practically has her judgment of anyone who does things differently than she did dripping from the pages. All I could think of as I read it was "Well, sure you can do that if you only have one child." The moment you enter a sibling into that environment you have chaos. I think it's absolutely wonderful the author was able to raise her daughter the way she did. I would have appreciated it better if I hadn't felt that she feels very superior to anyone who does otherwise.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a good read not a handbook
Comment: This is not a how to book or a resource book it is about one woman raising her daughter. Although some parts are a little more hard core then i am going to do with my own children I do feel that many of the points she made were good and can be applyed to an unschoolers way of life as well as to help give you the answers to questions like "well that's the way life is, how will they ever learn about 'real' life?"
Customer Rating:
Summary: way far left
Comment: I do not agree with her method. As a look into her slice of life it is very interesting. I do not agree that a child should decide when they want to learn to read. I agree that you should follow your child's interests, but reading and counting are essential skills not elective skills.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A beautiful testament to what we can achieve when we open our hearts and trust our children.
Comment: In the Summer of 2006 a radical unschool mom lent me a book called The Unprocessed Child by Valerie Fitzenreiter. This book, the first of many I would borrow from this mom, was to become my portal to the unschool zeitgeist. It was a virtual tipping point in my gradual acceptance of the viability of unschooling versus the school at home model in which we found ourselves. It reminded me that my child was my friend, not my adversary. It reminded me that we were on a journey together, and that school is nothing more than an artificial construct that has no place on our journey. I talked about The Unprocessed Child with several other home school moms and asked their experiences and opinions. I debated with the author in my head. I took issue with some of her assertions. Yet like a bell that has been rung and can never be unrung, the vibrations continued to resonate within me. The love and trust the author shared with her daughter was so akin what I felt for my children that I knew that I wanted a life that respected them in the way Valerie respected her daughter. The Unprocessed Child would not stay out of my consciousness after I finished it and I investigated many of the books she referenced as her sources. Each new book led to another book and I went on an unschooling reading feeding frenzy. While nursing my baby or snuggling with my 6 year old while we both read during little brother's naps, and even while the boys were still asleep in the morning I read everything I could find. I read John Holt, A.S. Neill, Alison McKee, John Taylor Gatto, Connie Colton, Linda Dobson, Rue Kream, Scott Noelle, Jan Hunt and scores of others both in print and online. It was a short distance philosophically from where our family currently was (AP, consensual living, child led) to radical unschooling and reading Valerie's book with its "radical" ideas of loving your children and living in the moment played a vital role in that process and I will always be grateful for this book.
Read this book! Read everything you can get your hands on (unschooling books, science fiction, comic books, historical fiction, everything - read, read, read!!!). You don't have to agree with everything, or even anything in The Unprocessed Child but do let this book be a part of your unschool experience, it is a beautiful testament to what we can achieve when we open our hearts and trust our children.
Our minds are like parachutes, they function best when they are open.
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