Tina Bragdon

Anyone care to define for me the difference between homeschooling
eclecticly and unschooling? Just when I think that I have
unschooling defined in my own mind and all my paradigms shifted, I
have read several heated discussions on other boards as to the true
definition of unschooling, whether or not purposely introducing
things is unschooling, etc.

I for myself (at least at this moment, ha ha) lean towards
unschooling being not COMPLETLEY child led (ie-you do not neglect
your kids, you are actively engaged in their interests, discuss and
enter their world and share interests and neat things with each other
or something cool that the other may like, and we do a "dance"
together). This may or may not involve curriculum or textbooks if
that is what your child wants. However, I now think that it is our
own motives and goals and "agenda" if any that is what separates us
from eclectic homeschoolers and especially very structured
homeschoolers on the other end of the spectrum. Would it be safe to
say that an eclectic approach or a more structured approach would say
that there are certain things that one must know, and that you will
learn them no matter what in a certain prescribed way, with the
eclectics allowing a little more "fun" and choice in the matter (but
that you will learn about XYZ), but the underlying "expectation" is
that it be learned and there is an underlying fear that it might not
be? And that unschooling would be trusting that the writing and
reading and math and whatever would come as the child does it as a
tool to aid their interests (ie-as Joyce says its a "side effect" of
exploring what they love), and the parent has no expectations of
keeping up with grade level or whatever, because they have an innate
trust in them?

For example, with my 6 yr old, who has not printed any thing much
more than a word or two in months after a 3-4 month flurry of using
every scrap of paper in the house :) , an eclectic would expect
writing to be done in some form (chikadee magazine, workbook, lets do
a letter to Grandpa, sort of stuff) with the idea that it must be
done, and getting upset (inwardly at least) if it isn't, where as an
unschooler would trust that once she finds more "meaningful to her"
reasons to write that she will, in the meantime keeping the chikadee
mags and stuff around in case their is an interest and because there
is Trust it's no big deal if it not done for a while, no?

Sorry this is so long, but this has been really picking my brain
lately and has been in my mind for a while, I was interested in
hearing what all you ladies thought...especially about parental
motives and how that affects our approach to homeschooling.

Tina

Pam Genant

--- In [email protected], "Tina Bragdon"
<jamesandtina942@...> wrote:
>
> Anyone care to define for me the difference between homeschooling
> eclecticly and unschooling? Just when I think that I have
> unschooling defined in my own mind and all my paradigms
shifted,.......<<<<<<<

I think what matters is what works for you and your family. You can
ask 100 different unschoolers and get 100 different definitions. It
looks different in every family. I personally don't think there is a
standard definition of unschooling, that is why you see so many
disagreements on lists. LOL. For me I would consider an eclectic
homeschooler someone who uses mis-matched stuff to achieve their
learning goals for their children. Maybe a unit study that includes
reading, science and history, with a math text thrown in and
handwriting sheets. Or something like that.

For me unschooling is part of our lives. We live consensually and
agree that school or any part of school is not what we want in our
lives. We all explore our interests as long and as far as it takes
us. We go places, do things, explore, enjoy, create, read, think,
live, be.

But it doesn't matter how I define it, what matters is how you define
it for you and how your family defines it.

Just my thoughts,
Pam

[email protected]

I think that there are unschoolers who also use textbooks and worksheets.
The difference being that the *child* choses to use the textbook or worksheet to
learn something, rather than it being a requirement by the parent.

In "Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves" by Alison McKee she
talks about how one of her (now grown) children learned Algebra. She first
tried to pressure the child, and he could not learn it. When he decided that he
wanted to go to College, he got an Algebra textbook, and taught it to himself
in about 3 weeks.


Warmly,
Cynthia


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