Unschooling - agree or disagree?

I love the idea. Many people will think its crazy. Me personally, I didn’t learn much in school because it was not presented in an interesting way and I did not realize how interesting things were that now absolutely blow my mind. Kids hate school cause they are forced to go to it and most of it is boring and teachers are underpaid and many aren’t motivated enough to make the material as interesting as it actually is. That is just my opinion. Schools a big load of BS, the best example that comes to my head right off the bat is that some schools are still prevented from teaching evolution. That is a straight up joke right there. Sorry for the ramble, but yes, I agree with it and think it should be explored if nothing more.

@deni I think it’s a really innovative way to educate children, too. I think it would have benefitted me, but I think it’s something you have to really put effort into maintaining.

I think it’s very good if the parents are organized about keeping track of what the kids are learning and constantly offering opportunities for kids to be exposed to more things to become interested in. If the parents are lazy or disorganized—or both—it could lead to the kids not learning much.

I have thought much about doing this. Unfortunately, I think I’m too disorganized right now.

“The results some of these are getting are phenomenal.”
Some of these?
How much is some? And what are the results of the other ones, that are not “phenomenal”?
The results of some pupils in standard education are phenomenal as well. Have you compared the percentages?

@ragingloli As I mentioned, I watched a program about it yesterday, I have not done my own research since I don’t have children, but I was interested in what others think about it based on the results on the show.

My niece is not interested in school and is very smart, but she has a lazy parent, so I’m not sure it would work. I wondered if any jellies may have tried it.

I personally think that unschooling is a great idea until the highschool age. When you get to highschool it’s important that there is a structured plan to make sure that the student gets as much of the needed knowledge as possible to be successful in life.

In my opinion, the only subject where unschooling can be dangerous is Math. If the child is not particularly interested in math subjects they likely will not learn the basics that are crucial to success in highschool level mathematics.

“You let your kids study what they’re interested in”. Traditional schooling encourages this also but it also introduces kids to new thoughts and ideas that they might become interested in. Traditional schooling is all about expanding the child’s horizons. Unschooling seems more about stagnation.

I wanted to add—I also think it depends on the kids’ temperments. I’ve met tons of kids that for whatever reason, they are NOT curious. They just don’t care much about learning new things except to pass a test. I think they’d be poor candidates for unschooling because they want and need more structure. Many of these kids do really well in traditional school environments.

Now I know some kids who are CONSTANTLY “unschooling” themselves at the school and public library. I know kids who pick their own personal research projects and conduct their own science experiments and just crave learning and new things. That’s an easy no-brainer that they’d excel at unschooling.

I think we have to remember that there is no one magic bullet for education because kids are all different and have many different learning styles and preferences. I don’t know what drives some kids to be self learners and others not – I’ve seen the both in siblings who have the same parents.

Ehhh, I don’t know about that. It sounds nice on paper, but I don’t think kids know what they need to learn or should learn. I know that, in college, you have to take core courses regardless of your major. If a kid never became interested enough in math or writing to want to learn the concepts, they’ll fail every course. Some stuff you learn in high school and before is useless, and you won’t use it all in your everyday life, but those basic skills are useful even when you don’t know it.

I studied what I wanted to in high school, as well as the classes I was required to take even if I wasn’t interested in it. I would’ve never taken a statistics course if I had the choice, but those skills are imperative in my current field of study.

@genjgal One mom said her child learned real-life math, like counting change, and with his art he studied angles, but there was no times tables like we had in school. He learned to play instruments, then started a band. Learned to free-run. She said the goal was for her child to be happy, that’s all.

Another girl graduated hs at age 13 with 18 extra credits and has started her own business, published a book, and all kinds of very high achievements.

@KNOWITALL I have had relaxed schooling more so than unschooling. I’ve done english and math programs for most of my school years. Until middle school my science was unschooled. My history and literature in past years has mostly been unschooled. I have read many many books on history periods of interest to me.
When I was younger my mom would ask me what I wanted to study that year. For at least three years my answer was Indians. =D So, we learned about the Indians and Pilgrims…again. And I loved learning! I even made tee-pee’s and sewed Indian and Pilgrim clothing etc.
I also went through a Victorian phase. haha

Because of this there are some eras in history that I truly don’t know much about.
I do not see this as a problem, because now that I am in High School my schooling is quite regulated. I will have all of my history bases covered by the time I graduate.

I’m fine with homeschooling, but unschooling I am not very keen on. I admit to not knowing much about it. I think children need to have subjects introduced and sometimes a little forced on them. Total freedom left up to the child does not sound good to me. I’m sure there are some great exa,ples of kids who come through it very successful, but I would want to see stats on how the majority turn out. I saw a show on TV about a family that unschools and it wasn’t good. But, I am not saying they are typical either.

Unschooling:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201202/the-benefits-unschooling-report-i-large-survey

Homeschooling vs school stats
http://www.unschoolinglifestyle.com/2012/03/homeschool-statistics-graphically.html

@JLeslie I agree with you, I need structure, and a lot of children do as well. But on the other hand, if happiness is your goal for your child, it surely works.

What if the only thing that made your child happy was killing small animals for fun though? I think it’s a little unreasonable to just want a happy child. The mother in the program I watched said teen suicide was one factor in her decision.

I would never in a million years consider unschooling. I think that in addition to teaching the essentials (reading, writing, math, etc), schools help kids learn social skills, time management, how to follow directions, respect, and many other intangibles that a free flowing “do whatever feels right” education won’t offer. That isn’t to say that kids shouldn’t have down time and the freedom to study what is of interest to them, I just don’t think that total freedom makes for a sound curriculum. It would be a tremendous shock to the system when an unschooled student showed up for college classes and was given a syllabus, taught mostly by a lecturing professor, and expected to regurgitate the info being taught according to a formula they are totally unfamiliar with.

@KNOWITALL That article does not offer how well these kids do as adults. I agree with many of the positive things the parents said, but I think homeschooling in a Montessori like way where children are allowed to overfocus to some extent on their passion is ok. Bit, the basics need to be there, and some subjects need to be studied even if the child isn’t fond of it.

@KNOWITALL If a child is self motivated with math that’s great, but if not I really think it’s dangerous. History, Science, Literature, etc. are subject that (from my experience) a person c n learn what they are interested in while they are young, and learn what they need to later with the background that they got when they were young. (if that makes any sense)

I am not self motivated with math, and I wish that I would have been forced to do more than I was. Thankfully my mom made me do math. (crying fits and all)
I’m doing Algebra now, and I am so glad that I was not unschooled on math. As I said I wish I would have been forced to do even more, because I really should be faster.
Scary that that boy didn’t have to memorize his times tables! Yes, I hate memorizing times tables. I can’t even count how many times a cried trying to memorize them! They’re just not something that you can just learn later when you have to.
English is the same way for some people.

I have not had any trouble learning the English, Literature, and Science that I never learned before, since due to my “unschooling” on those topics I already know far more about them than more kids.

No, unschooled children don’t tend to do poorly on standardized tests. When I was younger and more unschooled I scored way above my grade level.
Also, no I am not highly self-motivated either.

It sounds like one of those things that would be good if traditional schooling wasn’t working for your child, and they were really struggling. It doesn’t sound like it is right for everyone. While studying what you are interested in becomes the goal in higher education, in elementary education, being exposed to various different subjects is what allows you to determine what you are interested in. So I’m a little confused on how that is supposed to work with unschooling. I didn’t know I was going to love Latin and linguistics until high school. I needed to take all kinds of subjects to find out what I was interested in and what I could take or leave.

@JLeslie I think we should offer in-home tutors like old England, in my books the tutor always tayed with the family and tutored children of all ages. Very structured but still personal attention to each child.

There is an education revolution in the making. The computer has opened up possibilities that have yet to be fully exploited. I am not saying that the computer will replace the teacher, but it offers it offers both teacher and student a large array of tools. To fully take advantage of them will increase the skills needed for teaching. One thing that I hope comes out of this is a greater flexibility in what students learn. I don’t know if they should be completely on their own but they should be offered more choice in what they get to study.

Anything to separate kids from the teachers union. Anything.

There is value in having a well-rounded education. As far as I can tell, unschooling creates a learning environment centered around the child’s interests, which include a limited number of school subjects.

Just yesterday, I was having a conversation with @augustlan about cargo cults. They are very interesting, and it was a great discussion. If I hadn’t been coerced by my public school system into learning about them, I could have gone my entire life without hearing about them. Does this knowledge contribute to my ability to find a job? Nope. Does this knowledge contribute to my experience as a human being? Absolutely.

On the other side, there is a lot of promise in school systems with flexible scheduling. Instead of the same schedule each day, classes could choose to meet certain days instead of others. Students might even be able to go at their own pace in certain subjects.

I agree with @flutherother that this could work in the infant/junior school phase of their education but only if they have parents who are capable of using the child’s natural curiosity as the impetus for further and broad learning.

I knew a woman whose son loved science but he was struggling with traditional schooling and learning to read. I suggested creating learning experiences, including reading materials, around the topic he loved. Learning about different aspects from the field of science would allow a child to learn to read, to understand different areas of maths, to research, to question, to critique different ideas but in a very organic way.

It wouldn’t suit all children or all teachers or parents but I wouldn’t exclude it as a part of the ‘learning and teaching’ spectrum for some children.

I say only until high school because children also need to learn how to operate in more structured environments. So school isn’t just about ‘learning’ content. It has a social element as well. In addition, to get into university or certain careers children need to meet set academic levels in specific subjects.

At what age does this start? While I still feel that some subjects are not mandatory in curricula, I think that people should at least be presented with them to expose them to something they might find interesting. I doubt that an elementary school person or even a junior high school person (some college people also end up changing majors) legitimately knows exactly what they are interested in. If not, I feel that any other sort of “un-schooling” would be pressuring. One thing that I heard about about learning many different subjects which I have only heard and cannot bet myself on it is that it expands your thinking skills and makes you think in creative ways. I heard this applies especially to mathematic and art (drawing, music, etc) classes.

@dxs The truly organized and proactive unschooling parent is supposed to be out there in the community, in museums and libraries and anything else, exposing their kids like mad to things.

One unschooling family I know travelled to Japan for a year (Dad went to teach English and Mom unschooled) and they spent the year fully immersed in Japanese culture, learning all the “subjects” you’d normally learn in middle school, but with a Japanese theme. This kid LOVED it—but she was a bit of a spoiled snot, to be honest. I think the downside to her unschooling was that it gave her the feeling that she was the most brilliant mind that ever came down the Pike and that every single person she met was going to be fascinated by her amazingly creative mind (pffft) I think one might argue that unschooling gave her this unrealistic image of herself. But it could have just been who she was.

It’s actually easier to get very young kids interested in things than adults. There is a golden age between kindergarten and 4th grade where kids basically find just about EVERYTHING fascinating if presented correctly.

Another thing that is supposed to happen with unschooling is that “subjects” as we think of them aren’t taught in sterile environments. Of course almost nobody is interested in math all by itself. Parents are supposed to be creative and incorporating math into almost everything they teach. You can learn math from cooking, running a lemonade stand, sewing a pattern—just about everything.

Some parents I know who do it take the State Standards (free to access on our State’s DoE site) and tick off what standards they are hitting to keep track of it. They don’t hit everything, but the standards help them learn where to start looking for inspiration if they are missing large chunks of a subject. They don’t hit everything, because they prefer to go “deep instead of wide” on the subject matter, if that makes sense. But they know that their kids are on the same page or ahead of what kids in public schools are learning.

I don’t know any parents who do what I’ve heard called “radical unschooling” where the kids are completely left on their own. I’ve heard REALLY bad things about that – like 10 year olds who can’t be bothered to even learn to read. Don’t confuse unschooling with “radical unschooling”

Most of the parents I know do a mix of unschooling and cooperative homeschooling. They join these homeschooling networks that hire teachers to teach subjects like Math or other subjects so that the kids can learn from people who know the subject matter better than the parents do. So the kids DO have some classes that look like traditional public schools, but usually smaller class sizes and mixed ages.

We used several methods of schooling with our sons and grandsons, and they all worked. Children learn or not at their own pace and the method you use can either make it harder or easier.

My son found a wonderful school for his two. It is a college prep program starting from Kindergarten. They are given educational material based on their ability, and taught to follow self-discipline rules to make their learning experience as useful as possible.

I do not have or intend to have kids so I haven’t done any research on this at all but @SuperMouse summed up my initial thoughts on this subject pretty well.