Unschooling

All right, here’s my rebuttal. And, please don’t take this as me being argumentative. But it’s kind of fun to see everyone’s different views.

Okay, so first off, I agree with what both Dad and Holly said, to a point. Holly, we haven’t seen many cases of this working well, but we have seen a few. There is at least one family in the ward that does this that have very good, well-adjusted kids.. Dad, I’m curious as to what sort of guidance the college kids got. Were they told that they would need to understand the basics of chemistry? Either way, it doesn’t surprise me at all that they would just pick the easiest courses, and that’s because of the way we are trained when we are young.

So many people these days learn that all that matters is the grade. In elementary and high school, most places won’t allow kids to be failed any more. So the kids learn that it’s not the work and the learning that matters, but the end result. For example, there was a policy in the Nashville area for a while, that everyone would get 50% on every test, whether they take it or not. This, of course, led to many students not taking tests, because they could get away with it and not fail the class.

The focus is on the degree or the diploma, not on what is learned in between. So the students take the easiest courses they can get away with.

This has passed over to home schooling to a degree. If parents decide to try the Unschooling, many are focused on the end result rather than the journey. The mindset seems to be: leave them alone, the books say they will learn it on their own. The parents have the same mindset that students have – taking the easiest route.

So while I think it is hard to find examples in real life, I would argue that it is very possible for it to work. The problem is that it needs more effort from the parents than just regular home schooling.

In our situation, we have elected to use a ready-made curriculum, with books that need to be completed and facts that need to be learned. This is easy, in the sense that all we need to do is get Taylor to complete the work, and then it’s done.

If we were to try unschooling, it would require some real work. First, it’s probably best if you start when the kids are young. Then they don’t get into the bad habits of just doing the work instead of actually learning. Then we would need to be able to show an example of how enjoyable it is to learn. This entails reading good books, discussing them with the family and others, and being an example of how to learn on your own. And doing this in full view of the kids. This means that the housework needs to be done quickly (because most of this example falls on the Mom, since she is with them all day), so there is still time during the day to read and discuss and learn.

Then, once this habit is established, you need to find out what the kids are interested in. This doesn’t mean find out what they want to do, because that is always going to be the easiest thing. But if you can find out what they are passionate about, and then provide them with guidance and materials they need to be able to learn about that. If Dad’s example, that would mean making sure they know that they need to know chemistry to know physics, and then find a way to keep them interested in that subject even when it is normally boring.

Shirley read through this and gave me the following example: There is a family in one of the wards here that Shirley has met, that is very much into unschooling. Their son is very passionate about car washes (of all things!). This started at an early age, so they have used this to teach everything. The reading is about car washes. They teach math related to car washes, they have leaned about how to build a car wash, and the mechanics behind it. They have learned about running a car wash business. Etc. etc. Basically any of the basic knowledge can be related to whatever it is that the kid is passionate about, and they will be interested to learn it. The problem is finding something they are passionate about, and this can change.

So you see that this is a much more intensive method, and most people don’t really recognize that.

From our (Shirley’s) experience, there are many families who do very well at homeschooling, that use many of the ideas behind unschooling, but change it to fit their families, which I think is the key to a successful experience.

To me, the aspect of unschooling that I agree with the most, is that if kids want to learn something, they will learn it much faster than otherwise. So instead of waiting for them to decide they want it, learning needs to be encouraged. And the best way to do this is by example.