Stefan Molyneux, of Freedomain Radio, has recently had a very interesting series of interviews on “libertarian parenting”. The three guests (so far?) were me, my fellow TLS blogger Gil Guillory, and just today, David Friedman. The MP3s for the first two, and the YouTube videos for all three, are below. All three had different perspectives but were all very practical and had tons of great tips and ideas. Gil Guillory’s mentioned several books and other resources he’s found useful in the instruction of his children. There was a critique of my discussion by one “Aaron,” an “unschooling” advocate, which was debated further on the FDR boards, and discussed subsequently by Molyneux on the FDR1698 Sunday Call In Show July 18 2010.
FDR1689 Libertarian Parenting – A Freedomain Radio Conversation with Stephan Kinsella – Two libertarian parents discuss how to best raise confident and freethinking children, including discipline without aggression, Montessori education, resolving conflicts and teaching skepticism and rationality.
FDR1693 Libertarian Parenting — A Conversation with Gil Guillory
FDR1699 Libertarian Parenting Part 3 – Professor David Friedman on Unschooling – Professor David Friedman talks about being raised by Milton Friedman, and how he unschooled his own children.
Update: See my blogpost Montessori and “Unschooling”.
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Nice series.
About the dinosaurs: I went with my daughter to see the Walking with Dinosaurs show. It was quite well done, very lifelike. I was more interested of how did they do it and it was nice to figure it out. Everyone had fun.
I took my kid to that too when it came to Houston a couple years ago.
I am fascinated with the subject of Libertarian/Objectivist family life and child raising and I really appreciate your post here! A question for Stephen and Gil in regards to education–why are we not questioning what children are taught in school? Why are we talking about reading the Odyssey as if it is some moral good and not something we all wasted our time doing? I seriously question the way history is taught–it is certainly not from an anarchist point of view. I would like to see a children’s book where the king is an evil bad man seeking to enslave people. I would like to see a US History class that focuses on freedom, what this country was supposed to be and what it is. More importantly, I think classes in health, nutrition, philosophy, good communication, money skill are far more important than any class we take in high school. I learned everything I was supposed to learn at my private high school–I enjoyed learning. I graduated at the top of my class and went on to a top university. All I can think now is: what a bunch of crap I memorized! What a waste of my time! So many more important things to learn! Not to mention that education done today is little more than government (and liberal) propaganda. I don’t have a solution… I just want to know if you guys have also questioned what your children are learning.
Thanks for the show, really good advice. I agree on everything you said. Except for two things and I would love to hear your opinion.
One, is that you said “Disney is plastic crap” therefore you tend not to take him to such places. I personally think this is silly because a well rounded child should have all kinds of experiences, including man made recreation parks. And Disney particularly is very educational. For example at Epcon they have rides that show how agriculture is done in the modern world with real plants and technologies displayed. Also you can study different architectural and cultural styles by visiting the different stylized villages. It’s extremely well built and provides a unique experience. But even if you just look at the rides, you can teach them about the limits of the human body, how we experience gravity, speed, fear, effects, lighthing, etc. Also, understanding how you can create experiences and how you can present a subject is a very important skill. And Disney does it best. It’s a creative skill that you mostly learn by imitation and can be extremely helpful in any career. Finally, being familiar with pop culture is extremely important for a child and an adult Today. If you don’t know certain characters and stories you may miss out on lots of cultural references later in life.
I feel sad that you would deny all this experience to your child because of a cultural snobism or some other perceived problem with Disney.
Can you elaborate whether you think why perspective is incorrect if I haven’t convinced you about why Disney is cool.
Another question: What is the evidence that makes you think that global warming isn’t happening? Or what exactly is your position on this issue?
From my perspective it’s a very complex science, it’s not as easy to understand as the theory of evolution for example. The evidence out there is based on fairly complex models and lots of various data that I don’t think non-professionals like you or me can understand and interpret easily. Because of this I personally have to resort to accepting what the scientific community is saying. And there is no controversy on this question in science. Everybody accepts global warming as a fact. There are only very few serious scientists who dispute it.
Is it possible that you guys fell into an intellectual trap here? My theory is you don’t want to believe global warming is true because the solution would require non-libertarian solutions therefore you deny the problem itself? Maybe you’re a victim of confirmation bias and you are cherry picking data that supports the bias instead of looking at the issue without any emotional attachment?
I would love to hear the thinking process that went into deciding that global warming is a hoax.
How many children do the Molyneux’s have? Do they have a video series of themselves using their notions to raise their own children, thus demonstrating how effective their principles are? Is it free? I’d be willing to buy a cd set showing how to raise a child properly from birth till the finish school get married and have their own children!