Your thoughts on unschooling!

I enjoyed reading through this thread and thought I would add in how I look at it. There are many good ways to homeschool our children and many situations that will direct us to adapt our methods, whatever they may be most of the time, to work for a season. I identify strongly with Charlotte Mason and with unit studies. However, purposeful unschooling can be useful, either as a regular part of our life or for a season (ex: mine are purposefully unschooled after a baby is born, or when I end up at the hospital for unexpected surgeries for Mason).

What I mean by purposeful unschooling is that the child is given the expectation that a specific amount of time each day is spent in productive learning activities, but they have choice over what those activities are. I see this working more as a child has a passion to pursue or as they grow up enough to have discipline to work during learning hours. The other way to make it work with younger ages I’ll explain in a moment.

Using much of Charlotte’s methods my children’s main academics are covered in a reasonable period of time (generally by lunch or not long after as they grow up). Then I offer my children some afternoon time for these purposeful unschooling activities. I do not structure ‘what’ they are doing but I do structure time. For my younger children it is as simple as keeping media and other time-wasters unavailable. They can spend ‘hours in the out of doors’ exploring, gardening, doing craft, they can create, read or be read to, and try any number of things. For my older students it means I also have to provide materials or resources as they request them. If one is pursuing woodworking or stop motion animation I have to get the wood, tools, etc, or an inexpensive camera. If another wants to read more about Benjamin Franklin or do family history research I may be making extra library trips or visiting cemetaries.

So I didn’t have time to write much before (other than to post a link to my blog post on unschooling) but I wanted to come back now that I have a minute. I do think that CM and unschooling can blend well. There are a lot of homeschoolers in my area (New England) and all the ones I know are really great, involved parents whose kids seem really smart though perhaps not always as well disciplined as I woudl like. Or maybe I shoudl say they have different standards for behavior, not that they don’t discipline to their standards.

Anyway, while the two do blend well, I think the real differences are in the theories behind them, particularly the view of the child. Both say that the child must do their own learning but unschooling says that the child is basically good and will learn what they need if left on their own. CM sees a lot of good in the child but also acknowledges the sin nature, hence the emphasis on habit training also. Also CM would say that left on their own the child would not learn what they should be. We, the parents and educators, need to provide the right intellectual diet. The emphasis on the child’s innate goodness and lack of mention of a need for discipline or training is why I said in my previous post that true, pure unschooling is unbiblical in my view. But in practice, most people modify their views and methods.

Persoanlly, one of the big things I have picked up from unschooling is the idea of strewing, leaving good materials around the house in the hopes that children will pick them up or look at them. I have also learned from an unschooling friend her idea of how children are programmed or ready to learn different things at different times. So, for instance, your child might be really into math one month and then seem to lose interest and be really into history instead. Knowing this pattern helps me to relax when one part of homeschool doesn’t seem to be advancing at the moment. It is just like having a kid that eats veggies one meal and meat the next; each individual meal may not be balanced but the overall diet is a balanced one.

Nebby

http://www.lettersfromnebby.wordpress.com

@ nebby … thanks for coming back to this again, it’s been such an interesting thread!

I agree that there are some major differences in the philosophies too.  However, I do think children (and all ages) learn as they find it relevant to their lives.  If you get a new assignment at church or your husband gets a new job … there are skills and things that you’ll need to learn and to a great extent you will teach yourself in order to be successful because you are eager to do so.  The same is true with a child.  If a child sees a real and relevant need for knowing how to do basic math (perhaps they want to build soemthing to play with or they want to join a club that revolves around math) then they will seek out help from their parents or others or books and begin to learn what is necessary. My challenge is to make things relevant and that is not limited to showing how they can be used in life, but also to showing their value intrinsic and artistic too.

The big problem with education IMHO is that our cannon of “what must be known” is fruitless.  It isn’t the same in any area of the country and it is not the same in any homeschooling family.  The United States is behind the other industrialized nations in most subjects now (new report this year, but I realize that is a discussion in and of itself.)  What you feel vital for your children I might find not at all a priority for mine.  This isn’t limited to individuals.  Often times I ask my husband about why the state or the Core Standards are interested in a certain skill … sometimes it’s just what’s always been taught or more often than not I hear “it’s on the test”!  My husband is very well respected in the field of public educational curriculum, in particular in how the material taught corresponds to the mandated tests and standards in our states.  So, I don’t think he’s unqualified to answer me either.  But it does lead us to discuss this issue over and over:  Why do we teach what we teach?

This leads in to the concern reflected in several posts on this thread – if left to their own devices (which really is not unschooling at all since it’s not about abandoning them and hoping for the best) children will not learn.  Or they will not learn enough, or the right things, etc.  I struggle with this aspect of unschooling too.  That I’d have to trust enough to know that they were getting what they needed.  Obviously not on any schedule of any kind but in the end would have what they needed to be successful.  What would that be exactly?  That’s the question sometimes.  There is an excellent book recently published about this subject of “what our children need to be successful” called How Children Succeed:Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough.  It was an excellent investigation about what it is that really causes a person to succeed and how that relates to what we are doing in our schools in the United States.  Obviously we all have chosen not to participate in the schools, but still the traits that these professionals eventually discover about successful children apply to any child.  It was challenging to think that these “subjects” we are so bent on having our children master are not the root of what will actually help them succeed. 

The earlier post that mentioned the time on the farm that the children unschooled comes to mind in relation to the above mentioned book.  Clearly the chidlren were learning every single day and learning life lessons that I agree they would never have gotten in a different setting and will never forget.  But that sort of proves my point – if what we teach in “subjects” is not as effective or life lasting as what we teach through doing, life, etc., then that is where the well done unschooling famiily is on the right track and other philosophies might want to consider.

I know that sounds radical.  I don’t mean it be anti-anything.  I just think as a homeschooler I need to always be stretching myself to consider and learn what will provide the best for my children.  Looking at unschooling stretches me to be sure that I’m investing the time and energy in to knowing my children and being present with them each day that I am blessed to be right here in this spot.  Being present is different than just being here and just teaching.  When I’m present I’m totally engaged and nothing else is distracting me or filing my thoughts. 

I’m rushing right now.  I hope this isn’t too jumbled and makes some sense! 

There’s also John Holt’s books as well as his magazine Growing Without Schooling.  He is the one who coined unschooling, really to mean not school. http://www.johnholtgws.com/  Here are the magzine issues http://www.holtgws.com/gwsarchives.html online free and this is the interview with Laurette Lynn at Unplugged Mom http://www.unpluggedmom.com/featured/beyond-unschooling-the-holt-legacy-interview-with-pat-farenga/