Introduction to Unschooling

Sandra Dodd
New Mexico Family Educators Homeschool Conference
Friday, March 21, 1997

Notes from the conference:
Introduction to Unschooling
Sometimes less is more. Sorting out how people learn from the way most of us were taught in school is a worthy undertaking for new homeschoolers. Adults routinely learn things on their own at their own speed, and children can too, with help and encouragement.


ONE CORRECTION: I wish I could have a re-do, but this was 1997. I wish I hadn't said that Kirby "taught himself to read." He learned to read. He figured it out. That was about the time I stopped saying "taught himself." If possible, edit this recording in your head to "learned to read" instead of "taught himself." If that doesn't make any sense to you now, I hope it will later.

There was another couple of times I said "teach" when I wouldn't have used that term a year or so later, even.

Click to enlarge (click again when you get there)
and print it out if you want to,
or just look and think...


The handout I was talking about that people were to have filled in (or not) had a couple of questions, as I recall. There were more people than handouts that day, and I couldn't find a copy today. One was to name three or five (I forget) things that the person had learned well enough to teach or to make money, learned entirely outside and apart from school. And then I asked them to think of three to five friends of theirs (not necessarily name names) who made a living doing things they did not learn in school. [I'll be willing to delete this guess and put the real form if I ever find one, so if anyone was there and kept a copy...] FOUND IT!→

A quote from this talk, when I was asked how old my kids were:

"They're nine, seven and four."
As this page was created they were twenty-two, twenty and seventeen.

To download your own soundfile: http://www.archive.org/details/IntroductionToUnschooling

Lauren and Lee Stranahan transferred the cassette tape of this talk in January 2009. It was recorded at the New Mexico Family Educators' Celebration of Natural Learning, March 21 & 22, 1997, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and this appeared in the conference schedule:

Introduction to Unschooling
Sometimes less is more. Sorting out how people learn from the way most of us were taught in school is a worthy undertaking for new homeschoolers. Adults routinely learn things on their own at their own speed, and children can too, with help and encouragement.

The recording ends when I was talking about deschooling. Sorry about that. Click here for more info on deschooling, then: Deschooling for Parents

Help for new unschoolers: Help

The difference between "teaching" and "learning" is here: What Teaching can Never Be