Tag Archives: unschooling

A Society’s Selective Silence on Education

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“Colleges now, including all the major ones—Stanford and Yale and Harvard—are actively seeking kids who were homeschooled or unschooled or who had an alternative type of education because what’s different about those kids is that they’re still interested in learning… In fact, I read a statistic that… and I may have the numbers slightly off here, but I think Stanford’s admission rate for homeschooled kids is 26 percent as opposed to 6 percent for traditionally schooled applicants…” (Jeremy Stuart in an interview with Chris Kresser)

I was shocked and excited to see that Chris Kresser, a well-respected alternative health (integrative health) guru, ran a blog segment on homeschooling. Unfortunately, I cringed at the paucity of usual comments from his typically active readers.

Sixteen meager comments. Sixteen. Compare that to the 111 comments on his organic meat article! Everybody wants to talk organic and glyphosate and gluten. But darn. Kids’ futures and alternative education. Near dead silence!

What really counts? I mean, I’m a real-food, watch-for-food-intolerance believer, but what does it mean when kids don’t learn to read or get bullied in school? When parents are beginning to feel like school is an elephant on their families’ chests?

What does it mean when Chris Kresser’s responsive readers will leave 200 comments on proton pump inhibitors and only 16 on alternative education? (When there are only 26 comments on a distraction and mindfulness article. . .)

I heard a great story once. I was at a conference, and I attended a teen panel of unschoolers. These were all kids who had never been to traditional school. Many of them had never actually set foot in a school. There was one young man there, and he had enrolled to a university to study astrophysics. . .

And someone said to him, “Obviously you’re interested in astrophysics.” That wasn’t the question. The question was, “Why would you enroll yourself in a college when you’ve never set foot in a school? What’s that like, and how did you manage to get in?” And he said, “Well, I realized that the only way to really study it to the degree that I wanted was at this particular institution, and so I applied, and when I applied, I realized I didn’t really know any math.” He said, “I went to my parents, and I was kind of upset. ‘Well, how come you never taught me any math?’ And they said, ‘Well, you weren’t interested.’” And he said, “Well, I need it now,” and they said, “Well, you know what to do.”

So he went to the library, and he got grade one math, then grade two, grade three, grade four, and so on. So He spent three months just reading math books, and in three months he took the necessary examination to enter the college and got 92 percent on the test. (Jeremy Stuart in an interview by Chris Kresser)

Do go and check out Chris Kresser’s interview of homeschooling filmmaker Jeremy Stuart. If you can make time, leave a comment! (Even if it’s just to say, “Hey, interesting!”)

Blogs are live productions. You comment. Blogger responds generally in some way (perhaps not right away–but over time they get back to it).

I’d LOVE to see more people exposed to the idea that education doesn’t have to come in a box! That one-size (one school, one curriculum, one teacher) doesn’t fit all! Maybe if we comment, generate questions, and create discussion, maybe Chris Kresser will remember and do another piece like this in the future.

If you homeschool, you may have fun  reading (or watching) this interview. If you don’t homeschool, and school isn’t going so well for your children, maybe you’d want to consider homeschooling. He calls it “unschooling,” but I’m of the opinion that anyone who chooses to teach their children outside of the classic halls of education is “unschooling” to one degree or another. The interview covers:

  • How did public schooling come about? (It’s only been around about 150 years.)
  • What was the purpose of public school?
  • Student (and parent) “burn-out” and how homeschooling can avoid that
  • How our modern education is “banging its head against a wall”
  • Discussion of Finland’s education system
  • Misconceptions about homeschooling and unschooling
  • How colleges are coming to view homeschoolers
  • What kinds of things homeschoolers can learn
  • And so much more!

Unschooling as a Cure for “Industrialized Education”–with Jeremy Stuart

Check it out! You learned once. Or didn’t learn. How did that happen? How could it have been better? Don’t be selectively silent. More standards don’t brighter kids make! I’ve watched my own kids learn and the differences among simply three kids is ASTOUNDING.

These schoolkids of today will be running your nursing home.

Speak.

Terri

 

Does Unschooling Work?

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Hvalsey_ChurchRemember Erik the Red, an Icelandic Norseman?  He took some Norse people and settled Greenland, not as hospitable as its name suggests, at about 1000 years AD.  Fascinating story.  They brought Northern European livestock and farming practices.  They settled in, bringing their religion, steep tithes, and bishops.  Greenland’s climate eventually became a bit more inhospitable due to climate change.  Frozen water routes made European trade difficult.  The Norse’s farming practices, both crops and livestock, suffered.  It is believed that the Norse adapted by eating more like the encroaching Inuits, but evidence of severe starvation and stagnation exists.  For 500 years (which sounds short till I realize my descendents have only lived in the United States for probably less than 150 years) they lived in communities on Greenland. Then, their two main settlements KUH-POOF.  Disappeared.

Some scholars think that the Norse disappeared because their environment changed and they refused to fully adapt, choosing to hang onto European identities.  When the end came, they ate their dogs while carrion-hovering flies swarmed in their rooms.  Others believe they slowly migrated out when the rare ship that pulled in to port departed, unable to cope with Greenland and its separation from European culture anymore.

It is fun to think about, isn’t it?  Would you have left on a boat after 350 years?  Or would you have stayed and starved, eating your emaciated cow?  Or would you have befriended the Inuit, finding a life-long partner to hunt and gather with?

Greenland’s old Norse bones are long dry.  Archaeologists are digging them up, bringing us new speculations.  I can’t help but think of the dying out of the original Norse settlements and compare it to our current education system, which has been around far less than 500 years.  Far less than 150 years.  We hang onto our brief past and educational system, tweaking it here and there, while the environment calls for extreme change and letting go.

Why do some people think that school the way they knew it is the only way?  The best way?  Why does anyone in society accept shoving more and more kids into one classroom?  Can they not hear the buzzing of the carrion-eating flies?

Barley and ruminant animals were not suited for or suitable for Greenland.  The current education system is proving its unsuitability.  Drugs, gangs, and violence like permafost, are seeping in.  Teachers have resigned themselves to the mire, giving up.  Common Core won’t help.  Computer labs won’t help.  Offering college classes for credit to high schoolers won’t help.  An ice age has hit and it’s time to eat seal and fish, giving up our milk and barley for sustainable nutrition.

Snow fortLet’s trade in our huge boxes called “school” for real, lasting education.  Where is the fear coming from?  Where is the inappropriate clinging to past tradition coming from?  Why are people afraid of the homeschooling movement?  Take it further, why are most people, even homeschoolers, afraid of unschooling?  Failure shows us there must be a different way.  WHAT is so scary about doing it different?

Today is the final post contributed by Corinne Jacobs, an unschooler.  Click here for the first installment in the series and here for the second.  Does unschooling really work?  Let’s look at what Corinne’s final statements.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic master are not the only concerns about unschooling…

…People wonder whether these kids will ever be able to attend college or get a job, how they will learn to socialize with their peers and whether their parents are just being lazy. Peter Gray’s study (also linked to in the first post titled I Didn’t Teach Them That,) answers the first two questions.

Unschooled children often do choose to join college and they do so by starting at a community college or by merit of their interviews and portfolios. They hold a wide variety of jobs, many of them in creative arts and STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields].

Unschooled children are by no means isolated from others in their community. They interact with kids their own age as well as those that are younger and older than them, and are therefore skilled at interacting with others in a normal social setting. (School kids on the other hand socialize in artificial settings where almost everyone is the same age.)

And finally, to the defence of those poor, maligned parents who choose to go the unschooling way – these individuals are incredibly involved in the lives of their children. As per the unschooling methodology, they take pains to give their kids exposure to a wide range of fields, foster a great learning environment and engage them in meaningful conversations. Whenever they notice their kids taking interest in a specific field, they go about providing them with the resources to follow their interests – whether through additional reading material, tools, classes, apps, and websites or interacting with experts in the field. They make themselves available to answer the questions of their children, and to look for answers to those questions they cannot answer. Any parent who does any less has either not understood the unschooling methodology or is merely using it as an excuse to be lazy about their kids’ education.  (emphasis is mine, Terri Fites)

Unschooling, when done the right way, does a lot more than teach kids to read, write and do math. Like the 8-year old who uses his free time making real clocks, and the 7-year-old who writes 1,000 word novels, kids who are unschooled continually show their parents they made the right choice in going the unschooling way.

Author Bio:  Corinne Jacob is a wannabe writer who is convinced that kids learn best when they’re having fun. She is constantly on the lookout for new and exciting ways to make learning an enjoyable experience. Corinne loves all things that scream out un-schooling, alternative education and holistic learning.

 

Conclusion

I think unschooling is a great tool.  I cannot see myself being a radical unschooler, but I definitely find that we leave large chunks of free-time in our days.  In this time, my children have taught themselves to knit, sew, make Barbie houses, make videos, and shoot bows and arrows.  Whatever your method of schooling, keep your mind open to the good, the bad, and the ugly of what you’re doing.  And, what do you think?  Concerning Greenland, would you stay, go, or integrate?

Terri

I Didn’t Teach Them That

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How much do you think school needs to be like school?  I used to think I’d start homeschool each day with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Now I feel lucky if we start the day with a banana to eat and real clothes on.  Curious people ask me about our daily schedule.  I freeze up like they’ve caught me stealing candy at the checkout lane.—  Uh.  Uh.  Learning and teaching happen in this house.  They do!—  But if you casually drop in for only two hours, you’ll leave saying,  “Those people don’t do school.”  Um.  They are right.  Uh.  We don’t do school.  Snagged.

Unschooling.  If Mowgli is left all alone in a forest and no one is around to watch him learn, has he really learned?  Yes, he has.  A fellow homeschooling mom, Corinne Jacob, corresponded with me about educational philosophies, mildewed laundry (place in the sun to remove the mildew smell), and the best way to exterminate a fruit fly infestation (a jar with old fruit in it and covered with a paper funnel).  She loves to ponder education methods and her husband encouraged her to take her head out of the clouds and write about them.  So she did.  You’ll find her articles on homeschool sites and her own Alternative Tutelage.  She personally implements a bit of an unschooling method and offered to write about unschooling for my blog.  I will run her article over 2-3 posts.

As written by Corinne Jacob with sarcastic, italicized comments from the peanut gallery (me) here and there…

Does Unschooling Really Work?

For most people, the concept of unschooling is difficult to digest. Many times, this bewilderment stems from misconceptions.  (Try this one on for size:  “Those people homeschool because they’re too lazy to take their kids to school.”  Really?) In other cases, people are just so used to the system of schooling that they have trouble believing that it can be abandoned completely. Often, it’s a combination of both that causes people to react with shock to the idea of unschooling. But irrespective of the reason behind society’s non-acceptance, it makes life a lot more difficult for unschooling families.

Unschooling1“autumn leaves boy” by Philippe Put is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Contrary to popular belief, unschooling can and very often does work incredibly well. (This is a nice article about a man who did some research on unschooling.  Fun to read!)  Unlike what many people think, unschooling parents are not disinterested, unconcerned or unaware of what their kids are learning. In fact, unschooling requires the parents to be far more involved than parents of schooled and home-schooled children. Yes, children are allowed to watch re-runs on Netflix or play pet games online (I swear when I was sick-on-the-couch-pregnant my kids were down in the basement watching American Pie on Netflix…) all day every day if that’s what they want to do. And yes, the kids are actually learning a great deal when they do so. Not sure that makes any sense? It’s natural to be confused, unless you take some time to really understand what unschooling is all about.

Unschooling, also called interest-led learning, is basically student directed learning. Kids learn what they want to learn when they want to learn it. There is no pressure to learn specific subjects or meet any standards. There are no textbooks, classrooms, teachers or curricula. So do these kids learn anything at all? Absolutely.

Any unschooled family will tell you that the kids are learning from the moment they wake up until they fall sleep at night. The only thing is the learning that happens in these households looks nothing like the learning that happens at school. It is joyful, passionate and exciting. It is actively sought out rather than externally imposed. It happens as a by-product of living out one’s childhood rather than as the primary objective behind one’s childhood.

Perhaps you’ve seen glimpses of it in your own life. Like the time you learned how to decorate cakes by watching tutorials on YouTube, simply because you love making beautiful cakes.  (Or the time you realized conventional medicine put your family on 15 prescriptions and reading about and implementing intensive diet change could and did get you off them.  And you’re mad because you were overcharged for a pharmacy and medical school education.)  Or the time you learned a foreign language as a by-product of your constant interaction with the native speakers of that language. Nobody told you what to learn, how to learn it or how much to learn. You learned what was interesting to you and what you thought was useful, and left out the rest of it. Pretty much exactly how unschoolers learn. There is one difference, of course. You have already studied reading, writing, math and the other basic subjects according to the standards set by the state. Unschoolers are allowed to learn even those basic subjects naturally. And that is what people have trouble accepting. What if the kids never learn to read, or write, or do basic math? How will they ever learn those crucial school subjects if no one is monitoring their learning?  TO BE CONTINUED…

Conclusion

The next unschooling post by Corinne Jacob will explore how unschoolers go about learning the material presented in traditional classes.  Personally, I am an eclectic homeschooler, which means I incorporate many methods of having my children acquire a good education.  We unschool in the areas of science, reading, and art; other areas I refuse to leave to their own devices.  However, I am slowly becoming an unschool convert, allowing my children more independence, while keeping tabs on when they need me.

Think about something that you think you are very good at.  How did you get good at it?  By your own motivation?  By an imposing teacher or parent?  By doing it?  Or reading about it?  I’d love to know!  To explore this idea of how far we can allow our children to learn on their own.

Eat right.  Feed your children right.  Their brains are counting on it.  Oil from whole fish and nuts is better than anything fried in vegetable oil.

Terri