Sicko Documentary

Last night Steve, Alexander and I watched the documentary Sicko by Michael Moore. Although I am not always sure how I feel about Michael Moore, the documentary had some interesting information and some things to think about. As homeschoolers that follow a philosophy known as unschooling (child led education) we are always happy when our children are inspired and want more information. Since Sicko focused a lot of the differences in health care between France and the United States, Alexander had some additional questions after the movie. (We paused the movie several times to discuss what we were hearing.)

Now that he knew some information about the health insurance in France, that college is free, and they have a great vacation plan, he wanted to know about the government in France. So, we looked it up, read together and went on to discuss the differences in the government of France compared to the United States building on some other issues we have been discussing lately. As soon as Alexander and I finished our discussion on the government similarities and differences, he ran downstairs to share his new knowledge with Steve. This then prompted them to do a comparison of the size of France compared to the United States. He then came to share his new knowledge (again) with me.

With an unschooling philosophy, we trust our children are naturally curious human beings and will want to know more. This is just one example of something that happens almost daily. A discussion we have, a TV show we watch, or a place we visit sparks new interests and natural learning. The difficult part for us is to make sure we act on that curiosity as it occurs so we can capture exactly what they want to know. It is fun too. I learn a lot in the process.

So, after flipping through channels and landing on the documentary Sicko, we were able to have an additional hour or so unplanned learning on government, health insurance, land size and much more.