Hi! I love your channel! You are like medicine! I have planted most of the fruit trees to start my food forest thanks to you! I unschooled all my three girls here outside Austin. I was kind of unschooled in Berkeley in the 70’s. My girls are all in their 20’s now and all did really well in college. One is a D.C. lawyer, one is an RN, and one is a social Justice warrior.
I began unschooling my kids when the oldest was 4 in 1996. Luckily their dad had faith in the philosophy and we were both journalists so we could write. People were skeptical but all three really owned their own education - right through college and even law school.
First let me say I'm new to your channel and a fan. You've eloquently vocalized so many of my thoughts and I look forward to your videos. I didn't know about unschooling when my son was younger but I did encourage any subject he was interested in because my own interests were poo-pooed when I was growing up. It started out with dinosaurs. :) We were fortunate to be part of a school district that allowed him to experience unschooling on a small level as he spent a year getting to explore a topic or two (he could do one a semester or extend one topic both semesters) that he was interested in. His two topics were Mayan mythology and Dungeons and Dragons. He's been a lifelong gamer and after listening to both his presentations, I realized how much more there is to gaming such as storytelling. In my own journey, heaven knows I would have paid much more attention in geometry class if the teacher had shown me how the Pythagorean theorem could be used to chart the sleeve cap for a knitted sweater instead of a bunch of equations without any context to anything remotely familiar in my real life.
Absolutely fascinating! My background is in education and I’ve taught in both private and public schools and always loved the notion of learning driven by individual interests and passions, which is limited by structured learning institutions. Wonderful that you and your husband are willing and able to support your children in this way, Angela.
I love the unschooling method. Decades ago my children were in Montessori schools. I liked the hands on approach to learning and the kiddos could choose whatever interested them. I dream of my grandkids coming to grandma's for the summers and learning about nature, gardening, building ect.. Thank you Angela for sharing and Happy Earth Day!. 🌈❤️🌎✌️
I'm glad I watched even though it was a little triggering for me. I just recently, this week in fact, am trying to come to grips with how my mom homeschooled my brother and I. Which was to do nothing with us really, she just crossed her fingers and hoped for the best. I'm glad you're really involved with your kids, they're lucky to have you.
I am really glad you are discussing this on your channel. I've often wondered about your experience, as we have shifted into unschooling the last couple of years in our family and it's... hard. At least for me. My oldest is interested in subjects like sewing and cooking vs any hard sciences or usual "subjects", and I am finding it hard to balance the time she spends on her interests and making sure that she is not educationally neglected. It's a process I guess. 🙂 I wonder whether you intentionally exposed your kids to different topics to widen their interests or is it better to just go with the flow. In my mind I feel like permaculture design principles apply here as well, as you really need to design a good learning environment for kids to learn and grow well.
Hello from Australia! I am loving your videos - especially on Unschooling. I am a single mum of an 8 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy. The idea of unschooling is both exciting and completely overwhelming - especially from a financial point of view. How to make it work for us - even as a family of two is tricky. You give me inspiration and nudge me a little closer to doing this!
Thank you for the info/experiences you shared on this. I was curious what this looked like in your family. I had a traditional school upbringing, but my mom always allowed us plenty of play time. I used mine to read and learn everything about horses. while absorbing my mom's love and talent with cooking, growing plants, listening to nature and animals and seeing her creative touch in all parts of our home. As I became older, I found more and more subjects I immersed myself in. Learning is/was fun and just a part of my life. My curiosity is still active. (Thanks, Mom- even today I am blown away by your knowledge and strength.) I have my 'mind palace' with many rooms and find more and more that those rooms connect to each other in wonderful ways.
So well said! From the time my 6yo was a baby, I was sure I was a Charlotte Mason person. But the rubber hits the road at 6, and nooooope. Not our brains. The two philosophies are pretty similar externally until 6, and I've fallen into just continuing what we've been doing. So maybe we're unschoolers now. But ugh, it's hard for me to give up that ideal vision even if I also think the unschooling vision is beautiful too and I'm usually pretty comfortable being countercultural. But CM was a lot more "familiar" to family than this. My spouse was re-reading Dune, and I decided to read it for the first time. Ran across this great summary (to me) of unschooling: "Many have remarked the speed with which Muad'Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson." p106
One of my complaints about the modern social system is that many (perhaps most) people, don't really have a passion. They just go to a mindless repetitive job every day and sit mindlessly in front of a TV when they are home. Do you think unschooling would foster people to have passion? The other thing with passion, I believe, is that parents must show interest in their children's passions.
The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood by Lancy, Bock, and Gaskins, and one of Lancy's other books, The Anthropology of Childhood, can really help anyone struggling with the idea of meaningful learning and development happening outside of some kind of formal schooling. They are fascinating reads, and seeing the diversity of situations in which children can become healthy, functioning, integrated adults gives parents much to consider when making decisions related to childrearing. After having taught in public, private, and online schools, I'm excited to start (continue, really) homeschooling my eldest, but with my training geared toward the public system and following government curriculum, and with my husband and I having attended public school for our entire schooling, I still find some of that philosophy about teaching hard to let go of 😅
I am following your channel for a while because of permaculture and chicken and glad to find out about unschooling. Your ways of thinking about those resonate a lot with the choices we make in our family. If you decide to do move videos about unschooling I would be very interested to know how your gardening and your unschooling routines relate to each other and what insights or practices from permaculture you take into facilitating the learning of your kids. And that point about privilege is an important one (and difficult to talk about), but in a sense, permaculture can look like a privilege too.
Absolutely loved this video! Wish I had known of unschooling when my children were school age. Both of them struggled. They loved art and drew amazingly well, but their art teacher told them they wouldn’t get anywhere in life drawing what they liked which was anime. They gave up after that. I was so angry. I have no faith in the public education system as it is now. It needs a major over haul starting with only hiring teachers who truly love children and allowing them to explore options with their children and classrooms.
Love this so much! I’m planning on homeschooling my son in a few years and love the idea of focusing on interest-based learning! Kids know more about what they need to learn than we do ❤️
Thank you for sharing your very interesting thoughts. Having been a school teacher since 1983, I have finally come to the insight that 'neat and orderly' is indeed a way to educate masses but not individuals. 'Neat and orderly' does not seem to be enough for individuals struggling to come to terms with life. It seems to be like looking at single phenomena in biology: they may be interesting, even thrilling at times, but they need to be placed into real life's experience to be more than just singular bits and pieces of a huge mosaic. Luckily, very many students are creative enough to 'help themselves' to the education they need. But very many are not .... and that should be bothering us.
Love it! We also have 4 kids and are unschooling and see it being very much in line with permaculture, which I just learned about in 2020. I'm just struggling because I also work and often feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I'm not accomplishing more. I look forward to seeing more of your videos!
Thank you for sharing. ❤️ Very similar to my experience. It was very scary at first, and I do feel very privileged to be able to offer this lifestyle to my children. This doesn’t mean that my husband and I haven’t sacrificed in many ways to be able to provide this experience for our girls. But the way I see it, I only get to live this part of my life once.
Very clear explanation and examples. Thank you for your willingness to share your family's experience in some detail. We raised a grandson (now almost 30 years old), and though he attended a pretty good private school for several years, he and I spent lots of time in what you have identified as "unschooling" activities and adventures; likewise in one year of sort of standard homeschooling, with all that we added in. We know, and he knows, that became a huge foundation for life--and, incidentally, made him highly trainable in multiple directions.
Wonderful reflection, thank you. Somehow we have a forest garden and we home educate (UK) and I hadn't worked out what these common threads are! Our site specific (personalised education) design has become a little more structured over the years, from observing and responding to eldest child's needs. It's more sinuous weedy beds than rigid straight lines though. 😊
I have been waiting for this topic, thank you for addressing and explaining it. Super interesting, as I am disappointed in the way school still works here in Germany. As you said, we have learning and then fun, a lovely preparation for real life, where we have work and fun separated also. A nightmare to me. Here in Germany the only option is to seek out a different kind of school, mostly private, as attending school is mandatory by law for all kids from age 6 to around 17, or at least for 10 years. This is helpful for kids who would otherwise not have access to any form of education but very limiting. Our school system is totally outdated and in international comparisons it fails. It fosters societal segregation and makes it difficult for pupils to leave their social class. My husband and I have chosen to still send our kids to the local primary school, mostly because of lack of alternatives. Would love to hear more opinions and thoughts from everybody here.
See if Freinet schools are something you like. They start with a morning circle where every kid tells what its interest of the day is. they then combine these interests with all topics they also wanted to teach. They have learning groups for kids with multiple ages as well. My kids always came home exited, telling what fun they had all day. I also live in Germany. I never found it difficult for my children to leave their social class btw. Hope you find a school you like.
It’s interesting that your kid learned some math from a game but you’d have to acknowledge because he was getting correct instant feedback on his processing of the problem at hand. My kid took up math easily but it was in major part because he’d do it in his head and ask if he had the answer correct and he has been able to learn that way.
Thank you! I wish this had been an option when I was raising my girls. LOL = My granddaughter who just turned 5 has been obsessed with ancient Egypt since she was 4.
I love this but mostly in theory; adults who've grown up like this have been vocal about how they struggled in adulthood because they're used to being hyper-focused on topics that they find interesting and have issues self-motivating outside of their personal interests. Do you have any concerns about that or adjusting to the structure of higher learning for them? I genuinely respect you and I totally understand the appeal of this method but I'm curious about the negatives.
@@jamiebaker6516 I deleted my comment because I realised I have no personal experience myself to contribute and probably better for others to google the articles and read for themselves (there's several related to some surveys done by Peter Gray of grown unschoolers as well as youtube has some news interview clips with unschooling families, which show some of the variety of styles).
There’s a book about unschooling, Free to Learn by Peter Gray. I think he actually has several books but I’ve only read Free to Learn. He’s done research on kids that are unschooled and they have no problems learning things they aren’t interested in or going to college and having successful careers because they have a goal in mind that can only be achieved by jumping through certain hoops. There are several schools, Sudbury Valley being the first and most well known, that are based on unschooling principals. I went to public school, but as an adult, I don’t tend to seek out and learn what I’m not interested in. I focus my energy on things that are interesting to me and things I believe will help me become a better version of myself. My son is only 2, so I have no personal experience in unschooling, but I think it’s fascinating and am interested in learning more about how I can apply aspects of it into my son’s learning as he gets older.
There are actually quite a lot of adults who grew up like this who are very functional and have gone to college and have successful careers. I’m Unschooled, Yes I Can Write is a great resource. I think it is easier for kids who are unschooled and no their own needs and are self-directed to be frustrated with the inefficiency, busywork, institutional nature of school in general. When my eldest child went to community college at 16, that was her experience. She was frustrated by pointless rules the lack of autonomy and the fact that when the lecture was wrong she was not free to disagree. I think a lot of times unschooled kids can see the flaws in the system much earlier than those of us who grew up in institutional schooling, and therefore they aren’t willing to tolerate the inequities and inefficiencies and waste of energy in the system. My eldest kid has had no problem getting her GED despite never having had a formal science or math or history class and having taken only one creative writing class. My second kid has had no problem taking formal classes and advocating for accommodations for her dyslexia… In fact I think she’s more successful because she doesn’t except things at face value and knows her worth and is not willing to compromise. I would also argue look at how many kids public school or homeschooling “school of the dining room table “fails utterly and how little it does to equip kids for real life. One of the things I like best about unschooling is it teaches kids to be autodidacts, So that even if they don’t know how something works or they don’t have information they know how to “hack” their education and teach themselves. I have not seen my teenagers or my friends with now-adult unschooled kids struggle with motivation. It’s more that they struggle with the bs in the system and they question the need for busywork and bureaucracy and the way the system disempowers folks in it. I think that can be something that makes it harder for them to function within the confines of the normal workplace or within a system that expects our educational institutions to turn out “good citizens“ but I think it’s a positive because I personally think the system needs to be dismantled and remade into some thing that is actually functional and actually serves the needs of people in the planet, instead of benefiting a few at the top.
I think it helps to have a big family. I went to a public high school in Seattle where we got credits for taking any classes in the community, we could also ask anyone to teach a class. I’m old enough now to see the results of unschooling in kids of people who are not privileged. These kids didn’t fare well. The parents who were willing to work with the kids to find resources and facilitate socializing did fine.
That’s a really interesting take because so many of my kids friends who are unschooled our only children or only have one sibling. There are many ways that unschooling only one kid is much easier because you can focus so much of your energy undivided. I have noticed a lot of folks who unschool do so after a period where their kid struggled in school. They pulled them out and went through a period Of “de schooling” and that organically evolved into unschooling.
I think what I have seen for bigger families is they tend to do a much more curriculum based “school of the dining room table” method because when you have a bunch of kids and only one mother homeschooling them, copying the institutional method can really make it easier on Mom. But then I don’t really see the point… If the public school model doesn’t work well for your kid, it doesn’t make sense to try and reproduce it at the dining room table. Then you’d just keep them in school if that was a model that met their needs…
My 14 year old is really struggling with school, always has in some way or other. I really am considering pulling her out but do worry about her not being able to get a job later on because she has no formal qualifications.
I’m familiar with Waldorf and we do have those here. They are $$$$ private schools. Waldorf is a lot more regimented, and scripted than unschooling. A lot more rules and a specific culture that is being created. But I have 2 friends who went to Waldorf schools and they say provides so much space for artistic expression.
My body has a visceral negative response to the rigid structure of traditional school. I got good grades but I honestly hated school. I feel like it kills creativity and teaches you to accept and repeat what you're told. Even though some of the things taught in school aren't even factually correct. (Like Columbus definitely didn't discover America and we've known that for a long time now). There's nothing more infuriating that being asked "what do you think the author was trying to say by xyz.." and then having your answer marked wrong because it wasn't what the teacher was looking for. LOVE the unschool approach.
It's so true that learning needs diversity. It fascinating to me the most diverse options in public school are often only given to kids when they fail the "norm" vs having open options.I remember learning in elementary school how people learn differently.
Hi! I love your channel! You are like medicine! I have planted most of the fruit trees to start my food forest thanks to you! I unschooled all my three girls here outside Austin. I was kind of unschooled in Berkeley in the 70’s. My girls are all in their 20’s now and all did really well in college. One is a D.C. lawyer, one is an RN, and one is a social Justice warrior.
What a kind thing to say!! Thank you! This made my day :)
I began unschooling my kids when the oldest was 4 in 1996. Luckily their dad had faith in the philosophy and we were both journalists so we could write. People were skeptical but all three really owned their own education - right through college and even law school.
First let me say I'm new to your channel and a fan. You've eloquently vocalized so many of my thoughts and I look forward to your videos.
I didn't know about unschooling when my son was younger but I did encourage any subject he was interested in because my own interests were poo-pooed when I was growing up. It started out with dinosaurs. :) We were fortunate to be part of a school district that allowed him to experience unschooling on a small level as he spent a year getting to explore a topic or two (he could do one a semester or extend one topic both semesters) that he was interested in. His two topics were Mayan mythology and Dungeons and Dragons. He's been a lifelong gamer and after listening to both his presentations, I realized how much more there is to gaming such as storytelling.
In my own journey, heaven knows I would have paid much more attention in geometry class if the teacher had shown me how the Pythagorean theorem could be used to chart the sleeve cap for a knitted sweater instead of a bunch of equations without any context to anything remotely familiar in my real life.
Absolutely fascinating! My background is in education and I’ve taught in both private and public schools and always loved the notion of learning driven by individual interests and passions, which is limited by structured learning institutions. Wonderful that you and your husband are willing and able to support your children in this way, Angela.
I love the unschooling method. Decades ago my children were in Montessori schools. I liked the hands on approach to learning and the kiddos could choose whatever interested them. I dream of my grandkids coming to grandma's for the summers and learning about nature, gardening, building ect.. Thank you Angela for sharing and Happy Earth Day!. 🌈❤️🌎✌️
I'm glad I watched even though it was a little triggering for me. I just recently, this week in fact, am trying to come to grips with how my mom homeschooled my brother and I. Which was to do nothing with us really, she just crossed her fingers and hoped for the best. I'm glad you're really involved with your kids, they're lucky to have you.
I am really glad you are discussing this on your channel. I've often wondered about your experience, as we have shifted into unschooling the last couple of years in our family and it's... hard. At least for me. My oldest is interested in subjects like sewing and cooking vs any hard sciences or usual "subjects", and I am finding it hard to balance the time she spends on her interests and making sure that she is not educationally neglected. It's a process I guess. 🙂 I wonder whether you intentionally exposed your kids to different topics to widen their interests or is it better to just go with the flow. In my mind I feel like permaculture design principles apply here as well, as you really need to design a good learning environment for kids to learn and grow well.
Hello from Australia! I am loving your videos - especially on Unschooling. I am a single mum of an 8 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy. The idea of unschooling is both exciting and completely overwhelming - especially from a financial point of view. How to make it work for us - even as a family of two is tricky. You give me inspiration and nudge me a little closer to doing this!
Thank you for the info/experiences you shared on this. I was curious what this looked like in your family. I had a traditional school upbringing, but my mom always allowed us plenty of play time. I used mine to read and learn everything about horses. while absorbing my mom's love and talent with cooking, growing plants, listening to nature and animals and seeing her creative touch in all parts of our home. As I became older, I found more and more subjects I immersed myself in. Learning is/was fun and just a part of my life. My curiosity is still active. (Thanks, Mom- even today I am blown away by your knowledge and strength.) I have my 'mind palace' with many rooms and find more and more that those rooms connect to each other in wonderful ways.
So well said! From the time my 6yo was a baby, I was sure I was a Charlotte Mason person. But the rubber hits the road at 6, and nooooope. Not our brains. The two philosophies are pretty similar externally until 6, and I've fallen into just continuing what we've been doing. So maybe we're unschoolers now. But ugh, it's hard for me to give up that ideal vision even if I also think the unschooling vision is beautiful too and I'm usually pretty comfortable being countercultural. But CM was a lot more "familiar" to family than this.
My spouse was re-reading Dune, and I decided to read it for the first time. Ran across this great summary (to me) of unschooling: "Many have remarked the speed with which Muad'Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson." p106
One of my complaints about the modern social system is that many (perhaps most) people, don't really have a passion. They just go to a mindless repetitive job every day and sit mindlessly in front of a TV when they are home.
Do you think unschooling would foster people to have passion?
The other thing with passion, I believe, is that parents must show interest in their children's passions.
The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood by Lancy, Bock, and Gaskins, and one of Lancy's other books, The Anthropology of Childhood, can really help anyone struggling with the idea of meaningful learning and development happening outside of some kind of formal schooling. They are fascinating reads, and seeing the diversity of situations in which children can become healthy, functioning, integrated adults gives parents much to consider when making decisions related to childrearing. After having taught in public, private, and online schools, I'm excited to start (continue, really) homeschooling my eldest, but with my training geared toward the public system and following government curriculum, and with my husband and I having attended public school for our entire schooling, I still find some of that philosophy about teaching hard to let go of 😅
I am following your channel for a while because of permaculture and chicken and glad to find out about unschooling. Your ways of thinking about those resonate a lot with the choices we make in our family. If you decide to do move videos about unschooling I would be very interested to know how your gardening and your unschooling routines relate to each other and what insights or practices from permaculture you take into facilitating the learning of your kids. And that point about privilege is an important one (and difficult to talk about), but in a sense, permaculture can look like a privilege too.
I am so glad that you decided to merge both channels. Didn't know Hausfrau existed and I am loving the content. So inspiring!
Thank you!!!
Absolutely loved this video! Wish I had known of unschooling when my children were school age. Both of them struggled. They loved art and drew amazingly well, but their art teacher told them they wouldn’t get anywhere in life drawing what they liked which was anime. They gave up after that. I was so angry. I have no faith in the public education system as it is now. It needs a major over haul starting with only hiring teachers who truly love children and allowing them to explore options with their children and classrooms.
Love this so much! I’m planning on homeschooling my son in a few years and love the idea of focusing on interest-based learning! Kids know more about what they need to learn than we do ❤️
I tell everyone I meet to homeschool, and I’m a public school teacher
Thank you for sharing your very interesting thoughts. Having been a school teacher since 1983, I have finally come to the insight that 'neat and orderly' is indeed a way to educate masses but not individuals. 'Neat and orderly' does not seem to be enough for individuals struggling to come to terms with life. It seems to be like looking at single phenomena in biology: they may be interesting, even thrilling at times, but they need to be placed into real life's experience to be more than just singular bits and pieces of a huge mosaic. Luckily, very many students are creative enough to 'help themselves' to the education they need. But very many are not .... and that should be bothering us.
Love it! We also have 4 kids and are unschooling and see it being very much in line with permaculture, which I just learned about in 2020. I'm just struggling because I also work and often feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I'm not accomplishing more. I look forward to seeing more of your videos!
Thank you for sharing. ❤️ Very similar to my experience. It was very scary at first, and I do feel very privileged to be able to offer this lifestyle to my children. This doesn’t mean that my husband and I haven’t sacrificed in many ways to be able to provide this experience for our girls. But the way I see it, I only get to live this part of my life once.
We are unschooling permaculturists in NM. Thank you for sharing!
Very clear explanation and examples. Thank you for your willingness to share your family's experience in some detail. We raised a grandson (now almost 30 years old), and though he attended a pretty good private school for several years, he and I spent lots of time in what you have identified as "unschooling" activities and adventures; likewise in one year of sort of standard homeschooling, with all that we added in. We know, and he knows, that became a huge foundation for life--and, incidentally, made him highly trainable in multiple directions.
Wonderful reflection, thank you.
Somehow we have a forest garden and we home educate (UK) and I hadn't worked out what these common threads are!
Our site specific (personalised education) design has become a little more structured over the years, from observing and responding to eldest child's needs. It's more sinuous weedy beds than rigid straight lines though. 😊
So true, we unschool! It's so important to be open minded. My sons now are 14 18 and 19. Best choice we made.
I love your home making videos.
I have been waiting for this topic, thank you for addressing and explaining it. Super interesting, as I am disappointed in the way school still works here in Germany. As you said, we have learning and then fun, a lovely preparation for real life, where we have work and fun separated also. A nightmare to me. Here in Germany the only option is to seek out a different kind of school, mostly private, as attending school is mandatory by law for all kids from age 6 to around 17, or at least for 10 years. This is helpful for kids who would otherwise not have access to any form of education but very limiting. Our school system is totally outdated and in international comparisons it fails. It fosters societal segregation and makes it difficult for pupils to leave their social class. My husband and I have chosen to still send our kids to the local primary school, mostly because of lack of alternatives. Would love to hear more opinions and thoughts from everybody here.
See if Freinet schools are something you like. They start with a morning circle where every kid tells what its interest of the day is. they then combine these interests with all topics they also wanted to teach. They have learning groups for kids with multiple ages as well. My kids always came home exited, telling what fun they had all day.
I also live in Germany. I never found it difficult for my children to leave their social class btw.
Hope you find a school you like.
It’s interesting that your kid learned some math from a game but you’d have to acknowledge because he was getting correct instant feedback on his processing of the problem at hand. My kid took up math easily but it was in major part because he’d do it in his head and ask if he had the answer correct and he has been able to learn that way.
I guess I don’t see the blocks on minecraft being any different than manipulatives kids use in a math class. They are virtual manipulatives.
Amazing video. wow. Thank you!
Thank you for this video, it's fantastic.
I unschooled my daughter, would do again 100%.
My kid is 6 and very social as well. We should meet up at a park sometime. I am near the gateway transit center.
Love your videos, thank you for all the knowledge.
amazing!
Thank you!
I wish this had been an option when I was raising my girls.
LOL = My granddaughter who just turned 5 has been obsessed with ancient Egypt since she was 4.
I love this but mostly in theory; adults who've grown up like this have been vocal about how they struggled in adulthood because they're used to being hyper-focused on topics that they find interesting and have issues self-motivating outside of their personal interests. Do you have any concerns about that or adjusting to the structure of higher learning for them? I genuinely respect you and I totally understand the appeal of this method but I'm curious about the negatives.
I'd love to hear more about this as well. It sounds great but I am curious how they'd deal with college and grad school or work.
@@jamiebaker6516 I deleted my comment because I realised I have no personal experience myself to contribute and probably better for others to google the articles and read for themselves (there's several related to some surveys done by Peter Gray of grown unschoolers as well as youtube has some news interview clips with unschooling families, which show some of the variety of styles).
@@allisongryski8452 damn that's a good way to be. I'm always opining on things I haven't lived with.
There’s a book about unschooling, Free to Learn by Peter Gray. I think he actually has several books but I’ve only read Free to Learn. He’s done research on kids that are unschooled and they have no problems learning things they aren’t interested in or going to college and having successful careers because they have a goal in mind that can only be achieved by jumping through certain hoops. There are several schools, Sudbury Valley being the first and most well known, that are based on unschooling principals. I went to public school, but as an adult, I don’t tend to seek out and learn what I’m not interested in. I focus my energy on things that are interesting to me and things I believe will help me become a better version of myself. My son is only 2, so I have no personal experience in unschooling, but I think it’s fascinating and am interested in learning more about how I can apply aspects of it into my son’s learning as he gets older.
There are actually quite a lot of adults who grew up like this who are very functional and have gone to college and have successful careers. I’m Unschooled, Yes I Can Write is a great resource. I think it is easier for kids who are unschooled and no their own needs and are self-directed to be frustrated with the inefficiency, busywork, institutional nature of school in general. When my eldest child went to community college at 16, that was her experience. She was frustrated by pointless rules the lack of autonomy and the fact that when the lecture was wrong she was not free to disagree. I think a lot of times unschooled kids can see the flaws in the system much earlier than those of us who grew up in institutional schooling, and therefore they aren’t willing to tolerate the inequities and inefficiencies and waste of energy in the system.
My eldest kid has had no problem getting her GED despite never having had a formal science or math or history class and having taken only one creative writing class. My second kid has had no problem taking formal classes and advocating for accommodations for her dyslexia… In fact I think she’s more successful because she doesn’t except things at face value and knows her worth and is not willing to compromise.
I would also argue look at how many kids public school or homeschooling “school of the dining room table “fails utterly and how little it does to equip kids for real life. One of the things I like best about unschooling is it teaches kids to be autodidacts, So that even if they don’t know how something works or they don’t have information they know how to “hack” their education and teach themselves.
I have not seen my teenagers or my friends with now-adult unschooled kids struggle with motivation. It’s more that they struggle with the bs in the system and they question the need for busywork and bureaucracy and the way the system disempowers folks in it. I think that can be something that makes it harder for them to function within the confines of the normal workplace or within a system that expects our educational institutions to turn out “good citizens“ but I think it’s a positive because I personally think the system needs to be dismantled and remade into some thing that is actually functional and actually serves the needs of people in the planet, instead of benefiting a few at the top.
I think it helps to have a big family. I went to a public high school in Seattle where we got credits for taking any classes in the community, we could also ask anyone to teach a class. I’m old enough now to see the results of unschooling in kids of people who are not privileged. These kids didn’t fare well. The parents who were willing to work with the kids to find resources and facilitate socializing did fine.
That’s a really interesting take because so many of my kids friends who are unschooled our only children or only have one sibling. There are many ways that unschooling only one kid is much easier because you can focus so much of your energy undivided. I have noticed a lot of folks who unschool do so after a period where their kid struggled in school. They pulled them out and went through a period Of “de schooling” and that organically evolved into unschooling.
I think what I have seen for bigger families is they tend to do a much more curriculum based “school of the dining room table” method because when you have a bunch of kids and only one mother homeschooling them, copying the institutional method can really make it easier on Mom. But then I don’t really see the point… If the public school model doesn’t work well for your kid, it doesn’t make sense to try and reproduce it at the dining room table. Then you’d just keep them in school if that was a model that met their needs…
My 14 year old is really struggling with school, always has in some way or other. I really am considering pulling her out but do worry about her not being able to get a job later on because she has no formal qualifications.
Love it
Boy your kids are so lucky!
How can unschooling praxis be combined with a problem-posing method that Freire espoused in Pedagogy of the Oppressed?
Um, are there any studies backing up the unschooling approach?
Do you have Steiner schools in the US? To me unschooling philosophy sounds a little like the Rudolf Steiner philosophy.
I’m familiar with Waldorf and we do have those here. They are $$$$ private schools. Waldorf is a lot more regimented, and scripted than unschooling. A lot more rules and a specific culture that is being created. But I have 2 friends who went to Waldorf schools and they say provides so much space for artistic expression.
@@ParkrosePermaculture Ok. They are private in Denmark as well, but cheaper than the average daycare/kindergarden.
My body has a visceral negative response to the rigid structure of traditional school. I got good grades but I honestly hated school. I feel like it kills creativity and teaches you to accept and repeat what you're told. Even though some of the things taught in school aren't even factually correct. (Like Columbus definitely didn't discover America and we've known that for a long time now). There's nothing more infuriating that being asked "what do you think the author was trying to say by xyz.." and then having your answer marked wrong because it wasn't what the teacher was looking for. LOVE the unschool approach.
I don't mind aphids, but nothing is allowed near the Camas lol
It's so true that learning needs diversity. It fascinating to me the most diverse options in public school are often only given to kids when they fail the "norm" vs having open options.I remember learning in elementary school how people learn differently.