How long has unschooling been around?

Someone on the Unschooling Basics list asked, "How long has unschooling been around?"

Kelly Lovejoy responded:

Since humans have roamed the planet and before. Even Neanderthals learned!

Deb Lewis concurred:

Yes, learning is so easy, even cavemen did it. 🙂

Shell beads found in Algeria and Israel have been dated to 100,000 years ago, well before there were jewelry-making schools. 🙂

The stunning Chauvet drawings were created between 29,700 and 32,400 years ago long before there were art schools. 🙂

Signs carved in tortoise shell, found in China were written down in the Stone age or Neolithic age, predating the previous earliest writings by two thousand years, well before there were writing schools.🙂
HEY! This is fun!

Archeologists have found pottery dating back 13,000 years, many, many years before there were pottery schools.

The first known sewing needle, found in France, is about 25,000 years old, some considerable time before there were sewing schools.

There is some evidence that people had discovered a way to weave cloth and baskets as early as 27,000 years ago, before there were weaving studios or, well, looms. 🙂
There seems to be no shortage of evidence that humans learn.
Deb Lewis

Sandra note: That's from a list I wasn't on, and it's fun, but I've objected several times when people say unschooling is what people did before there were schools. Because Deb was writing about learning, and not about unschooling, my objection is only to Kelly's statement. 🙂

Unschooling is a substitute for compulsory schooling, and exists in times and places where nearly unlimited information is available, and "schooling" is compulsory until late teens. Those conditions are not historical. Even in my grandparents' day, people dropped out in elementary school; in my parents' time they could leave school at 15 or 16 years old.

More of any of this?

More Deb Lewis

History

Connections

Learning vs. Teaching