We like our children

Someone mentioned in a comment (on the last blog post) that Western folks don't like their children. This is an extreme opinion, but it made me think. There really is an insistence on keeping kids away from grown ups' lives-their work, their fun.  Schools help perpetrate that belief.

A friend and her husband are on vacation again for the third time without their daughter- who is only 3 years old. They feel comfortable with an ocean and more distance between their selves and their child- convinced that they can't really enjoy themselves with a child in tow. To have a meaningful experience you can't have kids about.

But that isn't the case with most unschooling parents as far as I can tell.
It's what Kelly Green refers to in a chapter of her book (see review in last post) A Matter of Conscience: Education as a fundamental freedom, 'The real (secret) reason people choose to educate their own kids.
"We home educate not because we love our kids, but because we like them. It's time to make that a cause for celebration."
It is also not the case with kids in traditional societies.
Thanks to Laurence who sent on this link about what happens when western culture imposes modern style education on the world's indigenous cultures.
A lot of damage-that's what.

Check it out. It's called Schooling the World.


Schooling The World: The White Man's Last Burden trailer HD from lost people films on Vimeo.