Airy- Fairy Unschooling:National Post Reporting

I was interviewed yesterday by a National Post reporter about unschooling although she didn't end up using my interview. She seemed reasonable but as it turns out, it's the usual slant you'll read whenever you pick up an article on unschooling. This includes the critics who worry that the unschooled kids are not getting enough exposure to diversity of people.
If these critics are so concerned about overarching exposure to diversity, why aren't they worrying that public school kids are not getting exposure to kids of the rich and famous and powerful?
They're never going to rub noses with this crowd- but no one is sweating about that.

The question that those 'reporting' about unschooling always drag up is the"'what about structure?" Had the  reporter included my response in the piece, structure arises out of sustained activity that the family and children are pursuing.
Furthermore, it is not because you follow the ding- a- ling of a bell that you are 'following structure.'
Instead, you are being trained.
"Going around, unfocused, not focusing on anything," was how she put it.

What can I say?

Unschooled kids have even more opportunity then schooled kids to be focused because they have time (and less stress) to really delve into a subject or area of interest. This is not the fast- food style delivery you can expect to receive with public schooling. This is authentic learning- giving learning time to 'stew.'
I think I've already mentioned in another post about how interest based learning draws in all sorts of incidental learning. For example, my eldest who was unschooled to grade 8 and is now in grade 10 at public high school is a huge anime manga fan -and she  particularly loves the Hetalia series -a series which presents an allegorical interpretation of political and historic events, particularly of the WWII era, in which the various countries are represented by anthropomorphic characters. This deep fascination has led her to have 100% in history class as well as developing a keen interest in world politics and civics.

I really wish people would take more time to investigate the topic-you know be self directed and make the effort to educate yourself.

Concerned about what kind of adults unschooled kids will turn out to be?
There are enough studies and reports (many of these on my blog) that showcase real life grown unschoolers and what they are doing so why not read about them, talk to them, meet them?

It's like the other day,a woman -a retired teacher - who heard me saying that my kid doesn't go to school interjected with, "Oh. Unschooling? Illich and that? Well it works for some kids but often it's just all airy fairy."

Uh huh. And so schooling works for everyone does it? Every single person who goes through the system, who wears the badge of school on their chest is.. successfully educated are they? Even if this statement were true I would still come back with,"So what? So what if your education is complete? What are you doing with it? How are you bettering the community?"