Unschooling - thoughts?

[Snickerdoodle1]

Recently got back in touch with an old school friend via Facebook, have mostly shared messages but last week we met properly for coffee and was good to see her again.

I'd never heard of it before but apparently she is 'unschooling' her DS - not the same as home ed as they never sit down and dedicate time to work, they just visit the occasional museum and forest school class but mostly just focus on being happy. They go on a lot of holidays and spend time will their fellow unschooling friends.

Her DS seems cheerful and positive so clearly she's doing something right but when I was discussing with DH later at home he said he thinks it's 'not fair' on someone not to equip them for life and work and adulthood.

Just wondering what other people's thoughts/opinions are on it?

Most schools aren’t exactly fantastic at stretching talent children are they. They are as limited by the curriculum in a lot of schools as the children who struggle.

infact having the support to develop your skills without pressure of school can be a massive help in stretching children.

The older I get, the more amazing it is to me how people can have such strong opinions about things they know little or nothing about.

We home educate. We don't unschool but know many families who do and without exception their children are bright, motivated and enthusiastic with numerous talents and interests, many of which they've persued to a high level. I know several who are now adults and have had no problem going onto further education or employment.

The law says you must provide a 'suitable' education and defines that as 'that which equips the learner for life in the community of which they are a member'. How you achieve that is largely upto you. Home educators don't have to teach in a formal way, follow the national curriculum or take exams if they don't wish to, but It's worth noting that most families DO take GCSEs and/or go into further education, and that includes many unschoolers. If an unschooled child wants to follow a career path which requires certain qualifications, why wouldn't they be motivated to study for those exams? Unschooling isn't about avoiding anything which looks like traditional schooling.

Unschooling isn't about doing nothing or just letting the child decide what they want to learn and expecting them to magically come up with a schoolish answer like the romans or trigonometry. A HUGE part of unschooling is creating a rich life (in terms of education and experiences, not money), about introducing children to new information, ideas, topics, concepts, opportunities, but with the focus on helping the child finding their talents and their passions.

The unschooled children I know have a range of interests, some which look nothing like school and many which do. One is about to take GCSE history at age 10, another is passionate about languages and is fluent in several, both from following their interests and passions. Persuing an interest may well involve hiring tutors or seeking out mentors, again it is NOT about avoiding anything which looks like formal schooling.

As for reading, it's common for home educated children, even when not being unschooled, to learn to read at a later age, often around 8 or 9. Schoolchildren would too, except everything in school requires being able to read, so we teach children intensively to get them reading as soon as possible. Home educated children, taught one to one and able to go at their own pace, don't have that urgency. Of the research I have seen and going also by personal experience, home educated children who learn to read at 8 or 9 have caught up and often overtaken their schooled peers within a year or two. Unschoolers DO help their children learn to read if that child wishes to be helped, but yes, some children do learn without formal teaching. We live in a literate world where almost everything requires being able to read and write, so children are naturally motivated to want to be able to read and parents are on hand to facilitate that. The idea that left to their own devices a child will choose not to learn to read is nonsense. Barring one with severe SEN and one with dyslexia (who is receiving help) I dont know any home educated children above age 10 who can't read.

If they somehow miss some skill they decide they need, they can always study it at a later date anyway. Education isn’t restricted to conventional schooling.

@ForestFae how does that work if they don't have the study skills to manage though? Isn't that just making life difficult for the child / setting them up to fail as young adults?

This is the very opposite of HE experience - many people choose to HE precisely so they can stretch their kids. Schools are really poor at this.

HE kids often have edvanced study skills because they have directed their own learning much more. This is why HE kids outperform school-ed kids at uni.

I understand the child led to some extent but you still need to provide experiences and resources eg how does a 6 year old know he’s interested in dinosaurs unless he’s seen a book/tv/museum.

Home ed families often make sure we expose our kids to a wide variety of experiences from birth

If they somehow miss some skill they decide they need, they can always study it at a later date anyway.

Firstly, that may be much more of a challenge with something like maths, if basic concepts have never been grasped. Secondly, why have that extra pressure at a point in life where they'll want to be getting on with things?

Education isn’t restricted to conventional schooling.

I don't see anyone saying it is, however there seem to be considerable issues with an education that's entirely child led, given that children don't actually know what they'll need in terms of skills in the wider world.

It’s not an extra pressure point, you’d be more willing to do it because you actually want to. I don’t see why that would be an issue, nor why kids should have to study something because it might be used by them later. I also don’t think it’s harder to learn basic maths as an adult, but I think it would be very difficult to not pick up basic maths through HE anyway

Also the point of education is to teach kids how to learn things. What they’re learning doesn’t matter so much as teaching them how to acquire information, check validity, reason etc. Because you don’t know what skills you’ll want or need as an adult, but if you know how to acquire them, it’s not a problem.

Again this is taking the concept of child-led too far. It is child-led, not child-decided.

Whena child is younger, a parent helps their child find the right path. As a child gets older, they become motivated by their aspirations. A child who wants to be an architect will need good Maths and good art/design - so they will want to study it.

If an education to date has fucked up a kid so they only have extrinsic motivation that is not going to happen, but a child-led education should develop strong intrinsic motivations.

Because you don’t know what skills you’ll want or need as an adult, but if you know how to acquire them, it’s not a problem.

But if you've missed out on basic concepts as a child it's not necessarily simple to 'just acquire them'. That seems very naive.

A child who wants to be an architect will need good Maths and good art/design - so they will want to study it.

But a child who wants to do other things may also need it, is the point. If they've never wanted to study it, then presumably unschooling wouldn't take them down that road.

A huge part of unschooling is about building a rich, varied, interesting life. A lot of parents describe unschooling as saying 'yes' as much as possible to new experiences and opportunities. There is lots of emphasis on creating a love of learning and trying new things. For example, a parent may not enforce reading but will create an environment which fosters a love of the written word, with a wide range of books in the home, with bedtime stories, with modelling reading for pleasure. The unschooled children I know have been exposed to a huge range of experiences, activities and opportunities, some obviously educational, some 'just' fun, but far more than a school could offer.

It’s not an extra pressure point, you’d be more willing to do it because you actually want to. I don’t see why that would be an issue

Because of the time. You arent going to get yourself a gcse maths qualification from limited basics in a month. It would probably take years.

Many people don't study Maths A-level. If they need to later, they can study it.

GCSE Maths is actually pretty basic stuff, and HE kids who want to go on to FE will need it, so they will get it.

If a child has GCSE Maths, what is your problem? What do you think they are missing?

It would be interesting to hear if any posters were HS themselves and their honest experience of it.

‘HE kids often have edvanced study skills because they have directed their own learning much more. This is why HE kids outperform school-ed kids at uni’

Source please.

How do you do this though? Relate topics such as history, maths, English to gardening?

Oh, no. Many HE kids do 2 or 3 GCSEs in a year, then 2 or 3 the next year. Some do more each year, some take more years. Once you have the certificate, you have it.

Child led education….Wonder how a chick would manage trying to fly without a dedicated programme ran by an adult bird who knows what they’re doing and why?

GCSE Maths is actually pretty basic stuff

That's pretty easy to say if you're not a teen with limited basics attempting to get it.

If I had to be 'led' by what interests my 6yo right now, I would terrified to center his education around that.

Irrespective of how hard a child may find it to do, the fact is that the Maths required to pass GCSE is not defined as high level.

A lot of kids who found things hard in school find them easier when HE because it is child-led so entirely tailored towards them.

I have tutored kids to GCSE in a quarter of the time they would have in school - because it is 1-1 I could direct everything to them indovidually so they got what I was talking about.