Recently, several homeschooling families in my community were highlighted in a newspaper article as traditional homeschoolers who are adopting the unschooling approach more regularly. Even within the home environment, with one-on-one instruction, these families have experienced frustration with teaching by way of imposed curricula. One of the mothers expressed to me with disbelief that what she had taught one of her daughters last year was completely forgotten by this school year. She is now adopting the more flexible approach of interest-based learning, AKA "unschooling", which accommodates each of her children's learning styles. For her, this has been the alternative to placing her children in public school for the first time--- that is how deeply discouraged she had become.

The late John Holt, a school teacher, author (How Children Fail, How Children Learn, Teach Your Own, and many more available at most libraries), and acclaimed pioneer of the homeschooling movement in the mid 1970's, proposed that children were better off learning at home, away from the traditional teaching techniques offered by public and private schools. In several of his books he documents his career as a school teacher in private and public schools, and claims that no matter how ingeniously and creatively he attempted to teach middle schooled children math and other subjects, many of them failed to understand what was being taught. He began to analyze their learning techniques and found that most students garnered "survivalist" tactics to squeeze through, to pass and make it to the next grade, without having really gained much educationally. In fact, Holt proclaimed, children lost their appetite for learning altogether.

Unschooling as a recognized method of education

Unschoolers contend that none of us excels at everything, and to expect children to excel in all subjects is unrealistic and harmful to a child's self esteem, drawing children away from feeling useful, productive and involved in the mainstream of the community and society in general. Children--- all of us for that matter--- are exposed, without realizing it, to all subjects through daily living. Those of us who are accustomed to having those subjects cut into distinctive pie pieces will find that keeping a journal of daily doings reveals more exposure to all of the world's subjects than the bland traditional school line-up could ever offer.

On the other hand, it is important to understand that unschooling does not mean the negation of traditional learning methods, such as book and workbook learning or reliance on a specialized instructor--- some children naturally choose more traditional resources. Some children explore traditional methods at different times, depending on their need. Unschooling parents discover that there are many ways that different children learn the same things, that each child's view of the world is unique, and that choice of methods, tools, etc., can be in constant change.

The unschooled child is free to explore the endless resources available in the environment. Many unschoolers are great at research for this reason. They learn to find whatever it is they are striving to learn or master, coupled with initiative and enjoyment of the pursuit.

The most exciting thing about unschooling is seeing with our own eyes how children not only learn the basic skills by their own design, but even more, and with such great confidence in their personal abilities to do so. Unschooling supports the natural habit of ongoing curiosity, wonderment, zeal and motivation which our children came into this world with.

Unschooling Affects The Whole Family