Wow is this a large subject area on the Internet! I knew this method was gaining popularity with homeschoolers especially those who are coming directly from a public school experience. Years ago homeschooling and unschooling were used to mean the same thing. They were related yet in two different categories. Today I would say that it has moved more or less to be considered just another learning/teaching method used by homeschoolers.

I am sure you have heard the term and may have thought it to be too much of an ‘alternative’ education for you. Many people have a negative image of people who say they are unschoolers. Contrary to that belief I have found these parents to be very dedicated to their child’s learning. They are completely opposite of the typical schoolroom setting where you bring 'school' to your kitchen table. (You may recall one of my letters earlier this year talking about school at home and home schooling. If not, you can read it in the archives or email me and I will send it too you.)

Unschooling assures that you are not replicating the typical school mentality with learning. John Holt is considered the father of unschooling and the person who coined the term. In Holt's early writings, he seemed to hold out hope that the school system could be fixed, but he later became more convinced that parents were better off taking their kids out of schools. Check the resource list for his books and other materials. Some other terms used for unschooling are also known as: ‘holistic’, ‘organic’, ‘child-directed’, ‘interest-led’, ‘self-directed learning’, 'natural learning' or 'experienced-based learning.' If you are a Charlotte Mason fan then you will see some similarities in this learning method.

Unschooling has become associated with the particular style of homeschooling in which no set curriculum is used. Homeschooling carries an implication of schooling-at-home, while unschooling connotes that what you are doing is the opposite of school. People who accepted the teaching techniques of school but wanted more control over the subject matter, socialization, or morals that their children were exposed to might readily accept the term homeschooling. People who disliked the teaching techniques and environment of school might be more inclined to use the term unschooling. At first this might sound like unit studies that we discussed in previous issues of the newsletter but unschooling goes much deeper and invites even more learning freedom.

What is it that unschoolers do? The reason that unschooling is hard to explain and hard for some people to understand, is that it is not a technique that can be broken down like a typical curriculum, lesson plan, or even unit study. Rather, unschooling is an attitude, it way of life. Where most homeschooling puts the emphasis on what needs to be learned, unschooling puts the emphasis on who is doing the learning.

In a typical learning environment at public school the student is taught that learning is something that takes place in a certain location, at certain times, a desk, textbooks, tests, etc. Children are taught that they cannot learn on their own but must be taught. This follows the old model of learning in which students are empty cups waiting to be filled and the teacher is the pitcher full of knowledge that will fill them. (Reminds you why you homeschool and don’t want just anyone filling your child’s cup!) Children taught this way tend to wait for more input rather then seeking it on their own. You may also notice the ‘learning to pass the test and be done with it’ attitude in these students as well.

In unschooling, learning can happen anywhere and at anytime. There are no restrictions to learning at a certain time or place. Learning takes place daily anywhere at anytime without restrictions to subject or age. There is no sense of relief that school is out because learning is always happening. Students also know that they are responsible for their learning. They do not need an "expert" to teach them. If they have an interest, they can go out and pursue the knowledge they need. Children are taught to be self-learners who know how to search after information and knowledge. Letting the children pick which subjects that interest them helps to achieve true learning. Knowledge retention is more as stated the many unschoolers I have happened upon.

“Unschooling does not mean that parents can never teach anything to their children, or that children should learn about life entirely on their own without the help and guidance of their parents. Unschooling does not mean that parents give up active participation in the education and development of their children and simply hope that something good will happen. Finally, since many unschooling families have definite plans for college, unschooling does not even mean that kids should never take a course in any kind of a school.”*

Now that we know what it isn’t can we describe exactly what it is? Hum…”No”, would have to be the answer because we all learn differently. (See my previous ‘Learning Styles’ article.) Because of that reason alone you can not pinpoint the moment at which children who are unschooled are learning.

Some questions commonly asked about this method of learning are: "How do unschoolers explain themselves to the state when they fill our the paperwork every year?" "If you don't use a curriculum, what do you say?" "What about required record keeping?" “How to children learn everything they need to cover if you let the direct what they learn?”

Here is what can best sum up this learning method if you had to shorten it to a paragraph:

The main educational objective is to keep alive the sparkof curiosity and the natural love of learning with which all children are born. Children need to accept learning as a natural consequence of living, and an ongoing incremental process that continues throughout life. Learning is an integrated process in which all subjects are interrelated. (Einstein wrote on this specifically.) Children should be allowed the time to pursue a subject as fully as they want, rather than imposing artificial time constraints on them. These aspects of learning are limited by the traditional implementation of a curriculum and this is why we homeschool this way.

A quote that many unschoolers refer to: Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's mentor and friend, said, "I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must taught to think. Whereas if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less slowly. Let him come and go freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table while a sweet-voiced teacher suggest that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of colored paper, or plant straw trees in flower pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences. "

For my family personally, we agree with most of the concepts of this learning but we are not unschoolers. We allow our children to move as fast or as slow as needed. Our unit studies are based upon our children’s interests and not our own. Our goal is to make them self-learners who can search out information on their own. We always want to keep the joy of learning in our kids. (Traditional public school almost destroyed this for my oldest daughter.) We want them to be independent thinkers who choose their own career goals.

However, being that my husband and I have engineering and math backgrounds we are locked into that organized way of thinking and can’t help it! lol Unschooling is too relaxed for us and we would not be comfortable with it completely. Like I always suggest to you, my readers, examine things for your own family. Take the benefits from each of the methods and tailor them to fit your family. We are not the same, we don’t learn the same, we don’t teach the same, and we don’t raise our families the same. This is the largest benefit of homeschooling. You can tailor your teaching and your children’s learning to your family. What might work for one family may not work for you. Keep this in mind when you get those ‘I comparing my homeschool to their homeschool’ feelings. If the strictness of using textbooks, tests, etc. seems stifling and suffocating to you then this just might be the alternative you were looking for. If you have children who love to experience and touch things that they learn I would research this a bit. If you are already following this lifestyle of teaching I would love to hear from you! I am sure that I have readers that would love to hear from you. God Bless! Leslie

Coming next month – The Moore’s Delayed Academics Approach

*Paragraph quoted from What is Unschooling? By Earl Stevens 1994

RESOURCES

http://www.holtgws.com/
GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

http://www.unschooling.org/index.htm
Family Unschoolers Network

http://www.pipeline.com/~wdkmg/homeschool/unschool.htm
Unschooling in Alabama

http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/Web_Pages.res.f.html
Jon's Unschooling Page

http://www.oocities.org/Athens/6529/index1.html
THE LIBERTARIAN UNSCHOOLING PAGES

http://home.rmci.net/abell/
Natural Learning Page

http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Ithaca/1839/unschooling_home.html
Unschooling Support Online

EMAIL LISTS: 
send blank email to: unschooling-list@ecentral.com
Unschooling mailing list subscription. 

send email with this in the body of the msg. 
'subscribe unschooling-list'
to: majordomo@ctel.net

Unschooling Gifted Children (UGC) 
To subscribe, send mail to: ugc-request@esosoft.com  
put 'subscribe'  in the body of the message.  

The Unschooler's Circle 
Send email to: Majordomo@MailingList.net  
In the body put 'subscribe unschoolers_ circle' 
OR 'subscribe unschoolers_circle-digest' 

The Teenage Liberation Handbook:
How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education,
by Grace Llewellyn

The Homeschooling Handbook:
From Preschool to High School,
a Parent's Guide, by Mary Griffith

Dumbing Us Down:
The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling,
by John Taylor Gatto (Editor)

The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook:
A Creative and Stress-Free Approach to Homeschooling,
by Raymond S. Moore, Dorothy Moore

In Their Own Way, by Thomas Armstrong

Instead of Education, by John Holt

Learning All the Time, by John Holt

How Children Learn, by John Caldwell Holt

How Children Fail, by John Caldwell Holt

Click here to go back to
Teaching Methods

Home Crusaders webpages copyrighted by Leslie Schauer©1999.