After a perfectly lovely day at the Franklin Apple and Salmon race (more about that tomorrow!), complete with spring sunshine, happy kids and fish and chips, I am in no mood to get on my soap box today.
So, I decided that, for anyone (assuming, in fact, that anyone is reading this!) who doesn’t know much about unschooling, I would devote this post to some definitions. Now, definitions of unschooling, radical unschooling and the like can be found all over the web, should you care to look. So, in the interests of variety, I will have a go here at providing my own definitions, or rather, my own thoughts on what they mean to me. I’ll also provide links to other sites that provide probably much more eloquent definitions than mine!
So, here we go..
Unschooling vs Homeschooling
This difference between unschooling and homeschooling is like….well…apples and pears, Starsky and Hutch, Jacob and Edward (Twilight reference…trying to get hip with the kids!)…anyway, you get the picture. (BTW Twilight fans…i’d say Jacob is Unschool, Edward is Homeschool – but maybe because i’m on team Jacob!!)
Homeschooling, to me, is school at home. Homeschoolers follow a curriculum of some kind, sit down and cover ‘subject’ material, do workbooks, get grades, etc. But, it’s not really that clear cut, since there is a continuum among homeschoolers, from lots of curriculum, to barely any curriculum, from eclectic homeschoolers, to structured homeschoolers, Steiner homeschoolers…aggghhh….it’s a confusing subject, and, since we are not homeschoolers, I’m not even going to try to get my head around it, let alone yours.
Unschooling, as applied to learning, is a completely different philosophy. Unschoolers don’t do school at home, otherwise we wouldn’t be UN school, right?! When I first heard the term, I thought it sounded a bit negative, and didn’t really like it. I realize I’m not alone….Unschooling is variously called natural learning, worldschooling, child-led learning, etc…. But, after reading John Holt and a couple of other books, I see the rationale behind the word ‘unschool’. Here is a definition I quite like. To me, it symbolizes freedom, choice and trust – and the reason I called this blog Unbounded Ocean.
Unschoolers don’t do ‘lessons’, in fact, we don’t ‘teach’ our kids at all. Unschooling (to my mind…) is based on the idea that children can and will learn all the things they need to know, at their own pace, when they are ready to do so. Yes, this means reading and writing too, and maths, and all those other painful subjects we suffered through at school (check out this post for some evidence that kids can learn this way).
To unschool, you MUST trust your kids, implicitly, unwaveringly. Without that trust, I don’t believe you can unschool.
When I first began to converse with unschoolers, I realized quickly that I didn’t know the lingo, and was picked up on it rapidly on email lists. Unschoolers don’t like the word ‘teach’ at all, they are also a bit picky about where you use ‘educate’. There are a few others. While I now understand this aversion, and the need to clarify what you mean by different terms (ie: teaching is totally different from learning), I still think that jumping on a newbie for an innocent slip up can alienate a lot of people from unschooling. This is a very funny post about this subject that made me giggle!
What about Radical Unschooling?
So, what’s radical unschooling? Essentially (again, this is my own definition) radical unschooling is the principle of unschooling (trust, choice, freedom) applied to all aspects of life, not just learning or schooling. In a radically unschooled home, children follow their natural pattern. They eat what they want, when they are hungry. They go to bed when they are tired (not at a parentally defined ‘bedtime’). They wake up when they feel like it. They do what takes their fancy during the day….watch TV, paint, write, bash the orange warrior (my child, at least!), and so on…
Now, many people read such a definition and think unschooling parents are, at the very least, irresponsible, at worst, neglectful, and quite possibly insane. I’m not going to go into a big diatribe about food, bedtimes, brushing teeth, blah blah blah…because all that information is available elsewhere. I would just like to say, unschooling is NOT unparenting. It is, in fact, quite the opposite. Unschooling parents are with their kids all day, every day. We facilitate their learning – when they ask us to, and are available to provide advice, help and support at all times when needed.
I have seen radical unschooling also referred to as mindful parenting or respectful parenting, and i like those terms a lot. Unschooling parents, in my experience, are the most hands-on (and when i say ‘hands-on’ i don’t mean in a ‘helicopter’ way!!) parents I’ve ever met – although yes, many of us are, in a good way, insane…
I see radical unschooling work in our home every day. But, if you would like to read more about the various ‘controversial’ aspects of radical unschooling (unlimited TV, unlimited video games, unlimited junk food…etc…all things parental nightmares are made of), I would point you in the direction of this site. However, a warning. I think this site suffers from information overload, and, although it has lots of useful information, I also think it oversimplifies some matters and found it condescending (though this was likely my issue, not the website!) when I was new to unschooling. If you are really interested in radical unschooling, I suggest you get Sandra Dodd’s book, which has all the info of the website, but without the (sometimes) condescending tone.
I’m just starting on the homeschooling journey, so thank you for all these definitions. It is really helpful to know which way I’m going. By the way, I just learnt that I am an unschooler.