“Education is about the production of more democracy, production of
peace, production of happiness whereas schooling is often the
production of global economic competitiveness.”,
Jason Price, an assistant professor at the University of Victoria, as quoted in The Globe and Mail.
I wrote in my last post that I wish I could unschool. I really do. I think there are many misconceptions about what unschooling is. I also think there are multiple definitions as families usually define it themselves. I’m not sure exactly how it would look for us but one very important aspect is being a mindful parent and engaging with your children. It is letting their interest guide their learning while providing them with a rich learning environment so that their interest is sparked by diverse topics.
One of my biggest inspirations to unschool is Miranda’s blog, Nurtured by Love. I read about her family’s life, her thoughts on learning and living a simpler life. It all resonates with me. If you read through her posts on homeschooling, school, mathematics, parenting, etc., you will meet her children who are all very bright and have diverse interests, broad background knowledge (astounding for their age – maybe that’s what unschooling can do), and strong analytical skills. They are also musical, compassionate and well socialized.
Why unschool? Here are my reasons.
Unschooling allows children to follow their interests, which means they will be intrinsically motivated to learn. They want to learn because they are truly interested in the topic and excited about it. In school, the motivation is often extrinsic; please the teacher, please the parents, get the stickers, grades, prizes, get into the best university, get a powerful job, etc. When a person is intrinsically motivated, they learn deeply, gaining a thorough comprehension of the concept or topic.
Unschooling is truly constructivist. Children will have the opportunity to construct their own knowledge. If children are exposed to situations in which they can explore and inquire, they will learn deeply. This doens’t mean let the children run wild and hope they learn something. It means exposing them to a variety of learning scenarios, often these scenarios need to be set up by the parent/teacher. There is plenty of research to support the constructivist approach to learning. Teachers are taught this in teachers college. Learning takes time, especially constructivist learning. Unfortunately, the system and curriculum (Ontario – to much) does not generally have time for it, at least not all the time.
If we were unschooling, I would be at home, learning with my children. We would learn together. It does not mean they would be running wild and I would be writing this blog all day (LOL). It would mean we could spend a lot of time together, living and learning. Time that is not rushed. We could bake, garden, solve math & logic problems, explore nature, travel, read, debate, analyze, volunteer, create, write, sing, play, play music, dramatize, paint, draw, meet people, converse….the list could go on forever. Maybe in 15 years I wouldn’t be saying, “Where did the time go, just yesterday they were 4”.
There are things about the school system that make unschooling appealing but I think that is best left for another post. If I unschooled and my children wanted to go to school at some point, I would let them follow their interest. See if they liked it.
Read Nurtured by Love and Kerri’s comments on my last post to hear about some children who are thriving with unschooling.
I’m sure there are other arguments for (and some against) unschooling so please join the discussion and add your opinions, respectfully please.
Ali, I agree with you completely. I want to give my kids as many open doors as I can so that they have as many options as possible as they grow up. I think the idea behind unschooling is that the public system puts such limits on kids’ time and energy that they can’t really pursue the things that interest them most.
I think the onus is on the parent to present a bunch of different topics to the kids, explore them together, and then let the kids run with it if they want to. Answer their questions, support their experiments, give them the freedom to learn. But if the subject doesn’t interest them, AND if the subject is not essential in supporting your family’s core values, then they can explore something else for now. My understanding is that Unschooling is a radical response to structured education, not to education in general, and that there is room within it for the core subject areas that will give the kids the skills to get into MIT. If they want to.
That said, I’m not an Unschooler, and doubt I will ever be. So I’m totally not an expert, here. I really hope I didn’t offend you, and I apologize if I did.
Like you, I’m all about supplementing our kids’ public education at home. I do it because I’m not confident our public school system can handle all of the different ways kids learn, or give them the freedom to explore what they love. I tutor ESL one night a week, and several of my students have been high school graduates, Canadian born and raised, who are meeting with me because they cannot read and write well enough to fill out a job application.
I’m also a big fan of classical education – at least, within a framework that supports multiple learning styles. The consequence for us has been a four-year-old who can read and write at a Grade 2 level and doesn’t want to go to preschool. And for that, I’m struggling to find a solution.
Hi Ali
I think you are operating from assumptions that don’t play out in the real lives of many of the homeschoolers/unschoolers I know.
In living a rich life it is pretty impossible not to explore most topics at one time or another.
Think of how your kids might learn things on a great vacation. They may listen to a book tape on one topic on the drive there, visit a museum or gallery, spend some time exploring the natural environment, pick up a guide book, ask a question about something they see in the local paper or on local tv, strike up a conversation with the person at the next table in the restaurant and learn more about local history or politics, wander around the town and learn about architecture or history or city planning.
Every day has those sorts of elements for unschooled kids.
I think the other assumption is that there aren’t involved parents along side these kids, helping them make connections, facilitating more learning, talking about their goals and dreams and what it takes to get there.
My oldest who is 12 wants to be an engineer (now). He is currently reading through calculus books because they interest him. He’s also participating in a youth advisory council to city hall where is he learning all about politics and civics. His fencing teacher has sparked an interest in learning more about the french language and french history so he’s going to the library after curling today to find some books and he’s been talking to my husband. He’s off to see a Mozart concert for teens with friends next week so we watched a biography of Mozart together last night. We’re starting a chemistry co-op with friends sparked by questions that came up from watching Mythbusters. He’s writing an article he wants to submit to a kids online newspaper on the after effects of the Pakistan flood. He starts his robotics/technology program next week. He’s teaching his grandmother chess. She’s helping him knit. His RE class at our UU church is focusing on sacred spaces so he’s got a project to draw what that means to him. He just asked to sign up for an online writing class in January.
His whole life is like this. As are the lives of his siblings.
Now – we don’t consider ourselves unschoolers because I have expectations for my kids education particularly around skills. But I do consider the content elements of their education to be child led.
And I thought I had posted another very long post in response to your questions about transcripts. The short answer is that universities don’t distinguish between unschooling and homeschooling. Unschoolers follow the same protocol that homeschoolers do in applying to universities. Sarah Rainsberger who came to speak to our homeschool outlined 7 ways homeschoolers can access post secondary education without a transcript/diploma.
You can read more on her blog here.
http://www.rainsberger.ca/blog/
Hope that helps.
DesiValentine – you say that “We build the roads by showing them lots of different things they might be interested in. The kids choose the direction of travel. And if their chosen paths don’t lead them to MIT, one day? Well, so be it.” BUT, what if IT IS? by unschooling, are you not allowing them every single choice available?
I mean, for my children, I don’t care if they want to be brain surgeons or actors or homemakers or firemen or teachers or anything they are passionate about. But, I still want to give them the tools to make all of those things possible. Is it wrong to choose a path for them that doesn’t, say, allow for them to BE brain surgeons?
ALSO. I have never said that school systems are wonderful. never. And I 100% agree that there are many things schools don’t teach and we are very big in teaching our children other things when they aren’t at school. I mean, I am American, and my children go to school in Canada where they do not learn american history…so I make sure to teach them. to SUPPLEMENT. but, would an unschooling parent NOT teach american history to their children if their children weren’t interested in it? Is that how unschooling works? I guess I am still hung up on logitistics.
I think that’s a really good point, Ali. Learning is something kids start doing the second they’re born, and they really do choose what they learn. They might be able to briefly absorb and appropriately regurgitate information for standardized testing, but what they actually retain is up to them. So why not let them pursue their interests? Why not just accept that it is their journey – not ours? Afterschooling and supplemental learning are the ways we do that in our house. We build the roads by showing them lots of different things they might be interested in. The kids choose the direction of travel. And if their chosen paths don’t lead them to MIT, one day? Well, so be it.
I’m loving this discussion. Thank you, Erin, for getting it started.
Hi Ali
I think one of the best ways to get a feel for unschooling is to think about how kids actually learn (which is a much different thing than how kids are taught).
Kids – well humans really – learn by making connections between things they already know and understand and “pegging” new bits of information to that previous knowledge. For that information to move from short term memory to become truly integrated into our knowledge basis we need to have some attachment to that information. There’s a really interesting book written by a (former) teacher who homeschooled his children with his wife but who taught in the public school system. He was an English teacher and he wrote about an exercise he often did where he would give a test on Friday and then mark it and then give the EXACT SAME test the following Monday. Without fail, not one student in his entire teaching career got the same or better grade on Monday than they did on Friday. Most of the class failed the same quiz. They learned material long enough to pass a test and then essentially did a brain dump.
The school system advances through a standardized curriculum, often repeating concepts and information every year and adding bits to it in an attempt to build on prior knowledge. Kids who have not acquired prior knowledge have trouble assimilating the new stuff – unless they have a deep interest in the topic. The assumption implicit in the system though is that every year the system starts again at the beginning.
So with the possible exception of skill areas (ie literacy and numeracy skills) content in most grade schools is irrelevant to the following years learning. I attended school in 9 different school districts growing up (including 4 high school districts across 2 different countries) in the days before standardized state/provincial curriculum. And I was a straight A student throughout school despite having been dropped into the middle of everything from American History to Latin, to Economics and French often mid semester with NO prior education in those subjects. School systems assess a students ability to parrot back what is being taught in the present, not what has been learned in the past.
My long winded point is that everyone has gaps and that if we look at our own experiences as adults and those of our kids much of our real learning and understanding happens in ways that are independent/adjunct of the standard curriculum.
Homeschoolers can access post secondary school in lots of different ways. There are lots of options for diplomas.
And as for the PP who says that one person can’t teach everything- I agree to a point. Most homeschoolers I know access a variety of resources to help their kids learn. My children learn art from a friend who has a degree in fine arts, computer programming and robotics from another friend who is an IT specialist, biology/nature studies through programs at our local nature centre/botanical gardens, history from their dad who has two history degrees, civics by being involved in our community. My oldest son (12) attends public lecture series at the University and our local museum. He attends a math circles program at another university where he does activities lead by grad students. My kids participate in soccer, hockey, fencing, curling, swimming, dance, choir/music, robotics, chess, rock climbing, language lessons, online writing classes, book groups, science clubs, geology club, a weekly field trip co-op and a kids activism group. As a homeschooling parent one of my main roles is to act as a resource for my kids to facilitate their learning – rather than being the source of it. Their learning is active, dynamic, and meaningful for them because they choose it and actively participate in it.
Like Ali, I have a much better understanding of homeschooling than unschooling. Is there truly a complete absence of structured curricula? If so, then how do kids find their way out into the world as adults? I am going to check out Idzie’s blog as soon as I have time to sit down and really read it. Thank you for sharing it with us.
We’re “after-schoolers” at our house, in that our kids will go to public school but also have some structured learning time at home. The Well Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and her daughter Jessie Wise is an incredible resource for parents interested in homeschooling or afterschooling a classical education. The benefits? My kids are STOKED about learning. Music Time and Activity Time are a BIG DEAL for them and for the other kids I care for. My daughter has been reading independently since around her fourth birthday. The drawbacks? Getting our little curriculum together is a lot of work. And, more importantly, my daughter is already showing resistance to playschool because they’re covering things she knows already. We’re not sure if the solution is to just let her adapt to this? As in, there are always new things to learn if you’re willing to look for them. Or if we need to shop around for schools that better suit her? Or if maybe “afterschooling” is going to become homeschooling after all?
Sorry about the long response. This was an awesome post, Erin. I really enjoy your blog.
Idzie,
I love your blog! Thank you so much for commenting here. I will definitely reference you in my follow up posts (I assume that’s OK since you supplied a link).
Just jumping in here as a 19 year old unschooler to say that, well, it works! I’m healthy, happy, and rarely go a day without feeling incredibly thankful to my parents for giving me this opportunity to grow and learn in freedom. I write a lot on my blog about unschooling in general, and my personal unschooling journey, so if anyone wants to check that out they’re welcome to: http://yes-i-can-write.blogspot.com/p/my-unschooling-writing.html
Wendy,
I’m also a teacher. And I also plan lots of great lessons that are constructivist. However, they can’t all be due to time and resources. I’m at the OTF “Critical Thinking” conference right now! If you’re here let me know!
I don’t think that the school system is bad, I think it’s pretty good. I also think it could be better, but not as good as unschooling for my family. I think we could do it better.
I’m trying to figure out how to craft a post about school without getting myself into trouble. I hope I figure it out and that you will add to that conversation.
I will comment on the specialist issue, plenty of elementary schools do NOT have specialists. Yes most have Music & French, but not all. They do not have math specialists (maybe they have coaches) and they should because math is generally not taught well in elementary schools. But maybe it’s different here in Toronto. I’m in the north where every school has a range of students. More on this later.
Hi Ali,
I actually have the next post – rebuttals – started already. I’ve anticipated a lot of the counter arguments so I will save the details for that post.
However, I will say that school educated kids have gaps, everyone does. Lots of kids who are unschooled end up going to school at some point and doing very well. Miranda’s daughter, Erin, did. When you have time, look through her blog to see what her kids are like. What I find fascinating about Miranda and her husband choosing to unschool is that they are both physicians! Yup, they schooled forever! Interesting, no?
Also, lots of kids who are unschooled go to university and thrive!
Stay tuned for the next installment! I can’t wait for the conversation.
Wendy – I know that some of my friends who homeschool send their kids to a “class” for science…with a bunch of other homeschooled kids. I think that’s to compensate for certain parts of the curriculum that they are unable to teach.
Hi Christine,
I’m working on figuring out how to unschool, it’s a money thing. I would love to hear from people who do it how they manage the financial aspect. Do you think you could share?
Sara, I would love to do it but it’s not feasible financially. I’m like you with my school experience. Honestly, I hated most of it. I could count on two hands the teachers and coursed that inspired me. I did OK, but my marks did not reflect my ability because I thought it was BS most of the time. I’m like my dad that way.
Sheri,
Thanks for commenting. I agree that kids don’t need to conform, they need to think for themselves, critically. I think that school does some of that but it’s about conformity a lot.
I’d love to hear more about your family, do you blog? If so, please post a link, if not, how about a comment with some details.
Thanks Shawn. I think you’re right, every family has to decide what works best for all of them.
Hey, I’m a teacher, so I have to agree with Ali. But I do try and make my lessons as interesting and relevant as I can. I have worked with like-minded colleagues, and the opposite. If we were all useless and boring and irrelevant, I would be the first to pull my child out. At school, we have a VP and Principal who make us accountable, testing, the school board and parents. We have to deliver the curriculum. There has to be sports, music, french, etc. Most times we have specialists to cover those extras. The powers above realize that one person can’t teach everything. That’s where I think homeschooling falls short. How can one person teach all things well? I know I couldn’t as a teacher and am happy our science, music, and french teachers are there! As well, I am lucky to be in a great school, and the dynamic in my classroom is so positive and energetic. How can you replicate that?
Thanks for writing this, Erin. It certainly is an interesting topic.
I guess there are just so many things about unschooling that i don’t understand.
I understand homeschooling. I am not a homeschooler and it’s not something that would work for me and my family, but I understand how it works. I understand that there’s a curriculum involved and children are required to take certain tests and they belong to networks where they interact with other kids and learn some subjects that maybe can’t look at home, etc. they graduate, they meet state guidelines etc.
but with unschooling…I understand the theory of child-centered learning and of children learning through their surroundings and real-life situations. I get that. I think it’s a wonderful concept.
I just don’t see how they can integrate. I don’t understand how they can HAVE A CAREER without diplomas. I mean, you cannot work at a gas station without a high school diploma. Are you setting your child up for less opportunity in his or her future, if you decide that a curriculum is unnecessary? AND, I have heard that some unschooled kids decide to go to school…I don’t get how they can possibly keep up in school if they decide at, say, 8th grade, that they want to go to school. There would be ridiculous holes in their academic background to all of a sudden fit into a classroom setting.
Now, I don’t think that unschooled kids are running around willy-nilly and their lives are big free-for-alls. I’m sure they are LOVELY children and don’t have social issues, like some people believe. I’m sure there’s lots of socialization. I just think that there HAVE to be academic holes. How can there not be? There are things my children would learn by LIVING…but there are certainly things that they would NOT learn.
Erin, I am so glad you are exploring unschooling. We embraced it over 6 years ago, after my kids finished 1st & 3rd grades. The positive changes in our relationships with our kids were what kept us exploring, even as we had questions. Then we could see how learning, sometimes really complicated learning, was happening as a natural consequence of letting the kids simply be in their world. I hope you continue to examine this parenting and educational philosophy. I look forward to reading about it!
What a great post Erin – and really well put. I’ll admit – my initial take when you talked about it was what ‘no way jose’. But the intrinsic learning makes so very much sense. I know I would have thrived in a situation like that. I didn’t do well in regular school (mark wise). I know personally I couldn’t do it. Which now feels very selfish – but I know myself. It’s very interesting though…very.
Erin, you are so right about the “time” aspect. As an unschooling mom for the past 4 years now, I cannot believe where the time has gone, and I am truly glad that I am able to spend this much time watch, playing with and learning from our kids. I will admit that sometimes I worry – are they going to fit in with the rest of society and be able to conform – then my brain comes back 🙂 I don’t want our kids conforming, I want our kids to be themselves. I enjoy every single minute with my kids learning things they way that works best for them to learn.
Home schooling/unschooling is not for everyone – it takes a lot of courage to stand up against society, family and friends and say “this is what’s right for us” and then have the patience and faith to wait it out and KNOW, absolutely KNOW, that this will work for us.
Shawn – I always laugh when people bring up the “social” aspect. Unschooling does not mean locking our kids away. In fact, thanks mostly to the internet, there are a lot of unschooling groups that meet on a regular basis and enjoy all kinds of activities together. My children (and I have 5 between 7 & 15) have plenty of neighbourhood friends and friends that they have met through other friends who live in different areas – it is not uncommon for there to be 10-12 kids at our house every weekend and most of the summer. We have a lot of fun! The biggest thing that I noticed for us it the “bullying” aspect seems to be either minimal or not there! I have a son with special needs and the thought of putting him in the school system to be traumatized, made me sick to my stomach. He is doing amazingly and has even made friends on his own.
Everyone has to do what is right for their own family. All I can do is wish everybody the best!
As with every potential solution or alternative, I doubt it is an all or nothing mix that would net the best result. It is likely a combined approach that would be most meaningful. To me, this means making the most if the time you have with your children, which many of us don’t do effectively enough. As much as the actual school system has its problems, there is something to be said for the social and physical interactions our kids have with other kids that can’t be duplicated in any way.
Great post Erin, on a very interesting topic. Thanks!