Here's my Prediction - Future Cult

[Kitchen Princess]

Unschooling isn't my thing, but I have seen it work in some cases. This case is pure...something... :pink-shock:

I will have to say that unadulterated unschooling, without the Woo Factor bullshit, can work and work well. My never-been-to-school kid starts college full-time on campus, on the Division I baseball team, too, just next month. It's a story I've seen play out over and over.

[Kitchen Princess]

Certifiable whack-job. I've been in the unschooling community for 4 years though, never heard of him personally and it's a small enough world that even if you don't know someone personally, you'll have heard of them at some point if they have any presence at all. So if it's any consolation, he doesn't have a large audience among unschoolers. I've vaguely heard of his mother and the Rethinking conference but never attended it and don't know many people who have in recent years. Lots of people seem to have distanced themselves from it though, and if the family that ran it went off the deep end I can see why.

Barb Lundgren, who was the founder, did not go off the deep end, until she turned it over to Joe and Dayna Martin. That's blowing up big time.

[Kitchen Princess]

This was on Facebook today. Quinn Eaker in 20 years:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/1 ... lp00000009

[kunoichi66]

From the blog:

Wow. What a catch. :/

Polyamory FAIL. Seriously. :pink-shock:

[Escapefromfundiedom]

I am a Certified Nurse Midwife and I find that birth story appalling on so many levels. When you put your desire for a mind-blowing birth experience ahead of the health/welfare of the baby, it is wrong.... totally wrong. These people are darn lucky that their baby girl is alive and well.

QFT and also - YAY CNM's! I've had two babies delivered in the hospital with the loving assistance of CNM's. They were my homebirths-in-a-hospital (with the comfort and assurance of trained professionals and equipment standing by in case of emergency). The women that guided me through those two pregnancies and births have such special places in my heart. CNM's rock!

The idea of going to a foreign country without your a-hole "husband" and having a BREECH birth in a ratty hotel room...just. So many levels of NO. Like everyone else has said...they are so damn lucky to be alive.

[rward]

She is an unschooler who it seems has lost custody of her daughter to her parents. Here is her background story in her words. She has a tough history if it's true. (sorry always a sceptic) Page down to Making Lemonade.

rethinkingeverythingmagazine.com/uploads/6/4/0/8/6408350/rethinking_everything_magazine_issue_six.pdf

Did a little more digging. She has a bachelor's in Anthropology, which makes it disingenuous for her to call herself an anthropologist, though she does repeatedly. She also apparently lost custody of her daughter because she was entirely illiterate- in the 5th grade.

Her reading teacher repeated several times how Loey did on their preSTAR (formerly TAKS) test. She repeatedly used the word "failed"

I also can't quite tell what the goal of unschooling is. It's clearly not "learn to read" or "get a good job".

The argument my parents give me that my children are uneducated is they are sure they will not get into college. Why is college the ruler of success? I know my parents are wrong, first or all and two, there are literally millions of other options. Only the creative mind is the limit.

So . . . she's a college educated Anthropologist, as she reminds people about every .5 seconds, but her daughter doesn't need to be able to freakin' read? What is with these people?

[Sobeknofret]

I also can't quite tell what the goal of unschooling is. It's clearly not "learn to read" or "get a good job".

Unschooling can work very, very well with the right family dynamic. It's sometimes called "child-led" or "delight-directed" schooling. However, for some families it doesn't work well; my child thrives on structure and predictability, so we do a different kind of homeschooling. There are more success stories with unschooling than there are failures; it's just that the failures are so prominent, like our Quinn here.

[Tesseract]

Barb Lundgren, who was the founder, did not go off the deep end, until she turned it over to Joe and Dayna Martin. That's blowing up big time.

Oh wow. I just I went down the DM rabbit hole - not just what she presents on her blog, but the meat of the controversy. :o I've never gotten the vibe that BL was totally crazy, but I do not know her personally.

Sometimes you have a kid with issues and it is not the educational method causing them. There is also a trend among many RU families not to get a diagnosis or label their kids who are having difficulties. In some circles there is an immense amount of pressure not to do so. I suppose the label doesn't matter much as long as the child is getting support/medication/help. My kiddo has autism whether he has a formal diagnosis or not. I chose to have him evaluated and we've found so many wonderful people to support him within our unschooling framework. He has had opportunities to do things that he never would have had without those connections. Win-Win.

Something I've noticed about the first generation unschooling parents who blog is that they have a huge need to validate what they are doing. The kids have grown up not just living it, but having it be a main topic of conversation to defend, justify, explain and convince others to do... Their kids were held up as public examples in many instances without their consent. We unschool, but I've not actually called it by name to our son yet. In time, I will, but there is a line between living and sharing some of it with others and proselytizing. I'm not sure this is making sense, but those are a few of my thoughts.

[Shoes Grace]

I also can't quite tell what the goal of unschooling is. It's clearly not "learn to read" or "get a good job".

[Pathfinder]

I am warm-hearted hearing all the good stories about us CNM's.... it is definitely not an easy job, but the rewards are phenomenal!

What bothers me about this "birth story" is that it tends to fan the flame. Others read it, think how psychedelic it sounds, and begin planning their own mind-blowing birth experience devoid of any prenatal care. Many times these women end up at the hospital, but only after they realize that labor isn't just a bunch of roses and unicorns flying around. I remember one woman who came into the hospital off the street, no prenatal care, and she had labored at home all day. She couldn't handle the pain anymore and unfortunately had an advanced case of fetal distress going on. I explained to her as thoroughly as I could that the fetal heart tones are very low and she needs an immediate C-section to save the baby's life, but she refused- she only wanted us to give her some pain medication and allow her to go home. We had to actually go as far as to get an emergency court order to force her into a c-section, and even though we rushed as much as we could, the baby still ended up quite compromised. You won't see that birth story published in any magazine. I am beginning to think that maybe I should write a book entitled "Childbirth: the Good, Bad and the Ugly".

[Savoring Samsara]

:o

So, in the "bad baby names" thread, I was snarking a little on the name of Quinn and Inok's daughter, Inoquinn, and jokingly said, "I wonder if the baby about to be born will be named Quinnok?"

Well, this was on Inok's Facebook just now:

She has a name!

In the family tradition, a hybrid name, until she says otherwise.

Quinnoki

OMG I'M PSYCHIC.

(Fortunately, it appears that her second daughter was born safely at home, in the US, and not breech. Thank heavens for small mercies, I guess.)

[Miss M]

All the gardening and homesteading forums I am on, and same type of friends on FB are blowing up and posting this story over and over. When I first saw the story yesterday, I didn't put two and two together, but then a friend just posted this story on FB and I was like "I know that guy, why do I know that guy"!?

Quinn's farm raided by SWAT teams!

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/14/t ... marijuana/

[Ariel]

Oh, Texas.

[Miss M]

Oh, Texas.

As little respect as I have for the State of Texas, I am sure this has as much to do with Quinn and it does with the town of Arlington!

[noni alabaster]

I had no idea Quinn lived so close to me. I live in Fort Worth and never travel to Arlington, land of chain restaurants and nightmarish traffic. Who knew that, so near the chaos and blandness of the city, lies the Garden of Eden?

[Miss M]

I didn't see this posted in all the links that were found since this post was started, but it seems Inok has a way with children, teaching the pee and poop on the toilet at only THREE WEEKS OLD??

http://intothegardenofeden.com/index.ph ... Itemid=353