Some things aren't Unschooling, some things are barriers to Unschooling, some things are turning away from Unschooling.

It doesn't really matter, in that it doesn't hurt me or anyone here, if people want to call themselves unschoolers in their real life.

I have a friend who used Calvert Curriculum on her kids. She called herself an unschooler because she didn't make them do it EXACTLY as required by Calvert. She'd let them do two lessons on Monday and Wednesday, and they'd take Tuesday and Thursday off, for example. And they'd skip stuff that they didn't think was necessary.

They enjoyed it. It certainly wasn't a big source of misery to any of them. She liked grading all their papers. It was what they felt comfortable doing. They were not looking to make a change. They did lots of other fun things in their free time.

They were about as far from unschooling as you could be, though, so I just kind of grinned and shook my head when she referred to them as unschoolers, on occasion. She wasn't coming to me to learn more about unschooling - I didn't take it as my duty to correct her or help her understand unschooling better.

Her kids both ended up going to public school for high school - one to a science/math magnet school and the other to a performing arts school. They seem happy with that choice, too. They definitely don't consider it a homeschooling or unschooling failure - they consider that their homeschooling prepared them quite well for their current choices - it was a great success.

It isn't a case of unschooled kids choosing school, though. It is a case of schooled-at-home kids choosing school-at-school, instead.

There were a few times, at park days, that people asked about unschooling and this mom started talking about what they did. I did, then, say directly to her, "Of course, you'll want to be clear that you're using a full curriculum," -- something like that. And then say to the new person, "You don't have to use any kind of curriculum." No reason to get into a discussion of whether she ought to be calling herself an unschooler - what was important was the information the new person was getting.

-pam

I have heard this from some people recently:

"We have been unschooling these days. And as far as TV goes, they can watch it for a short time after 4pm each day, and as long it is something educational"

"I would consider us unschoolers, we just do 10 minutes of math and reading each morning to stay on track"

"We unschool but I find we need to have strict limits on all screen time."

~marcia

I cringe when I hear parents say "We unschool except for math" or "we only do two hours of seatwork a day, then we unschool" or "we unschool on the weekends" or "we unschool, and I only require "X" amt of written work each week, but they get to choose the subject!" While all of that might work for a family, its not really true unschooling. Thats like saying you're a "little bit pregnant"...if you're following a curriculum, or requiring work, it may be very relaxed homeschooling, or eclectic homeschooling, but not unschooling.

Beth M.

Can you classically unschool?

It depends on your definition of 'classical' and 'unschooling'...how's that for a cop out?

If Classical is rigorous, incremental learning towards a definite, high-academic goal, that doesn't easily mesh with child-led, 'wait til they ask' unschooling.