Re: 2145 -- defining Unschooling
Luz Shosie and Ned Vare
Group,
Digest # 2145 began a useful discussion, IMO: On unschooling,
Liza Sabater wrote >>>This is about parents more than about kids, I
think...<
I strongly agree. Luz and I unschooled our son and send a newsletter (just
ask for it -- nedvare@... ) about unschooling, and have long said that
it's the parents who need to know that they are the ones who need to UN-
learn what they think about how children become educated. Most adults cannot
imagine a life without schooling, so when they consider homeschooling, most
of them believe that it means doing school at home.
Children do not need to go through that change of thinking -- they simply
need to be allowed to continue what they've been doing since they were born,
which is learning at an incredible pace how the world around them works.
From our Unschooling experience with our son, now 23, academic basics are
learned simply by being alive and involved in the real world.
The introduction to our info packet, written by Luz, is as follows:
What is Unschooling?
Unschooling is trusting the learner to be in charge of his or her own
learning. It is not a method of instruction we use on our children, but a
process we adults go through to unlearn the lessons and undo the effects of
our years of schooling.
Schooling taught us that learning only happens in a certain place and time,
under the direction and/or force of a teacher.
Unschooling ourselves restores our child-like curiosity. It encourages us
to trust that we are all learning all the time and that we are the experts
when it comes to choosing what, when, how, where, how much and with whom we
learn.
Schooling taught us that our interests were unimportant, disruptive, a
waste of time, just play, not ³the real world.²
Unschooling frees us to follow our interests wherever they lead.
Ned Vare
Digest # 2145 began a useful discussion, IMO: On unschooling,
Liza Sabater wrote >>>This is about parents more than about kids, I
think...<
I strongly agree. Luz and I unschooled our son and send a newsletter (just
ask for it -- nedvare@... ) about unschooling, and have long said that
it's the parents who need to know that they are the ones who need to UN-
learn what they think about how children become educated. Most adults cannot
imagine a life without schooling, so when they consider homeschooling, most
of them believe that it means doing school at home.
Children do not need to go through that change of thinking -- they simply
need to be allowed to continue what they've been doing since they were born,
which is learning at an incredible pace how the world around them works.
From our Unschooling experience with our son, now 23, academic basics are
learned simply by being alive and involved in the real world.
The introduction to our info packet, written by Luz, is as follows:
What is Unschooling?
Unschooling is trusting the learner to be in charge of his or her own
learning. It is not a method of instruction we use on our children, but a
process we adults go through to unlearn the lessons and undo the effects of
our years of schooling.
Schooling taught us that learning only happens in a certain place and time,
under the direction and/or force of a teacher.
Unschooling ourselves restores our child-like curiosity. It encourages us
to trust that we are all learning all the time and that we are the experts
when it comes to choosing what, when, how, where, how much and with whom we
learn.
Schooling taught us that our interests were unimportant, disruptive, a
waste of time, just play, not ³the real world.²
Unschooling frees us to follow our interests wherever they lead.
Ned Vare