Social studies is probably the worst example to bolster your argument as it is one of the most neglected and poorly taught subjects in most public schools. Many kids get none in elementary school at all.
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My only hesitation with unschooling is for the kids who don't get the strong foundational skills because they are starting adult life with a big deficit. I agree with other posters though this is more an issue of neglect than something specifically about the educational method.
passthepotatoes ... right on board with you. Great response. Thanks!
I feel like I have a different perspective on this 2 years into homeschooling. My youngest LOVES history, social studies, cultural studies. We went to a Pow Wow last weekend for HER. She was entralled. She wants to be a medieval girl for Halloween this year. She was Cleopatra last year. She retains history stories like crazy. She is obsessed with her American girl. She loves field trips involving people dressed up in period costumes.
My son love project based things that he can dive into and learn everything about. Most are science or technology based.
They are both highly motivated in these areas and I don't have to encourage them. I finding myself tying other subject areas to their passion areas. I am not an unschooler, but at this point, I could certainly see how that could work for us (and does quite a bit of the time). Once kids have reading, writing, and research skills, kids that have been allowed to love learning through discovery really can fly. It's fun to watch.
Absolutely, there are parents out there failing their kids. Numbers wise though there are many, many more kids being failed in the public school system at this point in time. So I'm personally unconcerned about the tiny number of very lazy unschoolers out there.
For many that pretty naturally extends into some degree of political involvement. If I've got any beef about homeschoolers and political involvement it would be that I'm not a fan of right wing politics and there are some homeschoolers very actively focused on producing politically active conservatives.
If it makes you feel any better, the HS circles we run in are moderate to left wing.
Edited to add - agree with Kriston too.
