Dear Aggressive Unschoolers

(Yes, I have come back with a rant.  Sorry about that.)
I understand that you are an unschooler.  I get it.  I understand that you think my son will teach himself anything and everything he needs to know, and if he is stuck, he will ask for help.  I understand your educational philosophy.  However, I neither have the dedication or selflessness to make it work, nor do I agree with this philosophy.  I do not believe that my son will eventually teach himself calculus with no instigation from me. I do not believe that he will suddenly radically change his personality just because I have adopted your philosophy.  When things get difficult for my son, he does not press on.  He says "screw this," and goes back to things he enjoys - things that are reassuring and easy for him.  If we did not prompt him, he would not go back to those challenging things.  So, my three year old, who is one small leap from taking off reading, will NOT teach himself to read with no input from me.  He just won't.  He needs more of a challenge than his board books are providing, and significantly less challenge than Robert Jordan, Laurell K. Hamilton (GAH!) or Piers Anthony.  As I do not have these materials in the house, and cannot afford to go purchase a mountain of standard children's books for him to rip apart, my option is the library.  And since they make you pay for the books your child destroys (be it tearing out pages or coloring in them), that is also less than ideal.  So when I crack out the workbooks or computer programs to help him along and give him a challenge?  Don't tell me that I'm totally overdoing it and harming him.  I am offering him a challenge.  Am I sitting him down and forcing him to complete workbook pages?  NO, HE'S THREE.  Am I doing my best to offer him a challenge that he can have fun with so he won't just skip it and move on to something else without ever learning more than "EFF /f/ EFF!"?  You bet your ass I am.

I don't spend my online time telling you about the unschooled kids I know from down the block who can't tell their letters from their numbers at ten, don't bother telling me how much "damage" I'm doing in just providing a challenge for my son - you know, the kid *I* live with, *I* know, and *I* love, but who is just "this chick on the internet's kid..." to you.  'Cause really, that's just rude.  I don't ask you to provide me methodology, statistics or outcomes for the average unschooler, I just accept that you're going to do what you're going to do.  Don't start going into how HORRIBLE mainstream education is, and how it totally doing a disservice to our children with me.  First of all, I'm an effing homeschooler.  I have as much to do with mainstream education as you do.  Second, again, that's just rude.  I know more about my son than you do.  This includes his penchant to abandon things that are inherently challenging if they are not presented properly, and is the impetus behind my purchase of the Explode The Code online program.  He is one small leap from being able to read, and if putting him in front of the computer with the program is enough to get him to make that leap?  I will do it a hundred times over.  Plus, "Mommy, I want to read." is a common refrain around here.  If that's not his asking me for help in the best way he can, then I don't know what is.  As it stands, I was agreeing with you on the article in question and lamenting my late start - we're all in agreement that trying to force kids to read before they're ready is useless.  I was lamenting that my toddler taught himself his letters at 18mo, and I've been playing catch-up with him ever since.  Berating me about my terminology and intentions when I'M AGREEING WITH YOU is stupid and really does nothing to help anything.  It does not change my opinion on unschooling, and in fact cements the notion that a good number of unschooling parents are sanctimonious jerks who think their way is the only healthy way.  Congratulations, your lack of comprehension is setting your cause back quite a way.

So, dear aggressive unschoolers, how about you back the heck off?  I don't give you grief about how you're educating your children (or is it 'facilitating your children's inherent desire to learn' now?), how about you extend the same courtesy to me?