Friday, December 15, 2017

Civics Education, Homeschool/Unschool Style

So yesterday, I put on the live stream of the Federal Communications Commission's session in which they were going to vote to end "Net Neutrality." I was somewhat surprised when my 16-year-old son came in, recognized what it was and why I had it on, and sat down and watched. I knew he'd been following the issue, but not how closely.

Of course, his commentary on the hearing itself ranged from "is that woman ever going to shut up so they can vote?" during one of the commissioners' interminable speeches (which included a Cheshire Cat metaphor leading into a verbal stumble culminating in the the memorable phrase "however they conjugate that")  to "oh, for crying out loud, how long can this take?" when the room was cleared for security theater purposes.

But I'm guessing that most 16-year-olds don't take it upon themselves to sit through FCC hearings in the first place, so his irritability with the slowness of proceedings doesn't strike me as odd. I'd even say it's evidence for what every parent wants to think ("my kid isn't most 16-year-olds"). He's been pressing us to let him take the GED so he can start college. And his elder sibling is gainfully employed while mulling EMT training versus nursing school.

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