We had an interesting discussion about unschooling on our facebook group page. I summarized it here.
The article we reacted was posted on 2 April 2014 here:
http://yes-i-can-write.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/unschooling-isnt-more-risky-its-just.html?m=1
Author: Sarah Clarks
The article we reacted was posted on 2 April 2014 here:
http://yes-i-can-write.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/unschooling-isnt-more-risky-its-just.html?m=1
In the UK you don't have to ask permission
from anyone, because the law allows parents to retain full responsibility for
their child's education. I treasure our laws in this area, because it's so
clear. You could find area specific information on Facebook groups if/when you
do move out of the UK.
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I don't teach, and I am not their teacher.
I facilitate. I'm not trying to pass my knowledge to them, I'm trying to help
them get knowledge for themselves - teaching isn't the means by which knowledge
passes from person to person, LEARNING is, and that's an important distinction
because my children are people in their own right (now) rather than future
people or projects. Even in school, the person in control of what is learned
and not learned is really the child. Trying to find ways to rob them of control
is not as powerful as giving them more choices and more help to do what they
already do as naturally as breathing.
What subjects or skills are needed in real
life that a person would never come across in real life? If something isn't
useful, it isn't used. If something is useful, it IS used, and children see it
and imitate it and want to master it. All children strive. All children
observe. All children learn. They can't help it; it's what human beings are.
In school, subjects are divorced from their
purpose, so they seem purposeless. I hated maths and resented every bit I was
forced to study. I learned no more than the basics any unschooled seven year
old could tell you just from seeing numbers around them in the real world. At
the end of my schooling I learned to manage money and reckon weights and
measures. Now I use algebra in pattern design all the time. My kids use grid
references to play games and notate landmarks in Minecraft. They make graphs to
show me how they sorted their collections. They use mathematical thinking every
day, without calling it maths. It isn't a pointless subject to them, because
they have never been asked to study it. They have just been curious. Now, one
of them loves numbers so much she worked out how to multiply fractions (at 6)
without any help from me (I still can't multiply fractions).
Unschooling isn't just "not
school", it's eliminating schoolish thinking too, so that we can learn and
make real life choices without that programming (which almost everyone in our
culture has). Unpicking the ways in which school inflitrated how we see the
world is part of that, for the parents.
Unschooling is the specific style of home education that involves
children making all of their own choices about what, and how, and when, to
learn - it involves adult helpers facilitating and supporting and advising and
offering, but not controlling, coercing, or teaching in any way. The main
parental requirement for unschooling is willingness to genuinely take the
child's choices seriously and pay attention to ways in which you can help (or
get our own ego out of the way, as necessary).
Also, unschooling is definitely not the
route for any parent who is not willing or able to give the time and attention
necessary, or for any family in which the home environment is not safe and
happy. If you have academic goals which you believe your child must meet to be
worthy, unschooling will not work without unpicking that thinking. If you
believe children need to be controlled externally, it's not for you. Every
child is already an unschooler when allowed, but every parent is not! I was
not, when my children were younger, and I was not prepared for how much it
would change me to embrace their natural way of learning. Reading about unschooling
made me actually angry to begin with! Who were these people to tell me that
what I was doing was not helpful for my child's learning?! The key is to try *a
little*, WATCH, wait, say yes one time you would have said no, not try to
exchange the school in your head for a new set of rules.)
I do
still struggle with thinking I'm "bad at maths" or "good at
English", but having a child who is gifted with numbers has helped a great
deal. I'm not qualified to teach her, but I'm actually perfectly able to help
her learn - even something I find really hard. In unschooling, and all
parenting in general, I don't think children need someone who knows it all, has
everything figured out already - they just need a real human being, someone a
little more experienced than them at living, someone a little bit taller for
reaching the high shelves, to help and support.
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I am (now) a fan of Sandra Dodd and how
clearly she writes and how precisely she defines what she's talking about - you
can read everything in her books, on her site http://sandradodd.com/ - Fair
warning, she's one of the writers that really got my back up when Jenna was
very small though (because she is always very to the point even when feelings
are a little bruised, no apologies for bluntness and no fakey hearts and
flowers, she just says, "take a break from reading and come back to the
idea another time" haha)! Now I know her style I appreciate it a lot more.
HELP is a great page on her site (it's the hub for the "how to"
pages).
Author: Sarah Clarks
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