Sandra Dodd

-=-Maybe it's parental intention? Maybe it's the sense that you would be unschooling your child if your child would let you, thus it is only the inconvenience of your child's desire to explore school that keeps you from unschooling? And since it is their choice to go to school the fact that you support them in their choices, no matter how counter to your own preferences it is, you are unschooling? Maybe unschooling is a bit like the word teach, are you teaching if no one is learning what you are teaching? Are you unschooling if your children are choosing school?-=-

Schuyler wrote that on facebook, in a discussion of why some people want to call themselves unschoolers when they're of questionable unschooling commitment/quality/success/understanding.

Perhaps the problem is the mom considering herself "an unschooling mom" whether her children stick around "to unschool" or not.

Unschooling is definitely a noun. It's a thing.

Unschooling is a kind of home ed, and a kind of lifestyle and a kind of person one can be, I suppose.

But when unschooling is a noun, is it a transitive verb? You can unschool someone else?
Can it be take a reflexive bent? Can you unschool yourself?
Is it an intransitive verb (one without an object; one you just do) like one can be unschooling?

Part of the problem is in those kinds of questions which are too delicate and particular for a quick facebook discussion. But even for people who can't even read words like "reflexive" without feeling school sick, it's worth noting that it's not an easy thing to discuss, why someone wants the label, the identification, association, rank, coolness factor or whatever all comes from saying "I'm unschooling" or "We're unschoolers."

Sandra

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