I think I know what's bugging me
Julie Bogart
The thread called "Adult Results" reminds me of the questions I sometimes get from
people about unschooling. When I offer answers, I am occasionally told that what I've just
explained can't be true unschooling because... x, y, z. Or they wonder if I know how the
kids are learning, or if I worry about their choices, or...
As I was driving around thinking, I realized that there may be a fundamental
misconception of unschooling that underlies the questions. While some school-at-homers
misunderstand unschooling to be "free time for personal interests" after minimal required
work is done (and we say, that's not unschooling), there are others who actually think
unschooling means the kids are completely unattended and that they learn exclusively by
osmosis without ever studying or applying themselves to a topic in any kind of systematic
way.
So if a homeschooling friend hears from me that one of my kids is studying math with a
curricula, I'm told, "But I thought you unschooled." If my daughter takes a French class,
they think she is no longer unschooling.
They wonder how my kids learn to handwrite. One of my kids uses a handwriting book.
She asked for one. She wants to learn cursive. She thinks it's fun to fill it in. But I get the
impression that some people think unschoolers learn cursive by simply growing up. And if
in simply growing up the child didn't learn cursive, then unschooling "failed" her.
I read to the kids every day. We talk about what we read and often it leads to follow-up
discussions and interest in a topic of historical interest. This looks a lot like what people
do who use Sonlight or Greenleaf for their "history studies."
Yet I know that it is nothing of the sort. There is no requirement to listen to me, the kids
help me pick the books and I am not testing or evaluating how much information they
retain. I'm not trying to "cover an era of history" for its own sake. Yet they are learning
history too.
Unschooling is all about involvement in our kids' lives, living our values and ideas before
them, learning along side them, giving them resources to sate their curiosity and honoring
their desire to study or prepare for whatever interests them. (Whether that study is for a
current passing interest or is somethiing they perceive as necessary to a future they
desire, like college or art school or joining a rock band).
It is *not* leaving kids unattended and withholding curricula or classes or anything that
might be misunderstood as "schoolish" in an attempt to say that my kids learned
everything they needed without anyone's help or input. I think some people imagine
unschooling must be kids in a home doing virtually nothing but playing video games and
yet somehow magically come out at 18 with ACT scores in the 30s on their way to a
prestigious college, and if that doesn't happen, then somehow unschooloing failed...
Julie B
people about unschooling. When I offer answers, I am occasionally told that what I've just
explained can't be true unschooling because... x, y, z. Or they wonder if I know how the
kids are learning, or if I worry about their choices, or...
As I was driving around thinking, I realized that there may be a fundamental
misconception of unschooling that underlies the questions. While some school-at-homers
misunderstand unschooling to be "free time for personal interests" after minimal required
work is done (and we say, that's not unschooling), there are others who actually think
unschooling means the kids are completely unattended and that they learn exclusively by
osmosis without ever studying or applying themselves to a topic in any kind of systematic
way.
So if a homeschooling friend hears from me that one of my kids is studying math with a
curricula, I'm told, "But I thought you unschooled." If my daughter takes a French class,
they think she is no longer unschooling.
They wonder how my kids learn to handwrite. One of my kids uses a handwriting book.
She asked for one. She wants to learn cursive. She thinks it's fun to fill it in. But I get the
impression that some people think unschoolers learn cursive by simply growing up. And if
in simply growing up the child didn't learn cursive, then unschooling "failed" her.
I read to the kids every day. We talk about what we read and often it leads to follow-up
discussions and interest in a topic of historical interest. This looks a lot like what people
do who use Sonlight or Greenleaf for their "history studies."
Yet I know that it is nothing of the sort. There is no requirement to listen to me, the kids
help me pick the books and I am not testing or evaluating how much information they
retain. I'm not trying to "cover an era of history" for its own sake. Yet they are learning
history too.
Unschooling is all about involvement in our kids' lives, living our values and ideas before
them, learning along side them, giving them resources to sate their curiosity and honoring
their desire to study or prepare for whatever interests them. (Whether that study is for a
current passing interest or is somethiing they perceive as necessary to a future they
desire, like college or art school or joining a rock band).
It is *not* leaving kids unattended and withholding curricula or classes or anything that
might be misunderstood as "schoolish" in an attempt to say that my kids learned
everything they needed without anyone's help or input. I think some people imagine
unschooling must be kids in a home doing virtually nothing but playing video games and
yet somehow magically come out at 18 with ACT scores in the 30s on their way to a
prestigious college, and if that doesn't happen, then somehow unschooloing failed...
Julie B