tallulahjoy@...

Are there group members who can speak to what happens in adulthood for those who have been unschooled?  Perhaps you have grown children who were unschooled, or perhaps you were unschooled and are now an adult.   What are the rough percentages of those who are/were able to create a niche for themselves as adults, and who are now financially self-supporting, happy, and productive?   I'm very interested in hearing of actual individual successes, i.e. "making it in the world."    

I read "Summerhill" in the 70's when in my teens, and was intrigued.   Years later, I wonder if it's the rare family that can make it work, or if there are many success stories.

Sandra Dodd

-=-Years later, I wonder if it's the rare family that can make it work, or if there are many success stories.-=-

"Work"? "It"?

There are people writing here who started unschooling in the 1980's. Do you think we would be spending ANY time writing about it if it can't be made to work?

Are you looking for a certain income level as "success story"?

-=- What are the rough percentages of those who are/were able to create a niche for themselves as adults, and who are now financially self-supporting, happy, and productive? -=-

What do you think the rough percentages are for people who went to school? Do you want to check prison populations for who went to school and who didn't? What kind of statistics do you want? And you ARE aware that nobody wants to keep statistics on unschoolers, right? We're not registering with a central unschooling bureau. We're not asking people who join these discussions to report on their children, nor even requiring them to write.

-=- I'm very interested in hearing of actual individual successes, i.e. "making it in the world." -=-

That's not "rough percentages" though.

I have some things collected, but haven't added to it lately. Maybe some things that come up in this topic will be worth adding. :-)

http://sandradodd.com/youngadults/
It has related links.
http://sandradodd.com/teen/people is a nice page.

Sandra

tallulahjoy@...

==Are you looking for a certain income level as "success story"?==

Not at all.  All I want for my children is for them to be given the freedom and the tools to discover and live out who they are in whatever way is right for each one while managing to provide the food and shelter they need, as determined by each of them.   My questions were a bit ambiguous and reflected my own fears.

Thank you for the links.   I look forward to perusing them.

Joyce Fetteroll

> On Feb 17, 2015, at 1:26 AM, tallulahjoy@... wrote:
>
> I read "Summerhill" in the 70's when in my teens, and
> was intrigued. Years later, I wonder if it's the rare family
> that can make it work, or if there are many success stories.

Summerhill was founded in 1931 and is still going strong. Sudbury Valley in Massachusetts (another democratic school) was founded in 1968 and likewise is still going. There's a whole list of democratic schools at Wikipedia.

The approach of supporting kids learning through exploring their interests is well proven even when done in a school setting. In a home it's even easier to do.

If a family can't "make it work" it's not because of unschooling. It's because the family couldn't get comfortable with how different it is from school. (Or for some real life obstacles like divorce.) Or bailed because they worried about college -- without asking advice from unschoolers who had already navigated college with their unschooled kids.

My daughter Kat, 23, is out on her own. She's been living with a friend for 3 years that she met maybe 7 years ago on line. They just today moved to Chicago to begin a new adventure :-) She managed to get herself 3 jobs while she lived in Detroit. She just transferred to another Starbucks location in Chicago by interviewing over the phone. She's handled utility companies. She's handled traffic court. She even handled a false claim that she backed up into someone's car. She's still having too much fun to take time out for college, but she's taken college courses and hung around colleges with her dad who is an adjunct professor so that may be a step she takes at some point.

Most parents judge "working" by getting their kids into college and into a stable job. But to me that's all just getting kids to jump through hoops. Kat's taking on adult responsibilities which is something kids often struggle with after spending their first 22 years being told what to do.

Joyce

Jo Isaac

This article has percentages

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201406/survey-grown-unschoolers-i-overview-findings



Jo Isaac, PhD

Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, 
Centre of Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, 
James Cook University, Townsville.

Scientific Writer and Researcher: http://joisaac.wordpress.com

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 10:59:22 -0800
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] Re: Unschoolers who have reached adulthood, or "the proof is in the pudding"

 
==Are you looking for a certain income level as "success story"?==


Not at all.  All I want for my children is for them to be given the freedom and the tools to discover and live out who they are in whatever way is right for each one while managing to provide the food and shelter they need, as determined by each of them.   My questions were a bit ambiguous and reflected my own fears.

Thank you for the links.   I look forward to perusing them.

Teri DeMarco

Peter Gray published the results of his unschooling research study of 75 adult unschoolers in Psychology Today in 2014.  The first article with links to the others (4 in total) can be found here:     https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201406/survey-grown-unschoolers-i-overview-findings

Teri DeMarco
_________________________
Teri DeMarco
Mom to Wyatt (8), Cole (8) & Emily (6)

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.  - Ben Franklin