Unschooling – my favorite type of education!

I love freedom. I love letting children learn in freedom. Therefore I love unschooling. In theory it makes more sense than any other type of education.

Unschooling is child-directed learning. Unschooled children are free to decide what interests them, just like you and I have that freedom as adults. When they study topics that interest them, they are better motivated to learn. Learning happens naturally. All children love to learn. They don’t have to be coerced into it in a structured situation. They don’t need to be corralled into classrooms for learning to happen. Learning is a natural process in human life. It should happen naturally – and that’s essentially what unschooling allows for.

I’m not crazy about the term, ‘unschooling’. Why should we have to mention schooling at all? How about calling it ‘natural education’ or ‘natural learning’ instead? I like how Sara McGrath calls it Whole Life Learning.

Who ever decided that schooling was best for kids? Schooling forces unwanted and often, unnecessary information into them as if they were cups waiting to be filled with facts and figures. As soon as they tire of the topic the information washes over the sides and runs onto the floor.

Children may be cups, but they should be filled with the information their hearts tell them is needed for their own unique development. Why should children be subjected to someone else’s ideas of what they should learn when they are quite naturally learners who are curious about the world and how to do things?

Letting children choose their own topics for study allows each child to develop his or her own unique potential. For example one child may choose to study engines and motors. Another may be fascinated with mathematics. Yet another may want to spend all day reading novels. Each of these children is developing skills he or she will need for doing whatever they’ll do for a living later in life. The child who is fascinated by engines grows up to be an auto mechanic. The one that loves math grows up to be a scientist. The reader grows up to be a writer. Each one trains himself/herself in all the skills needed for the chosen preoccupation. And what’s wrong with that? — Nothing!

Why should these children be forced to do repetitive tasks involving subjects that bore or confound them? That’s what happens in traditional schooling. So the gear-head child is forced to read and loses self-esteem because it is so very hard to do due to dyslexia. And the math genius is forced to study Egyptian history and write term papers about it, and never totally develops to true potential because too much time was wasted with subjects that weren’t of interest. And the reader is jerked away from a fascinating stack of books to do page after page of boring math problems, and learns to hate math and feels inferior because it is such a difficult skill for this particular child.

Well, if the reader NEEDED math skills, then the reader would want to learn. And if the dyslexic mechanic-in-training NEEDS reading skills, the motivation to learn will come naturally. And if the mathematician CHOOSES to learn more about history I’m sure that will happen.

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Now a word about my own homeschooling of two precious children for nine years. I was an undercover wannabe unschooler because I was a single mother. I already had the traumatic experience of having a CPS agent remove one of my children because I was being battered by her father. I separated from him and fought in court to get my child home again when she was eight months old. It wasn’t easy, and forever after I was fearful of having CPS again interfere with my parenting. I turned into one of the most cautious parents ever, educated myself, got a paralegal degree at the local community college, and eventually started what is now one of the best known child welfare help websites on the web, FightCPS – also known as ‘Fight CPS and Win’.

Because of that experience and my lack of a husband, I was very cautious about unschooling and worked hard to try to be an eclectic homeschooler instead — one who chooses from a variety of curriculum materials with which to educate my children. I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t providing my children with a proper education. I know this sounds terribly paranoid and my hope is that homeschoolers in the future will never have to go through that!

Most of what I brought into the house to share with my children went along with their own interests, so in a way I was following the unschooling philosophy of child-directed learning, and there were months that went by when I allowed my children to follow their own interests and learn at their own pace. I would love to have been an outspoken unschooler, but it didn’t seem feasible for us at the time.

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Therefore — I have a lot of respect for unschoolers who come right out and announce to the world that they have abandoned the traditional educational model of choosing subjects, books, and worksheets for their children… and trying to stuff that education down unwilling throats. I’m sure many of us who have homeschooled can see this would be a difficult thing – a total power struggle – anyway. But some parents are so domineering they’re able to maintain control that way anyhow, or so it seems.

So this posting is in praise of unschoolers, and I’d like to include some videos found on YouTube showing unschoolers telling what they believe about education and why they chose unschooling. And I thank these brave and adventurous parents who are on the cutting edge of unschooling — giving their children an educational experience that is sure to turn them into the amazing adults they were born to become.
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Sandra Dodd has a wonderful series of videos about unschooling plus a site devoted to this kind of education: Sandra Dodd – Radical Unschooling.

I identify with what she says about worrying that someone would come to the door and demand to know what we were doing. And in fact, that’s exactly what happened to us in 2001…

Perhaps I should leave that for another posting . . . maybe next week. I’m on a new schedule for this blog, by the way. I’ve decided to post here every Tuesday. More about my new scheduling attempt here: Schedules! Do they work for you?.

More from Sandra Dodd on YouTube:
Unschooling & Real Learning
The Universe Inside Your Head

Sandra’s daughter, Holly, is on YouTube too! She’s been unschooled her entire life.

I love Holly’s enthusiasm and would love to see more videos with her views on unschooling and what she’s learned this way.

Another outspoken unschooler on YouTube is Dayna Martin (no relation to me.) I love her videos! Her website is Unschooling America.

More of Dayna’s videos: Dayna Leigh Martin… at this time she’s got 22 videos and they’re all about unschooling!

This young woman, Kate Cayley, is a writer, theatre director and teacher who was unschooled. In this interview she talks about what it was like and what unschooling did for her.

I have to admire someone who is able to achieve so much early in life! Unschooling allows children and teens to focus on their goals and develop their interests.

One more! Idzie is an unschooling blogger: I’m Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write. In this YouTube video she says “unschooling is definitely my primary passion” and talks about unschooling books she recommends.

I haven’t read most of the books she recommends — but I have read several John Holt books and loved them. She’s right, they start out slow and are hard to get into, yet his observations of how children learn are absolutely fascinating and sold me on unschooling even though he didn’t use that word. When I started homeschooling, the John Holt books were the only unschooling books available (that I was aware of.)

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And now for a quote from a time management book I’m reading this week:

“…work that holds our attention and allows us to use our creativity may actually make us feel energized and exhilarated by the flow of our own intuitive resources.” — Ann McGee-Cooper

This is essentially what homeschooling is about. It allows children to explore their individuality and personal interests, and encourages deep learning by getting out of the way rather than distracting the learner with things he or she doesn’t need to learn about.

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One more thing I have to share with you this week: I started a Squidoo lens with homeschool tips and information, and there’s a place for you to leave a link to your blog there too. Please come by and see what homeschoolers are doing on Squidoo.Com: Homeschooling Tips.