it's amazing how confident and articulate these kids are. Very impressive. I believe school programs you from a very young age to compare yourself with other people, and be labelled "smart" or "average" based on that, which is, more often than not, extremely toxic. Watching these happy and positive faces was very refreshing.
As someone who was unschooled (and partly homeschooled), it’s an AMAZING way to get education! I just went to this little art shop in my town, they sold jewelry and prints and artwork, and it was all by one main artist. My mom was lucky enough to meet the lady who owns it, and she was unschooled her entire life! And yet, she runs this cute little shop which actually is very popular in my town, everyone knows about it! So to anyone who thinks that with unschooling you don’t “get an education” or you can’t “get a good job”, well...look at this who owns this shop! And this channel! And these beautiful kids who wanna do what they wanna do. Unschooling is AWESOME!
Great interview highlights! Appreciate the insight of these great young people! My favorite quotes “A lot of the stuff they do teach you isn’t needed later on, a lot of the stuff they don’t teach you is needed” “There’s a fine line between unschooling and unparenting”
I did a bunch of searching today and realized I'm pretty much unschooled... A few days ago I spent like 4 hours building a stick fort thing outside and didn't do much but math that day... Also you're awesome :D great videos!
Thank you! I am watching this as a homeschooling mother and very curious if this isn’t perfect for my children. Time to do what you love and time to be a happy person. I know school makes some happy but when it doesn’t that is a huge chunk out of your life you can’t get back
I remember being a child and learning things at various rates by myself, sometimes faster than other kids sometimes slower, sometimes just needed a push, and over time that was snuffed out. The pressure from my parents to achieve and never pursue my interests and their accusations that I was lazy even when I was doing well made me feel really unmotivated. I was forced to pursue a certain track. I would push myself out of pure fear, never out of passion. The fear of failure is so strong in me that I can't bear being a fledgling novice at anything I might be interested in now. How does that 'prepare one for life'? Good on these kids and their parents for their courage.
Yea I had a similar childhood I’m 24 now I have severe anxiety with a little bit of depression. I have amazing dreams for my future but my fear of failure is always holding me back and every time I talk to my mom about my future all she can see is my lack of drive or motivation. Well how much motivation would you have if all you hear your whole life is you can’t you won’t and your wrong.
I uprated this video when RUclips asked me if this is what I was looking for. Absolutely. It’s so refreshing to hear from the kids themselves about how it’s going instead of from the parents.
Thank you Ben and to those who were willing to participate in your interviews. As a parent this was incredibly helpful. I currently offer some structured learning as well as unstructured or what I refer to as independent study so that I don't freak out other parents. Currently we're naturally struggling with two things - healthy relationships/friendships and procrastination. If you're ever interested in touching on those subjects I would really love to here your experiences and work arounds. Take care and thank you for your hard work in creating really great content.
Both of those things can be a bit hard. Procrastination is a hard thing for anybody, no matter what they're learning. I would say deadlines are always helpful, self imposed or given by someone else. I used to struggled a lot with procrastination, than after a while I managed to move past it, I think it's one of those things that sometimes just takes time. As far as healthy relationships, this changes so much person to person, that it really depends, so I don't know how much of a help I can be. One thing that's certainly helpful for me is talking to people online, it's allowed me to talk to friends whenever I want, similar to how it is for school students. I hope that was helpful!
This seems super ideal but you'd have to be fortunate enough to have really great parents to put in the time, effort, and money :/ great for you lucky ducks though!! You seem like mature souls wise beyond your years and much more self-actualized and fulfilled than if you went to school.
I unschooled myself through high-school while my mom worked full-time. We were working class. She was a great mom, loving, etc, but did not put in any time or money. Young people are naturally curious and self-motivated about things that they actually want to know.
@@Nico5890 damn that's awesome! I guess the world isnt able to see teenagers reach their full potential without being told what to do. Can I ask, how did you go about doing this (finding the resources, planning your curriculum, etc.)? And did you have traditional elementary/middle school?
This is very interesting to me, I'd love to see more if these videos. You should find and interview more unschoolers and make a documentary or something. I bet it would get a lot of attention.
I love this so much, unfortunately I fell into the category that kid was talking about which he called "un-parenting" so I learnt very little. (although going back to traditional Highschool taught me even less haha) but I always stood behind the concept of real unschooling, It's good to have more voices representing it well.
Hey Ben, thanks for this, it's great. My husband was a filmmaker so I know how much work goes into videos. Your work is great and I appreciate your content. Liked and subbed! God bless you.
I think there are different types of Unschooling. Life is not always about a College or University degree and a successful career. For some people it is about happiness. We are unschooling our kids because we don't like what the current system is teaching them and school was stressing them out. But.... we are different than other unschoolers in the way that we are teaching our kids Capital market investing and their jobs will likely be self managed money investing. This creates freedom from the commitments of a regular full time job and all the attached stress. It is a new world now and generating money from elsewhere other than a traditional job is possible and achievable. Everyone has a different path through life, I don't want to follow someone else path; and I don't want them to follow mine.(except for my kids)
storypunman Yes I was just sharing with another person about how my son use to be Homeschooled. He’s 14 years old and in 9th grade. He just started going to regular school and he comes home everyday and tell me about all the other children that are in regular school. He says “ mom a lot of the children are on drugs, popping pills, Committing fornication, they lies, He says mom they don’t know how to make friends, it’s a fight break out every other day. It’s a lot of things going on in regular schools that people don’t know about. At first my son couldn’t wait to go to a regular school But now he knows the difference. He says he really miss being Homeschool. So I would tell any Unschooler or any homeschooled child that they are not missing a thing.
I am sure this is true. I remember enough from my high school days and a lot of that was going on. And I went to a Catholic high school. Some of my friends that went to Public high school couldn't believe what was going on in our Catholic high school.
I just learned about unschooling and I have been researching a lot about it because I'm very interested. I had a deep conversation about it with my dad, and he thinks it's a great idea, but when I try to mention it to my mom she doesn't listen and avoids the question so I don't know if I'll be able to convince her to let me(my dad doesn't live with me)😔. I could ask my father if he could ask her about it, but they're broken up and get in fights easily so I don't really want to deal with that- The thing is my mom is scared about getting in trouble from child services. Though I looked it up and unschooling is 100% legal in Canada, which is where I live. I don't understand why she won't take one second to research something that probably could repair my horrible mindset of learning. Every time I hear the word learn, the first thing that comes up in my mind is being forced to do something uninteresting. Which thats not what learning specifically is. Thats what formal school is for kids that can't seem to be interested in any of the subjects- I just wish she'd at least think about it. Sorry for ranting-
My BIGGEST question is college and how is a high school diploma awarded to unschoolers(who only learned what they wanted, as opposed to required core subjects)...so yeah, how is a diploma awarded, and how do you get into college without showing traditional testing scores and credits from core courses???
In many states, no tests are required to get a diploma. I unschooled: no grades, no GPA, no curriculum. I just filled out a form with the Department of Education that I attended school for the required number of hours, and then my mom printed out a diploma for me at the end of the school year that I made in Microsoft Word. It was 100% legal. To be clear, this is not a "hack" or a "sneaky" way of achieving your diploma. I did tons of self-directed learning in SO MANY subjects and developed SO many skills, traveled the country, read hundreds of books and worked a couple of jobs. It was awesome and I guarantee I learned way more information than my schooled peers did.
Maybe my favorite video you've ever made. You have such awesome video editing skills and I love your interviewing style. Do you think there will be any more of these interviews (maybe Skyped, because you know... pandemic) in your channel's future?
Thank you so much! I definitely think there will be more of these interviews! I'm not quite sure how I'm going to pull them off, but Skype does seem like the best option at the moment!
You could also add parents views of their unschooled children to get a bigger audience. I absolutely love the idea for unschooling for my 2 children. (15 & 5) Thank you for your videos!!
Hi again Ben, I am thinking of doing this for my 3 children. I am wondering what your parent's or parents' work situation is like? For instance, do both work full time outside the home or does one work part-time from home or is a stay at home parent, etc.? Do you feel you had enough direction, guidance and attention from your parents or would you have liked them to be more involved in your education? Also do you think your social situation with friends was good or did you feel lonely and sometimes wish you could go see your friends all day every day like kids in a more traditional school setting do? Do you have any other tips or advice for parents thinking about this? Thank you in advance!
Hello! Thanks for your questions! First of all I’ve always had a parent who was able to stay at home with me. I’ve had a lot of say in my education, so they’ve pretty much been as involved as I’d like. I have at times disliked the social element of unschooling, mostly for a year or two in middle school, but right now and before the pandemic I’ve been doing great on that front! Honestly I’m not a parent, so I don’t know that I feel qualified to give advice, but I’d just say listen to your kids a lot, see what they want, and try to go with that when you can. Best of luck!
Hey Ben, this is awesome, would it be ok if I add Italian subs? We have a lot of people into home and unschooling here but virtually near to zero source of informations, and almost nobody speaks good English unfortunately☺
I went to school but all of my children are unschooled (oldest is 21). I have noticed that unlike my life of making friends with people around me each day because that was what my life was like, rendered a lot of "friends" that I later learned just weren't good friends at all. They were just the people who were available. With my children, on the other hand, being exposed to many different people each day, literally all over the world, the quality of friends they have is vastly different. Their friends are real and true. They aren't friends merely because they are forced to see each other every day. They make time for them and have very intimate relationships. One of my daughters even has this type of relationship with someone in Iran and other countries. It's very different. Having lived both sides, there's honestly no comparison.
I like the point about “un parenting” and “unschooling” very well thought out comment.
it's amazing how confident and articulate these kids are. Very impressive. I believe school programs you from a very young age to compare yourself with other people, and be labelled "smart" or "average" based on that, which is, more often than not, extremely toxic. Watching these happy and positive faces was very refreshing.
As a parent, I can see that he has a foundation for making that statement. Whether it be from observation or personal experience.
As someone who was unschooled (and partly homeschooled), it’s an AMAZING way to get education! I just went to this little art shop in my town, they sold jewelry and prints and artwork, and it was all by one main artist. My mom was lucky enough to meet the lady who owns it, and she was unschooled her entire life! And yet, she runs this cute little shop which actually is very popular in my town, everyone knows about it! So to anyone who thinks that with unschooling you don’t “get an education” or you can’t “get a good job”, well...look at this who owns this shop! And this channel! And these beautiful kids who wanna do what they wanna do. Unschooling is AWESOME!
Great interview highlights! Appreciate the insight of these great young people! My favorite quotes “A lot of the stuff they do teach you isn’t needed later on, a lot of the stuff they don’t teach you is needed” “There’s a fine line between unschooling and unparenting”
I did a bunch of searching today and realized I'm pretty much unschooled... A few days ago I spent like 4 hours building a stick fort thing outside and didn't do much but math that day... Also you're awesome :D great videos!
Thank you! I am watching this as a homeschooling mother and very curious if this isn’t perfect for my children. Time to do what you love and time to be a happy person. I know school makes some happy but when it doesn’t that is a huge chunk out of your life you can’t get back
Wow very true! Homeschooling mom too🤚
I remember being a child and learning things at various rates by myself, sometimes faster than other kids sometimes slower, sometimes just needed a push, and over time that was snuffed out. The pressure from my parents to achieve and never pursue my interests and their accusations that I was lazy even when I was doing well made me feel really unmotivated. I was forced to pursue a certain track. I would push myself out of pure fear, never out of passion. The fear of failure is so strong in me that I can't bear being a fledgling novice at anything I might be interested in now. How does that 'prepare one for life'?
Good on these kids and their parents for their courage.
Yea I had a similar childhood I’m 24 now I have severe anxiety with a little bit of depression. I have amazing dreams for my future but my fear of failure is always holding me back and every time I talk to my mom about my future all she can see is my lack of drive or motivation. Well how much motivation would you have if all you hear your whole life is you can’t you won’t and your wrong.
I uprated this video when RUclips asked me if this is what I was looking for. Absolutely. It’s so refreshing to hear from the kids themselves about how it’s going instead of from the parents.
Thank you Ben and to those who were willing to participate in your interviews. As a parent this was incredibly helpful. I currently offer some structured learning as well as unstructured or what I refer to as independent study so that I don't freak out other parents. Currently we're naturally struggling with two things - healthy relationships/friendships and procrastination. If you're ever interested in touching on those subjects I would really love to here your experiences and work arounds. Take care and thank you for your hard work in creating really great content.
Both of those things can be a bit hard. Procrastination is a hard thing for anybody, no matter what they're learning. I would say deadlines are always helpful, self imposed or given by someone else. I used to struggled a lot with procrastination, than after a while I managed to move past it, I think it's one of those things that sometimes just takes time. As far as healthy relationships, this changes so much person to person, that it really depends, so I don't know how much of a help I can be. One thing that's certainly helpful for me is talking to people online, it's allowed me to talk to friends whenever I want, similar to how it is for school students. I hope that was helpful!
This seems super ideal but you'd have to be fortunate enough to have really great parents to put in the time, effort, and money :/ great for you lucky ducks though!! You seem like mature souls wise beyond your years and much more self-actualized and fulfilled than if you went to school.
I unschooled myself through high-school while my mom worked full-time. We were working class. She was a great mom, loving, etc, but did not put in any time or money. Young people are naturally curious and self-motivated about things that they actually want to know.
@@Nico5890 damn that's awesome! I guess the world isnt able to see teenagers reach their full potential without being told what to do. Can I ask, how did you go about doing this (finding the resources, planning your curriculum, etc.)? And did you have traditional elementary/middle school?
You deserve so much more subscribers. Ur videos are edited amazingly
a bit unrelated but i like the way you edit your videos! it's really pleasing
Thank you!
Great! Loved it!
This is very interesting to me, I'd love to see more if these videos. You should find and interview more unschoolers and make a documentary or something. I bet it would get a lot of attention.
Hmmm... I might be working on something like that right now...
Interesting, if so, please make sure to include some opposing opinions for a more balanced documentary.
It can be your USC application 😅
The algorithms working for you 🤙🏽 great job
Splert Splert Way to go parents ❤️🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽💫🙏
Very awesome to hear all the other perspectives! Thanks!
I love this so much, unfortunately I fell into the category that kid was talking about which he called "un-parenting" so I learnt very little. (although going back to traditional Highschool taught me even less haha) but I always stood behind the concept of real unschooling, It's good to have more voices representing it well.
Thank you for this. Just found your channel and I'm fascinated and impressed both by yourself and the kid's that you interviewed.
Hey, it me, front and center in the thumbnail
Yes it is! Thanks being a interviewed!
@@BenRehrman
I loved your comments!
Hey Ben, thanks for this, it's great. My husband was a filmmaker so I know how much work goes into videos. Your work is great and I appreciate your content. Liked and subbed! God bless you.
My parents would never let me do this tho lmao
I think there are different types of Unschooling. Life is not always about a College or University degree and a successful career. For some people it is about happiness. We are unschooling our kids because we don't like what the current system is teaching them and school was stressing them out. But.... we are different than other unschoolers in the way that we are teaching our kids Capital market investing and their jobs will likely be self managed money investing. This creates freedom from the commitments of a regular full time job and all the attached stress. It is a new world now and generating money from elsewhere other than a traditional job is possible and achievable. Everyone has a different path through life, I don't want to follow someone else path; and I don't want them to follow mine.(except for my kids)
storypunman Way to go Parents!!! ❤️🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙏💫
Thanks, I am here at home with our son now. He is learning at his pace without all the stress of a classroom.
storypunman Yes I was just sharing with another person about how my son use to be Homeschooled. He’s 14 years old and in 9th grade. He just started going to regular school and he comes home everyday and tell me about all the other children that are in regular school. He says “ mom a lot of the children are on drugs, popping pills, Committing fornication, they lies, He says mom they don’t know how to make friends, it’s a fight break out every other day. It’s a lot of things going on in regular schools that people don’t know about. At first my son couldn’t wait to go to a regular school But now he knows the difference. He says he really miss being Homeschool. So I would tell any Unschooler or any homeschooled child that they are not missing a thing.
I am sure this is true. I remember enough from my high school days and a lot of that was going on. And I went to a Catholic high school. Some of my friends that went to Public high school couldn't believe what was going on in our Catholic high school.
Very well done!
Thank you!
I just learned about unschooling and I have been researching a lot about it because I'm very interested. I had a deep conversation about it with my dad, and he thinks it's a great idea, but when I try to mention it to my mom she doesn't listen and avoids the question so I don't know if I'll be able to convince her to let me(my dad doesn't live with me)😔. I could ask my father if he could ask her about it, but they're broken up and get in fights easily so I don't really want to deal with that- The thing is my mom is scared about getting in trouble from child services. Though I looked it up and unschooling is 100% legal in Canada, which is where I live. I don't understand why she won't take one second to research something that probably could repair my horrible mindset of learning. Every time I hear the word learn, the first thing that comes up in my mind is being forced to do something uninteresting. Which thats not what learning specifically is. Thats what formal school is for kids that can't seem to be interested in any of the subjects- I just wish she'd at least think about it. Sorry for ranting-
This is great and all but why has no one come up with "unjobing" 🧐
Well check out the FIRE movement. Lots of eventual un jobbers. Just takes a bit of work first
Thank you for this video, it was great!
i really apreciate the use of Paul Simon in your videos, its not often that i find someone my age who even knows who he is
Thanks! I find that their music is great for videos!
Def keep doing these interview videos👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
My BIGGEST question is college and how is a high school diploma awarded to unschoolers(who only learned what they wanted, as opposed to required core subjects)...so yeah, how is a diploma awarded, and how do you get into college without showing traditional testing scores and credits from core courses???
They probably just get a GED, or not, who knows...
In many states, no tests are required to get a diploma. I unschooled: no grades, no GPA, no curriculum. I just filled out a form with the Department of Education that I attended school for the required number of hours, and then my mom printed out a diploma for me at the end of the school year that I made in Microsoft Word. It was 100% legal.
To be clear, this is not a "hack" or a "sneaky" way of achieving your diploma. I did tons of self-directed learning in SO MANY subjects and developed SO many skills, traveled the country, read hundreds of books and worked a couple of jobs. It was awesome and I guarantee I learned way more information than my schooled peers did.
Good work.
Maybe my favorite video you've ever made. You have such awesome video editing skills and I love your interviewing style. Do you think there will be any more of these interviews (maybe Skyped, because you know... pandemic) in your channel's future?
Thank you so much! I definitely think there will be more of these interviews! I'm not quite sure how I'm going to pull them off, but Skype does seem like the best option at the moment!
You could also add parents views of their unschooled children to get a bigger audience.
I absolutely love the idea for unschooling for my 2 children. (15 & 5) Thank you for your videos!!
Hi again Ben, I am thinking of doing this for my 3 children. I am wondering what your parent's or parents' work situation is like? For instance, do both work full time outside the home or does one work part-time from home or is a stay at home parent, etc.? Do you feel you had enough direction, guidance and attention from your parents or would you have liked them to be more involved in your education? Also do you think your social situation with friends was good or did you feel lonely and sometimes wish you could go see your friends all day every day like kids in a more traditional school setting do? Do you have any other tips or advice for parents thinking about this? Thank you in advance!
Hello! Thanks for your questions! First of all I’ve always had a parent who was able to stay at home with me. I’ve had a lot of say in my education, so they’ve pretty much been as involved as I’d like. I have at times disliked the social element of unschooling, mostly for a year or two in middle school, but right now and before the pandemic I’ve been doing great on that front! Honestly I’m not a parent, so I don’t know that I feel qualified to give advice, but I’d just say listen to your kids a lot, see what they want, and try to go with that when you can. Best of luck!
What if the kids don't want to learn anything? Like my nephews?? It's rediculous! They know nothing!
im the 100th subscriber bro me and my bro starting unschool yo
Cool! Good luck with your unschooling this year!
Hey... I loved this. How interesting. Great job.
Thanks!
Where are events like this in Pennsylvania
Have you considered interviewing the parents?
Hey Ben, this is awesome, would it be ok if I add Italian subs? We have a lot of people into home and unschooling here but virtually near to zero source of informations, and almost nobody speaks good English unfortunately☺
That would be awesome! I believe I have now turned on the ability for my community to add subtitles. Thank you!
@@BenRehrman cool! I'll let you know as soon as I've done! Take care
One benefit of public school- Friends
I went to school but all of my children are unschooled (oldest is 21). I have noticed that unlike my life of making friends with people around me each day because that was what my life was like, rendered a lot of "friends" that I later learned just weren't good friends at all. They were just the people who were available. With my children, on the other hand, being exposed to many different people each day, literally all over the world, the quality of friends they have is vastly different. Their friends are real and true. They aren't friends merely because they are forced to see each other every day. They make time for them and have very intimate relationships. One of my daughters even has this type of relationship with someone in Iran and other countries. It's very different. Having lived both sides, there's honestly no comparison.
Good point, did your kids meet all of their friends online or through extracurriculars?
@@benmyers8476 the one in Iran online, others at extracurricular activities, coops, stores, libraries, church and other places we frequent.
Yeah I don’t have any
Lol 😂 unschooling and unparenting 😂 😂 😂
I was expecting a female voice.
Why you all gotta be the weirdest kids though.
Because self-expression? Why all public school kids gotta be the exact same tho
@@Snellyfish that's some shit a nerd would say
Maybe you're the weird one. You definitely sound cruel and therefore insecure, so there's that.
You call it weird, we call it free.
The "weird kids" will be the ones making positive changes in our world one day.