The Martins on ABC’s Nightline

Disappointing

I believe this video covers all 7 minutes that aired recently on ABC’s Nightline program. Having watched it, I feel quite disappointed. How much of what we saw related to the edit and how much to the material available to edit is something I can’t know. Mainly, I feel that it once again failed to show the benefits of unschooling to anyone not yet familiar to it, while pandering to the all too familiar stereotypes in mainstream media about unschooling.

Perhaps some of the primary benefits I see in my family as a result of whole life unschooling and believe other families (including the Martins) experience are difficult to capture when a stranger is asking direct questions and a camera crew are skewing the energy of the family home so that the norm isn’t really present to be filmed? And that’s where I’d expect the parent(s) being interviewed to be better prepared for the kinds of questions that are being asked by the interviewer.

Things I love and attribute to unschooling:

I love how my children seem socially confident, easily speaking to anyone about anything anywhere.

I love how, when they’re not being “quizzed” to see how much they “know”, they ask the most incredible questions and offer deeply insightful reflections on a wide range of subjects.

I love the deep sense of give and take and connection from working with their needs, in tandem with my needs, not above my needs, and the lack of power struggles for the most part; even though we don’t have arbitrary rules, we do have boundaries.

I love how I love learning and that I *do* love algebra and biographies and a wide range of other subjects, many of which were not taught to me at school, where I spent a lot of time achieving, but bored out of my mind. Learning that I trawled the libraries for when I was a child to absorb all I wanted to learn. Just as I expect my children will, though we now have a wider range of resources than just books in libraries and use all of them without discrimination. I am sure that there are a lot of people (children and adults) who will voluntarily learn about past presidents or literature’s greats out of pure interest, just as there are many who will learn about algebra, or astronomy, or breadmaking or quantum physics or car mechanics or carpentry … and just as many who will not and will find what interests them.

I love how my children are aware of themselves as an autonomous being, with needs, likes and dislikes different to any other being (even their parents) and are learning how to honour their own needs as they arise: to eat when hungry, sleep when tired, engage when social, take space when not, follow an interest or develop a passion, outside of the arbitrary conformity imposed by our society. I think it’s healthy and empowered and engenders a self-respect that leads naturally to respect of others and the earth.

Unschooling Stereotypes

In terms of the program’s responsibility, I felt disappointed that yet another unschooling portayal in the media focused on a possibly rare sugar-based excess (by children who were only just being given the choice to explore that – how many adults go to excess on first pleasurable experiences without external controls?), scenes of kids “running wild” (read: playing) and being quizzed on what they know, in a way that only schooled children are really trained to respond to.

Where were the scenes of the kids reading, working together and negotiating co-operative solutions, deeply concentrating on a project (well, maybe the bread baking, but surely there were more?)?

Where was the scene where the child who was actually interested, in what the rock at the “rock shop” did, answered rather than the one who had no interest (the dad has said it was edited out)?

Upping The Game For Future Advocacy?

I love that Dayna is so passionate about unschooling. I love that she has inspired so many people to open to the possibility. I respect that she is willing to be put on the line along with her whole family and be filmed as an advocate for radical unschooling. But I think that, as unschooling publicity gets taken to another level as it is now, so must the advocacy. It feels frustrating to me as a viewer who knows and loves unschooling and the intangible benefits it brings to see mainstream interviewers asking similar questions and those questions just not being effectively addressed.

I recognised many of the answers given to Juju’s questions from a wide range of previous talks and interviews, but noticed that while the answers gave information on unschooling, they didn’t necessarily answer the questions being posed. The same thing happened in a recent live interview for Australian news, where a great answer was given that had no bearing on the question being asked.

I think it’s important to honour what the Martins have done so far, but that it’s also OK to ask Dayna to up her game a little as a high profile unschooling advocate (a leader, as Juju described her). I know that her self-published book has recently had a professional make-over and been re-editted so that the message that was intrinsically good could be improved and presented a bit more professionally. Perhaps some coaching specifically for TV appearances and how to respond to the media would be the next worthwhile investment?

UPDATE

5 June 2010

For a full discussion about this particular interview by Dayna, please read her blog post here

Other great discussions about unschooling in the media from writers I enjoy, following recent TV interviews, can be found here and here.