You Might Be Going To the Wrong Dinner Parties

It's another common criticism of unschooling. A worry about raising a child without a curriculum:

Won't your child feel stupid later in life when he goes to a dinner party and doesn't know what people are talking about?

I'm wondering: What kinds of dinner parties are people going to where they are getting quizzed on things they should have learned in school? I'm trying to imagine I'm at a dinner party and someone says, Vickie, quick, when was the Magna Carta issued? And thank goodness I remember it was 1215 (I thought I remembered it just now, but I Googled it to be sure). Because otherwise everyone would have laughed at me. Obviously they all know the answer, but they are just checking to see if I knew it. It would be social suicide if had to say: I don't remember. Do you know? Cool, thanks for reminding me. Or even worse: What's the Magna Carta? I'd like to hear about it.

Another great conversation starter: What's the area of the sector if r = 3 and theta = 90? No dessert unless you answer correctly! (Source)

Seriously, who are you hanging out with that you feel like you all need to know the same things in order to have a good conversation? Does everyone only talk about random facts they learned in school? I would argue that most good conversations in my life involve me learning something new from another person. Or someone else wanting to learn more about something I know, and most likely not something I learned in school.

It would be nicer if we could all just stop expecting everyone else to know certain things, even if they seem really obvious. There are lots of things that I supposedly "learned" in school that I would not remember enough about now to contribute much to a conversation. Maybe it would make it easier to imagine not needing a curriculum if we weren't ashamed or afraid to say I don't know. It's OK if we don't all know the same things! We can learn from each other...

So maybe you are attending dinner parties where people are quizzing you on school-ish facts and then ridiculing you or withholding dessert or kicking you out if you don't know the answers. I don't know. But I have never been to a dinner party like this. If this has happened to you, you might want to start looking for some new friends.