My thoughts on Unschooling.
At one end of the spectrum there are radical unschoolers and this is what I class our family as. We follow no curriculum at all, no set "school" work, no grades, no tests, no concern about whether or not the kids can read on schedule. Some believe that it may be beneficial to allow children to remain illiterate until 10 or older, especially boys who may not be ready to read as young as girls. In school these late readers are labeled and sent off to remedial lessons, this treatment mass produces non-readers, even though they would have learned to read in their own sweet time just as they learned to walk and talk in their own time.
Unschoolers believe in their children's innate love of learning and trust that this will guide the child to seek out the knowledge that he needs and wants. This should develop the ability to think "out of the box”, and find their own way throughout their lives. Hopefully with this foundation they should never be a slave to a paycheck, that could make them do things that would cause their conscience to cringe, and eventually whither and die.
In the middle there are many shades of gray between unschoolers and home-schoolers with some following a curriculum for certain subjects while being more relaxed with others.
At the other end of the spectrum there are the families who rigidly "homeschool".
They have a curriculum from which they rarely deviate, are very dedicated and do the schools job so much better than school ever could. Some have a special "school" area in their homes, with family rooms converted to look just like classrooms. Often these families have set hours for school time. Their kids are usually way ahead of grade averages, as would be expected with the marvelous one-on-one teaching that a parent can give.
That was what I was going to do when I pulled my kids out of school, and it was going to be easy for me since they were already at the top of their classes anyway. I
was going to get them ready for university so they could get an education then a good job, with a hefty paycheck, but thanks to my stubborn opinionated kids I deviated and am pleased that I did.
My kids rebelled right away saying they may as well be in school if they were going to have to do all these BORING work sheets and learn things that are of no interest and no potential use to them. So I thought I would let them "deschool" for a while and get back to lessons later. I never did... get back to lessons that is. They so astounded me with all the things they became interested in and more so the depths they would go in the quest for more information about their current interests.
My 17-year-old son Nathan at age 14 was hooked on the movie "The Highlander" and from his obsession with that movie he developed an interest in all things
Scottish. He read all he could find on Britannica online on Scottish history, geography, politics, etc, then spent many hours doing web searches for more information. He also became interested in swords, so he bought one and practiced all the moves he had seen in the movie, this improved his co-ordination amazingly. He was very left handed but after practicing all the moves with both hands he now
has much better use of his right hand, which is a good thing in a world where most tools are designed for right-handers. His interest in swords became an interest in metallurgy and he did weeks of research on the Internet to learn all about the properties of different metals. This lead to him acquiring a forge so he could make his own swords. This hasn't happened yet as he has also been busy working with computer graphics and has been away a fair bit this year visiting friends, doing web design work for a couple of people and working on an organic farm where he has been offered several months work starting next spring. He thinks he may do this as the man who owns the farm is into woodwork and has promised to share some of his skills with Nathan.
While he was away a good thing happened, because he has not had as much access to computers he has rediscovered his old art medium pencils and charcoal... he has done some really good portraits of family and friends and just recently has started using colored pencils. He did a drawing of a cassowary, it is hauntingly beautiful, and the eye almost seems to follow you. Another of his interests is music and has taught himself the penny whistle, the bagpipe chanter and is now working on banjo, guitar and fife. This lead him to start making musical instruments, he has completed some simple instruments such as penny whistles and a lap dulcimer, and has almost completed a guitar.
My 14 year old daughter Rhianon is mad about wildlife and knows just about every bird and animal that she sees and is getting that way with plants
too. I am not bragging when I say that her knowledge in these subjects is far above that of most adults we encounter. As a contrast to most teenage girls one of her favorite 13th birthday presents was a book from Rob her oldest brother on birds of Minnesota. Even though most are featured in "the book" as she calls her copy of "North American Wildlife" she likes the new one because it gives more facts on each bird. Her favorite present was a Toggenburg kid that I bought for her, she plans on selling any of her buck kids and saving to buy a calf, rearing it then selling it to buy even more calves, she figures that raising steers is one of the easiest ways to make a few dollars. Rhianon also has her own female pig who looks like she may be having piglets soon and plans on keeping all the female piglets and breeding from them too.
She takes care of all of her own animals and through the spring and summer does most of the work involved in incubating eggs and looking after the chicks for the first 5-6 weeks of their lives. She milks a goat for milk for our own use and would like to eventually find a way to sell milk, she has decided that if she can't find a market for her goat's milk she'll try soap making. She also takes visitors including school groups on farm tours, and has shown many children how to milk a goat; this is something that most kids really get a kick out of.
I know that the two older of my "unschooled" children would probably have no problem performing to grade level, or even well above in most subjects and could easily slip back into school and not have any problems academically or socially.
However my two little ones Madeleine [8] and Stephanie [6] are feral children, they spend endless hours outdoors, they run, climb, play in the creek, row the boat on our large, but only 2ft deep pond, go off on expeditions picking berries, make mud pies in their secret hideout. Among other things they collect eggs, feed chicks, look after their tomato and melon plants and loved to harvest their crops, until the cattle got out and harvested them all. They know so much about plants and animals be they farm or wild, they can milk a goat, send the dog out to work if animals get out, they can tell you about how those baby pigs, calves, kids, lambs and chicks were made, they know signs of an animal in distress during labor, and where the calf puller is and why it is sometimes needed. They have seen life in all stages, mating, birth and death, they have often been delighted to see a new baby animal arrive and then occasionally devastated to see it die a few days later. They have had fun with pet piglets but learned from them that cars do such incredible damage to the living body even if the person driving tries to stop. They know how to candle eggs and which to discard, and have learned through experience that it is generally best to not help a chick hatch.
In contrast to all the above they also know their way around their computer, thanks to watching Nathan they may even be more computer literate than my techno-phobe Rhianon. They don't spend a lot of time doing what would be considered by most to be "school work", however the world of book learning is wide open to them, but at the moment they are so engrossed in the real world, in life and living that it seems to me a shame to drag them inside to have more book time just so they can keep up with kids their age who are in school. They are read to nearly every day, I read them things that I find online, Rhianon shares her love of nature books with them and Dick reads to them from story books most nights. He has read all of "The Little House on The Prairie" books, "Ann of Green Gables" and "Jonathon Livingston Seagull" to name a few. While I was typing this he started a new book, "The Complete works of Hans Christian Anderson". Stephanie nearly always falls asleep and misses most of the story. Even if they aren't learning reading they are acquiring a love of reading in many forms, big thick storybooks, newspapers, internet articles, factual books, magazines and of course children's story books.
I know that by the time my little savages are 10 and 12 they will be up to or well above "grade level" in most subjects, all I can hope is that in the interim no-one tries to let them know that they are "behind" most kids their own age. Right now they are living and learning so many things important to their own lives.
I unschooled along with my children, with many of my own values and truths changing. This transformation of my self often astounds me. I was once a true believer, society taught me that you worked hard in school to get good grades so that you could get a good job, and earn lots of money… but what for? To keep up with the neighbors, get a big screen television, a new car every few years? Possessions, or more to the point, the need to acquire them are such terrible robbers of our time and lives. Sure it's the all-American way, and keeps the economy running smoothly, but at what price?
I strongly believe that you can never really Unschool until you are thoroughly Deschooled. You have to remove from you way of thinking such words as "curriculum" - "subjects" i.e. "biology" "chemistry" etc. and just lump it all together as "life" as that is what we were put on the planet for, to live.
It is a shame that our lives are all compartmentalized [is that a word?] that we have week days, weekends, vacations, recreation
and work. To me it seems that this is just a carry-on from the whole school philosophy. I believe that ideally your "work" is such an important part of your life that it gives you such satisfaction that you really don't need recreation time. To me unschooling must lead to unjobbing, then every day when you wake you are eager to get on with your "life".
I know that many people can't find this ideal way of living, there are bills to pay and to do so we may be trapped within a job that creates the
need for recreation and vacations. But I also know that by simplifying our lives we can maybe make do with less and get out of the full time grind and work to live instead of living to work.
Here's a quote that I really think sums up modern life for too many people:
"First I was dying to finish high school and start college,
then I was dying to finish college and start working,
then I was dying for my children to grow old enough for school,
so I could return to work, then I was dying to retire.
Now I am dying ... and suddenly I realize I forgot to live."
What I want for my children is for them to live and as Albert Schweitzer says "Example is not the main thing in life, it's the only thing." so I
set the example of my work being something that I am so passionate about that I would [and did] do it for no thought of ever getting paid.
Susan Gallien
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