Unschoolers are Urban Legends
October 26th, 2006 at 12:56 pm (Unschooling Life)
Around 3 AM last night, I came upon the article Teach Your Children from San Antonio, and in my cold-induced, foggy-headed stupor, I just had to laugh at this….
Eager to provide homeschoolers with a support group that did not focus on religion, Kretzschmar formed San Antonio Home Education Resources and Opportunities. Her encounters with other parents have convinced her that distressing stories about so-called “unschoolers” — children who stay at home and zone out in front of the television all day — are, if not an urban legend, at least wildly exaggerated.
My guess is that the woman in the article told the writer that the “distressing stories” about unschoolers aren’t true - that unschoolers don’t “stay at home and zone out in front of the television all day,” and the writer - who seems a bit biased, in my opinion - turned it into the quote above.
I think the sentence can actually be read a few different ways, but for me, the phrase “so-called” implies that the false stories are about these listless, mealy-minded homeschoolers existing in the first place. Anyway, that’s how my editor’s eye read it.
I always wanted to be an urban legend! Right up there with the Kentucky fried rat, the hooked lunatic and pop rocks with soda!