My son also quit school in order to unschool, and he has chosen to not keep up any academic work, and yet he is learning everything he needs - and so much more.
I homeschooled my children, which is not the same as unschooling, but a lot closer to it than traditional teaching/schooling, and I like a lot of what Sierra says. I think there are a few things I would want everyone to learn in order not to be hoodwinked in life-- Ponzi schemes, what fiat money is, what's illegal in your area, and a civics course for your country, so you know what your rights are.
We started homeschooling in September of 2021, we didn't have a lot of materials to use, but have gotten by with what we did have...my oldest son was unable to read, he was 12 at the time. The school literally just kept passing him along. I found out the day after I pulled my children out, that my son (he was in iep classes, I signed paperwork every year since 2017) didn't have an iep teacher for 2 years. I was infuriated (especially since I was never told). He reads now and has found a new love of reading! My youngest son (7) I was told, didn't know acb's, 1-100 or letter sounds. Our first day of homeschooling, I sat him down and he indeed wrote 1-100, abc's and sounded out letter sounds. We started unschooling in December, mainly bc I didn't have enough materials, but I also wanted to see how well they could do without the materials. My youngest son spells words by sounding out the letters of each word! Talk about a true proud mommy moment! ❤ No money in this world could ever make me change my mind on pulling my babies out! It's honestly the best thing, I think, that I could've ever done for them!
@@Muhluri they are doing great! They have baking/cooking/canning and even helping build things! I love it mainly bc they don't realize that they are in fact learning lol! I told them that even adults learn new things all the time, which I think in turn, helped them see that learning is still for everyone, just you can do it in different ways!
@brittanyyates7114 those skills are SO MUCH more valuable than some of the unusable garbage they teach in schools. You're a great mom! Keep moving forward. God bless you and your family❤
I went to traditional public school AND university, but everything I actually enjoy doing and feel like I’m good at I learned as an adult on my own time, post-school. If anything, my schooling really zapped me of my energy and I had no passion or drive to learn anything or dream about the future.
I have two boys 17 and 14. Took them out when they were 7 and 10. I really tried the traditional homeschooling, but it turned out to not be a good fit for us and we fell into an unschooling rhythm. My youngest really struggled with reading, but without doing phonics, we just read to him each day. He would also listen to audio and read along. He now reads well above his grade level even though he still has trouble spelling. The hardest part about unschooling is the constant doubt we parents may have because it seems like we’re doing something crazy. People will question if what you’re doing is legal or even ethical. I think it is good to be part of a supportive unschooling community and write down why you are doing it, so you can remind yourself when you feel like you’re failing your children. Also, take a good look at your children and see how they love what they learn.
My daughter did the same thing. She is now a vibrant, healthy and self reliant teen now. I would love for you to interview her. She has some great insight and would be great for the interview!
Great interview! We have started such un "unschooling learning center" in Sibiu, Romania just months ago. It is very hard to find people who are ready for this leap of trust, but we are determined to grow even despite the pandemic. Would be great to keep in touch and encourage each orher.
Public school is garbage. I pulled my elementary aged kids out a little over a year ago to homeschool. We dont unschool but i totally understand the philosophy and i think if it works for your family i support it. I wish many more people were educated on what homeschool ACTUALLY is (everyone has some weird idea of it, most of which is untrue), and educate themselves on what unschooling is. It can definitely work! Happy to hear she had a great experience! ❤
To be honest the entire school system is antiquated and needs a total and complete rehaul. If schools really wanted to provide a quality education they would think outside the box and work with homeschoolers and unschoolers. The school system might learn something new. :)
Amazing interview, thank you. I have tried homeschooling for my kids on 3 different occasions and failed and went back to public but it's so wrong, I just learn about unschooling and now I'm so excited about it so ready to dive in.
Don’t “dive in” too deep, because you set yourself up for failure. I homeschooled my son in grade 2, he went back for 3 and 4, but has been home since a few months into grade 5. I always feel like I’m failing, yet he’s doing okay. Returning to school isn’t an option unless we move, so that’s what keeps us home, and I do need to push some things on him like handwriting, etc. Just engage, and keep checking in, you’ll see that they really are learning so much.
@@Tamara-id1pe it’s only failing under the ideology that he “should be” at a certain level. Let hi. Follow what he’s passionate about and try not to feel pressured by the system at where he should be at. He’s right where he’s meant to be try to let the pressure out.
It seems like most cultures around the world are unschooling. Kids live life with their families and learn how they want to contribute to the community! 💖
@@Punkrock.Chrysalis Oh gosh I wish I could take this beautiful advice but its so hard!!! I'm constantly feeling like I'm causing my kids to be "behind" the standards set by the schools. First it was reading and I relaxed a bit but now its writing. Its crazy what they're expecting young children to be able to do in this area! I guess the main fear is how others look at ME. I'm the failure homeschool mom who is setting my children up for failure while all of these school children are so advanced. I frequently tell myself that 60 percent of public school kids are behind grade level anyway so why am I stressing. But its still so hard!!!
@@realityobserver7521 I totally understand. I’d focus more attention inwards. INNERstand what you need to know you will intuitively flow that direction if you allow yourself. Allow less opinions and commentary for now until you gain some more confidence. If someone feels the need to share an opinion politely remind them that unsolicited advice is not only unwelcome but lay boundaries that if they can’t control themselves you’ll have to stop talking so openly to them. I’m open but I have boundaries and my kid is all that matter especially compared to peoples opinions
Okay so I'm 16, I heard about unschooling about 3 years ago, I've wanted to do it but I know my parents wouldn't ever let me There are so many things I want to learn but I just don't have the energy after 8 hours of school every day, stuff that I pick up a day or two in that takes the rest of the class a week or two
Great interview by the way! Fabulous to see Sierra in action! And thank you for mentioning our podcast 😊 I founded one of those "micro schools" in Mexico five years ago. It's an Agile Learning Center called Explora, and it's been an amazing experience!
Wow! My fave things she said were that learning is about forming relationships and thinking about what's helpful for the planet. There is the universal divine essence of life. Thank you, great interview! 💖💖💖
I unschool my kids pulled them out of school. I didn't know I was unschooing until recently. I knew I wasn't gonna use a curriculum because I knew it wouldn't work for them. I studied them watched their learning style, gifts, interest. I do plan somethings but if I see it's not working I drop it. Math learning playing board games, card games, games I made up myself. Reading family style Reading trips to library letting them pick out books of their interests. Out doors real life experiences is a must. I'm so glad I pull them out. I asked them do they want to go back they say no.
It seems like most cultures around the world are unschooling. Kids live life with their families and learn how they want to contribute to the community! 💖
Great interview! So many awesome self directed learning communities out there in the world..... Check them out! My kids have been a part of one and have self directed their learning pretty much all of their lives. My teenager chose (of her own free will) to take honors level classes at our high school this year despite no forced "formal schooling" since 2nd grade ....and she's had no issues adjusting to the work load. Sierra is so right on, and the world needs more people that think the way she does! Learning is so much bigger than schooling. Unfortunately, we have somehow limited ourselves into thinking that we need to be formally taught in order to learn. If the ideas in this video are challenging to anyone, I encourage you to look back at your life since you stopped formal schooling. Have you continued to learn? Have you grown professionally, interpersonally, emotionally? How did you do this without being told when and how to do it? What if you want to learn something right now? For example a second language or an instrument or a new program on a computer...... How would you do it? That's self-directed learning. If you want to learn something, you figure out the best way to get there. This could involve formal schooling, or it may not. But when you're intrinsically motivated to learn something you learn it much faster and better than when it's forced on you. This idea is well supported in the research on learning. The fact is, learning is completely natural and it's happening all the time. Humans are born wanting to learn and fit into the culture in which they are raised. I hope one day we can break out of the rigid way that our society views education and learning......and when/if we do I believe we'll be happier, more innovative, and more balanced as individuals and as a society. Thanks for all of your awesome videos!
@CeeThecatmom Good for you! I wish more parent's would stand up for their children by taking them out of what if happened to anyone else, we'd call slavery.
@CeeThecatmom Hi, I typed a very long comment, split into multiple parts, I hope it's helpful to you and your daughter, the first part is talking about how schooling is slavery, then I give some recs on this topic, regarding it's history and stuff, in the slavery part I keep saying "you should ask them this" and doing it in a conversation form, I don't actually recommend you do this (I certainly don't advise against it though) it just flew out of me and felt wrong to alter it, talking to people sadly is often a waste of time as people's REAL reasons for supporting what they do are things they hide even from themselves, sorry about the length, I totally understand if you don't read it all, that's fine but I'd love to help as much as possible. How would they like someone forcing them into work where they have to ask permission for basic human rights like speaking and using the bathroom? Under constant threats to do the work plus preform well and they don't get payed a dime and then the unpaid work follows them home so loses their free time too? and they can't quit because it's illegal for them to leave and not do it? isn't forcing this on someone breaking the famed moral golden rule of morality? "treat other's how you'd like to be treated/don't do unto other's what's hateful when done unto you"? so why force it on only the most important person in the world to you? and the one you're responsible for the mental health of? isn't that the one it makes the least sense out of everyone to do it too? Ask them when they believe slavery was abolished if they say "1800's" or "hundreds of years ago" or something like that, ask them why they don't consider every human on the planet being forced to work full time for no pay under threat of being beaten with large wooden boards (paddles were invented for slaves because whips caused permanent tissue damage) the same weapons used on slaves for underperforming in their unpaid work slavery? If they say "That doesn't happen anymore", say you never said it does but if that is slavery and was happening in the 20th century then why don't they say it was abolished then when that was banned? It's a trick question, because 19 states still beat children and often for MUCH dumber reasons than adult slaves were beaten (frequently hypocritical ones too) with those weapons, you can find the stats, also entire countries still do it often, some use boards with holes in them modified to make it even more painful, some use sticks and it used to be school policy back in the day to beat them all over their bodies with the large boards not just their butts, the buttocks didn't even become "recommended by law" until the 1950's, if this was being done to any other group, I guarantee you they'd say that was slavery, millions of children are still treated like that every day. Also being beaten isn't a requirement to qualify as a slave anyway, if a slave master in the past didn't beat his slaves and was kind to them, would we not still call them slaves? If they say they get an "education" and that is payment, slaves learned how to cook food, brush and feed the horses, pick cotton, grow vegetables, read and write so their master could have letter's which arrive read out to him, build structures like barns and chapels and took bible studies (could be compared to religion class, only you actually do learn) maintain farms and plantations not to mention anything and everything picked up in conversation listening to the dinner guests from more privileged backgrounds discussing everything from religion to politics, history, law and their personal lives. We still would call them slaves and that's much, much, much, much more than I learned in High school (or my entirety of schooling) plus the "customer feedback" from schools (which is frequently atrocious) has millions and millions of people asserting the same, why ignore the feedback from those we say we serve? imagine a hospital ignoring such concerning mental health reports? or a business from it's employees or any institution of any kind at all, we'd say how rude and careless even cruel.
@CeeThecatmom Part 2 - If you permit your son/daughter to go into a dangerous environment, they call you a "neglectful parent" if you force them into one they call you a "good parent" as long as doing so has been culturally normalised because culturally normalising something, "socialisation" removes any limit as to how bad that thing can be whilst keeping people from seeing it, Nazism, public executions for petty crimes, various bigotries and heinous practises have all taken advantage of the "normalisation" effect to make people ok with all of those too in the millions. If you tried to argue against any of those in the environments they were normalised in you'd be found with endless excuses, distractions and personal attack but never a direct non bs answer as to how it is not "doing unto other's what's hateful when done unto you" it's the same thing happening here, how could something so common and pervasive not be normalised by now? and thus taken advantage of this effect. Even if someone doesn't concede it's slavery, ask them if slavery is evil? if they say yes then ask them why are they having their children around something which at least resembles something evil? and if they say it doesn't even resemble slavery at all reiterate my paragraphs above, to say it doesn't even resemble it at all is mad, inhumane treatment is NOT a requirement to qualify anyway cause they'll find the worst thing ever from the old days and assert that is slavery to try and make school seem like it isn't but this is not the definition they actually subscribe too because they 100% would consider a humanely treated, educated slave in the past a slave so if that qualifies why don't the children who are inhumanely treated and not getting anywhere near as much education. If they say someone needs to profit from your work for you to qualify as a slave then ask if the plantations back in the day had days they didn't profit, were they not slaves those days? and how do teachers not profit from it when they're being paid to give it? compulsory schooling is provided them a living just as slaves back in the day provided it for their masters, many teachers, administrators profit financially do profit from the system, while the students frequently don't and give negative feedback regarding effectiveness and mental health and safety issues which all get ignored, if women treated like this for being women "misogyny" in that case this is "misopedia". There is also a presence of many alternatives, my favourite being "unschooling" which is a movement in some places (like Australia and UK) which has instead of negative customer feedback and reports of misery, it's got positive feedback and high levels of happiness, they get an education and don't suffer whilst doing so. You can read all about it on a blog called "happiness is here" very good blog. There's also books about it and "Peter Gray" has been trying to abolish compulsory schooling for years because it has been shown to be the cause of many, many issues in society (it sets off ripples) and massive damage not traced back to it, I've noticed a lot myself he doesn't even cover so remember even his list is woefully incomplete and actually understating it. There's a RUclips channel called "End School Slavery" there's a website called "SuperMemoGuru" if you type that in plus end school slavery it should bring up the site, it lists many categories in one of it's pages - Learning Creativity Memory etc, etc, they have links to pages citing studies and evidence into how every single one of the brain functions listed actually work's and then there's another category called "Education" which has a bunch of stuff showing how school is the extreme opposite and antithetical to what Science shows us is the truth (and honestly common sense). There's also a concerning category called "health" with many articles under it, one example is one showing how stress destroys children's brains (these are the adults you're interacting with, ALL of us our kids of older ages) and how horrid it is for mental health, memory retention, physical health, warding off diseases throughout life etc, The thing is if you look into the modern schooling system, it's the "Prussian" system and the creators of it explicitly stated they wanted to create obedient factory worker's, who accept crappy pay for menial tedious work and accept working overtime (where homework comes from) this was during the industrial revolution, it (like everything else) was NOT done with our education or mental health in mind it was done with money in mind, profit for them, then other nations of people in power thought it'd help make them richer and borrowed it, children/everyone from 1860's onward (meaning of course, you and me and our relatives, friends etc, everyone to come along after) was of NO concern to them, only their bank accounts were, which is why when you're at school it feels like you're serving it, not it's serving you, that is the case. The real curriculum these schools were designed to teach it's actually *very* good at teaching (unlike the fake one) and it's the reason why you meet so much push back. You can find more about this real curriculum of compulsory schooling in "Against Education: For the Abolition of School" subtitled - "The only thing wrong with education is that you don't learn anything. Except obedience, systematic abuse, monotony, and of course the necessity of more education" That last part "the necessity of more education" look how well it taught that! school is actually very effective at teaching it's actual curriculum look how insistent the ones you encounter are about that. Only the most mentally strong can see (or admit) this to themselves but problem is school makes everybody mentally weak. Anyway I hope you find everything I cited in this comment, that "Against Education" thing is a PDF you can find on google and it, plus the RUclips channel and other site I mentioned go into so much more detail there's a particular article on "SuperMemoGuru" which is so good, I wish I could find it and show you, it's genuinely depressing to read even really scary because of how much it shows the global damage this obedient factory worker model has done to the world and how it's hidden and how parent's are actually to blame because they keep passing this on every generation mindlessly whilst there is ton's of stuff in science which has arisen since the 1800's conception of it to show how damaging it is and how we actually have an innate "drive" to learn which it impedes on and destroys, this innate drive is something you see in little kids and it ensures you will get (an actual) education, people could also read and write for thousands of years before this schooling system came into place and they had to maintain these abilities and pass them onto the next generation for thousands of years that is MUCH longer than this Prussian schooling system has maintained it, literacy also grew so much because human population grew a lot plus we developed greater means of communication to spread it.
@CeeThecatmom Yes exactly and any effort to paint it as anything else is due to cognitive dissonance nobody wants to own up to being complacent with (or supporting) such a thing so they pretend it isn't, they also don't want to cope with the idea people who were supposed to protect and nourish them would permit or help enforce this, this exact same effect can be seen when trying to convince people their parent's assaulted them/domestic violence, they don't want to admit it for the same reasons, guilt/conscience concerns and normalisation. I'd also forget the "definition game" and focus on the effect being in such a place is likely to have on someone regardless of what banner/label you put under it, after all if you and I decided it was NOT slavery and decided to call it another term entirely, would it now be any better? Does a rose by any other name not smell just as sweet? point is changing terms **only** changes perception, not the nature of the thing or it's effects, that's also worth keeping in mind because people substitute labels for other labels all the time to manipulate their own perceptions of the thing, marketer's have done it when customer's had harmful reactions to their product but removing the harm would reduce profit so they "changed the packaging not the product" they dropped the "master" title from schoolteachers (used to be what they were all called) because student's being beaten by their "master" for underperforming in their forced, unpaid full time job with the same instruments adult slaves were was too on the nose I guess so they changed it from a - "Master/headmaster" beating children for underperforming in their forced, unpaid full time job with the same instruments adult slaves were beaten." to "Teacher/headteacher" beating children for underperforming in their forced, unpaid full time job with the same instruments adult slaves were beaten." And called it a day! "change the label and you change people's perception" the thing itself still remains just as painful just like the rose remains just as sweet, corporations do this a lot so do people and it's manipulative and dodgy. I prefer to call it "child slavery" it has more punch, is more accurate because it hasn't just went on in the "modern day" but is by now a couple of hundred years old and this allows us to see the scope of it and how entrenched it is, it also reminds us it's "fu**king children!" we're putting through this cruel institution, we also hold them to a higher standard of behaviour than adults (try telling a room full of them to face the front and be quiet or don't accidently swear under threat of being hurt). We expect a underdeveloped brain to have more self control than a fully developed one and insist the possessor isn't responsible for their actions but then we punish them for those actions? we expect children to behave more responsibly than adults and give novices and beginner's less patience in a lot of ways than experienced people who've learned cultural customs, imagine a pianist taking lessons and when someone who's never played before or is only beginning messes up and hits the wrong key they get yelled at, hit or some other plenty like their valuables are taken but when the experienced player who's been doing it years, knows all the what to do and what not to do and who's said to be fully responsible for mistakes (unlike the beginner) does the same they get forgiven? it's totally backwards and school is filled to the brim with that attitude and lot's of hypocrisy and rules back when adults were slaves they likely didn't even have to put up with for example - There's a "zero tolerance policy" which has actually gotten support and been implemented in countless schools which not only says it's ok for teacher's to hurt children who're being beaten up/bullied for it but actually states they have to do it as part of school policy. I am referring to the rule that when a physical altercation happens between student's it doesn't matter who started it, if it was self defence or even if the victim didn't hit back at all because all altercations are classed as "fights" and punished severely, imagine some cruel people hurting your daughter and then the teachers coming over and hurting your daughter by punishing her for it, in addition the guilty ones? Worse still I attended a school in Europe which had this policy so shows it's not a USA thing just but common in multiple countries/districts of countries. Now can you imagine when adult's were slaves, all slave owner's would be that stupid or even cruel? some of them would think it was unfair, you know when a slave owner is recognising you as unjust, you've seriously went off the deep end, I remember my teacher (this was only a little over a decade ago, I am young) saying if we defended ourselves from a bully or avoided them hurting us even by blocking it'd be classed as a fight and we would be punished just as bad as they are, some student's told her how horrible that is and asked her concise, irrefutably, logical questions and she just sat their in silence and ignored them not even answering, repeated herself later on and refused to engage us on it because of this "what would a kid know attitude" which is the height of misopedia and bigotry. We spoke the **truth**.
@CeeThecatmom You're a strong person! those who can take criticism's from all sides and keep going because they *know* they're right are much more valuable to change (and humanity) than those who just repeat what was done before and expect change to come. Albert Einstein famously said - "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." People do this with children. All. The. Time. In homes in a large variety of ways and in school too. That means every last one of us, is being born into a system which practises "insanity" in the hopes we can improve things without changing them.
This is the first schooling video I’ve seen that I am in complete and total agreement with. Simply put, there is a best way to learn everything and that is never the way it is taught in school. For instance languages are best learned by total immersion, but only the Defense Language Institute in Monterey do that, except possibly for Peace Corps TEFL training for conventionally trained teachers. Then also, the best way to learn history is by reading history books written for the educated public by professional writers, and not those poorly written slim little paperbacks written by college professors. I also like the library model of schooling as indeed, the brightest students at my high school could always be found haunting the stacks at the public library across the parking lot.
The hardest part about unschooling is the state and public's opinions about it. It would be nice if you could legally raise your own children and family the way you want to in this country without persecution.
So, basically this is another story of someone who comes from a place of privilege (parents own a business) and a majority of her “success” derives from her ability to generate wealth through said business until the point where she has abilities enough to open her own business promoting the idea that there is no need for formal schooling. Does anyone else see the circular argument to her acclaimed “success”? Until I see an unschooler able to translate their abilities outside the traditional expectations and achieve positions that require formal education then I will accept this path as a meritorious pathway. Until such time, it holds little credence for the general masses (albeit accepting the various flaws that currently reside within traditional educational systems).
Some of our presidents didn't go to school or learn reading and writing until age 12. Many early presidents wouldn't have attended schools until 12 or older and like Lincoln no real formal education at all except maybe a year and taught himself to be a lawyer. This was very normal, and to have the privilege of school at 12 would have been a big deal.
I didn’t hate everything about school but I really struggled both socially and academically. (I did enjoy classes in foreign language, English, and the arts. Depending on the teacher I enjoyed science, math and geography. I disliked history until I reached the college level. However even for classes I enjoyed my grades rarely reflected that. I was a C student generally.) I think it is wrong to force every youth through a system that doesn’t work for every student. I have always been intensely curious about many subjects and i take an unschooling mindset as an adult: formulating my own questions and researching the question on my own. I was given a liberal arts college preperatory education aka a “good education”. There was a lot of talk of teaching “critical thinking” and “learning how to learn”. I do think I learned a lot but there was more emphasis placed on facts and figures than on the critical parts of how to live a balanced adult life: how to choose the right partner, rhow to choose the right career path, how to manage your finances, how much time to spend on your passions versus time spent chasing money, relationship skills, and how to cope with setbacks. I have a feeling unschoolers must face these problems much sooner than traditional schoolers and the major advantage of unschooling is giving youth the opportunity to start working, earning and managing their time and money at a much younger age (since they are not in school) or give them the time to fully delve into projects of their own design. You are never truly able to achieve “flow” in school since every time you start to understand a concept, the bell rings and you are shuffled off to the next classroom/the next lesson. It is actually counterintuitive to learning. I have a lot of issues with the school system but the reality is is that most parents need to work and have no other choice than to send their child to school.
That’s great except her attachment to freedom without having to sacrifice for it by learning to be disciplined and reliable means she is unprepared for any work other than freelancing
I keep trying to post the link but it keeps getting deleted. At least it looks like it. If you just Google EDIT education in transformation you can go to their website. There's a bunch of videos on there but you can also scroll to the bottom and click on the RUclips link
I started homeschooling my 6th grader in November. What I’m having a hard time with is for our state she’s required to do 600 hrs of core work. How do I unschool and track those hours??
10:34 it's Bad, FULL STOP. Having a singular method of teaching stupid when you consider that some kids learn faster while others need a little more help
My son also quit school in order to unschool, and he has chosen to not keep up any academic work, and yet he is learning everything he needs - and so much more.
Kids are born curious! people are killing their sense of discovery
How old is he?
How is he doing now?
I homeschooled my children, which is not the same as unschooling, but a lot closer to it than traditional teaching/schooling, and I like a lot of what Sierra says. I think there are a few things I would want everyone to learn in order not to be hoodwinked in life-- Ponzi schemes, what fiat money is, what's illegal in your area, and a civics course for your country, so you know what your rights are.
We started homeschooling in September of 2021, we didn't have a lot of materials to use, but have gotten by with what we did have...my oldest son was unable to read, he was 12 at the time. The school literally just kept passing him along. I found out the day after I pulled my children out, that my son (he was in iep classes, I signed paperwork every year since 2017) didn't have an iep teacher for 2 years. I was infuriated (especially since I was never told). He reads now and has found a new love of reading! My youngest son (7) I was told, didn't know acb's, 1-100 or letter sounds. Our first day of homeschooling, I sat him down and he indeed wrote 1-100, abc's and sounded out letter sounds. We started unschooling in December, mainly bc I didn't have enough materials, but I also wanted to see how well they could do without the materials. My youngest son spells words by sounding out the letters of each word! Talk about a true proud mommy moment! ❤ No money in this world could ever make me change my mind on pulling my babies out! It's honestly the best thing, I think, that I could've ever done for them!
How are they doing now?
@@Muhluri they are doing great! They have baking/cooking/canning and even helping build things! I love it mainly bc they don't realize that they are in fact learning lol! I told them that even adults learn new things all the time, which I think in turn, helped them see that learning is still for everyone, just you can do it in different ways!
thank s angels you saved them
@brittanyyates7114 those skills are SO MUCH more valuable than some of the unusable garbage they teach in schools. You're a great mom! Keep moving forward. God bless you and your family❤
Sure, but you are actually homeschooling and taking care of them which is very beneficial to kids with ieps! But it’s not the same as unschooling
I went to traditional public school AND university, but everything I actually enjoy doing and feel like I’m good at I learned as an adult on my own time, post-school. If anything, my schooling really zapped me of my energy and I had no passion or drive to learn anything or dream about the future.
I have two boys 17 and 14. Took them out when they were 7 and 10. I really tried the traditional homeschooling, but it turned out to not be a good fit for us and we fell into an unschooling rhythm. My youngest really struggled with reading, but without doing phonics, we just read to him each day. He would also listen to audio and read along. He now reads well above his grade level even though he still has trouble spelling. The hardest part about unschooling is the constant doubt we parents may have because it seems like we’re doing something crazy. People will question if what you’re doing is legal or even ethical. I think it is good to be part of a supportive unschooling community and write down why you are doing it, so you can remind yourself when you feel like you’re failing your children. Also, take a good look at your children and see how they love what they learn.
She's radiant!
My daughter did the same thing. She is now a vibrant, healthy and self reliant teen now. I would love for you to interview her. She has some great insight and would be great for the interview!
I was unschooled my entire k-12 and now I do the same with my son. Great interview!
You mean homeschooled?
Great interview! We have started such un "unschooling learning center" in Sibiu, Romania just months ago. It is very hard to find people who are ready for this leap of trust, but we are determined to grow even despite the pandemic. Would be great to keep in touch and encourage each orher.
I am from Romania and interested on connect with you, could we please talk?
Salut! Sunt din Romania and I'm interested! Could you send over a link to your learning center? Thanks!
Yes just starting to read can happen. Some countries don't teach reading until 7 years old
Public school is garbage. I pulled my elementary aged kids out a little over a year ago to homeschool. We dont unschool but i totally understand the philosophy and i think if it works for your family i support it. I wish many more people were educated on what homeschool ACTUALLY is (everyone has some weird idea of it, most of which is untrue), and educate themselves on what unschooling is. It can definitely work! Happy to hear she had a great experience! ❤
To be honest the entire school system is antiquated and needs a total and complete rehaul.
If schools really wanted to provide a quality education they would think outside the box and work with homeschoolers and unschoolers. The school system might learn something new. :)
Amazing interview, thank you. I have tried homeschooling for my kids on 3 different occasions and failed and went back to public but it's so wrong, I just learn about unschooling and now I'm so excited about it so ready to dive in.
Don’t “dive in” too deep, because you set yourself up for failure. I homeschooled my son in grade 2, he went back for 3 and 4, but has been home since a few months into grade 5. I always feel like I’m failing, yet he’s doing okay. Returning to school isn’t an option unless we move, so that’s what keeps us home, and I do need to push some things on him like handwriting, etc. Just engage, and keep checking in, you’ll see that they really are learning so much.
@@Tamara-id1pe it’s only failing under the ideology that he “should be” at a certain level. Let hi. Follow what he’s passionate about and try not to feel pressured by the system at where he should be at. He’s right where he’s meant to be try to let the pressure out.
It seems like most cultures around the world are unschooling. Kids live life with their families and learn how they want to contribute to the community! 💖
@@Punkrock.Chrysalis Oh gosh I wish I could take this beautiful advice but its so hard!!! I'm constantly feeling like I'm causing my kids to be "behind" the standards set by the schools. First it was reading and I relaxed a bit but now its writing. Its crazy what they're expecting young children to be able to do in this area! I guess the main fear is how others look at ME. I'm the failure homeschool mom who is setting my children up for failure while all of these school children are so advanced. I frequently tell myself that 60 percent of public school kids are behind grade level anyway so why am I stressing. But its still so hard!!!
@@realityobserver7521 I totally understand. I’d focus more attention inwards. INNERstand what you need to know you will intuitively flow that direction if you allow yourself. Allow less opinions and commentary for now until you gain some more confidence. If someone feels the need to share an opinion politely remind them that unsolicited advice is not only unwelcome but lay boundaries that if they can’t control themselves you’ll have to stop talking so openly to them. I’m open but I have boundaries and my kid is all that matter especially compared to peoples opinions
Okay so I'm 16, I heard about unschooling about 3 years ago, I've wanted to do it but I know my parents wouldn't ever let me
There are so many things I want to learn but I just don't have the energy after 8 hours of school every day, stuff that I pick up a day or two in that takes the rest of the class a week or two
So she just didnt go to any school? None at all after elementary? Just learned on her own by herself? Wow
Great interview by the way! Fabulous to see Sierra in action! And thank you for mentioning our podcast 😊 I founded one of those "micro schools" in Mexico five years ago. It's an Agile Learning Center called Explora, and it's been an amazing experience!
Wow! My fave things she said were that learning is about forming relationships and thinking about what's helpful for the planet. There is the universal divine essence of life. Thank you, great interview! 💖💖💖
This was such an incredible interview - Andrew really understands the tenets of unschooling and conveys them super eloquently. Well done 👏🏼
11 years of homeschooling since 2006 should have been me and my brothers passion
I unschool my kids pulled them out of school. I didn't know I was unschooing until recently. I knew I wasn't gonna use a curriculum because I knew it wouldn't work for them. I studied them watched their learning style, gifts, interest. I do plan somethings but if I see it's not working I drop it. Math learning playing board games, card games, games I made up myself. Reading family style Reading trips to library letting them pick out books of their interests. Out doors real life experiences is a must. I'm so glad I pull them out. I asked them do they want to go back they say no.
It seems like most cultures around the world are unschooling. Kids live life with their families and learn how they want to contribute to the community! 💖
Wonderful interview. So much love to you soul sister ❤ unschooler mom of 2
This was very interesting. New ways of thinking I hadn't considered.
Great interview! So many awesome self directed learning communities out there in the world..... Check them out! My kids have been a part of one and have self directed their learning pretty much all of their lives. My teenager chose (of her own free will) to take honors level classes at our high school this year despite no forced "formal schooling" since 2nd grade ....and she's had no issues adjusting to the work load. Sierra is so right on, and the world needs more people that think the way she does!
Learning is so much bigger than schooling. Unfortunately, we have somehow limited ourselves into thinking that we need to be formally taught in order to learn. If the ideas in this video are challenging to anyone, I encourage you to look back at your life since you stopped formal schooling. Have you continued to learn? Have you grown professionally, interpersonally, emotionally? How did you do this without being told when and how to do it? What if you want to learn something right now? For example a second language or an instrument or a new program on a computer...... How would you do it? That's self-directed learning. If you want to learn something, you figure out the best way to get there. This could involve formal schooling, or it may not. But when you're intrinsically motivated to learn something you learn it much faster and better than when it's forced on you. This idea is well supported in the research on learning.
The fact is, learning is completely natural and it's happening all the time. Humans are born wanting to learn and fit into the culture in which they are raised.
I hope one day we can break out of the rigid way that our society views education and learning......and when/if we do I believe we'll be happier, more innovative, and more balanced as individuals and as a society.
Thanks for all of your awesome videos!
4:19 yes, this makes sense because kids are already surrounded by words and language from everywhere and they catch on no problem.
Beautiful interview, thanks Andrew
school system is so corrupt, no one should ever have to go
@CeeThecatmom Good for you! I wish more parent's would stand up for their children by taking them out of what if happened to anyone else, we'd call slavery.
@CeeThecatmom Hi, I typed a very long comment, split into multiple parts, I hope it's helpful to you and your daughter, the first part is talking about how schooling is slavery, then I give some recs on this topic, regarding it's history and stuff, in the slavery part I keep saying "you should ask them this" and doing it in a conversation form, I don't actually recommend you do this (I certainly don't advise against it though) it just flew out of me and felt wrong to alter it, talking to people sadly is often a waste of time as people's REAL reasons for supporting what they do are things they hide even from themselves, sorry about the length, I totally understand if you don't read it all, that's fine but I'd love to help as much as possible.
How would they like someone forcing them into work where they have to ask permission for basic human rights like speaking and using the bathroom? Under constant threats to do the work plus preform well and they don't get payed a dime and then the unpaid work follows them home so loses their free time too? and they can't quit because it's illegal for them to leave and not do it? isn't forcing this on someone breaking the famed moral golden rule of morality? "treat other's how you'd like to be treated/don't do unto other's what's hateful when done unto you"? so why force it on only the most important person in the world to you? and the one you're responsible for the mental health of? isn't that the one it makes the least sense out of everyone to do it too?
Ask them when they believe slavery was abolished if they say "1800's" or "hundreds of years ago" or something like that, ask them why they don't consider every human on the planet being forced to work full time for no pay under threat of being beaten with large wooden boards (paddles were invented for slaves because whips caused permanent tissue damage) the same weapons used on slaves for underperforming in their unpaid work slavery?
If they say "That doesn't happen anymore", say you never said it does but if that is slavery and was happening in the 20th century then why don't they say it was abolished then when that was banned?
It's a trick question, because 19 states still beat children and often for MUCH dumber reasons than adult slaves were beaten (frequently hypocritical ones too) with those weapons, you can find the stats, also entire countries still do it often, some use boards with holes in them modified to make it even more painful, some use sticks and it used to be school policy back in the day to beat them all over their bodies with the large boards not just their butts, the buttocks didn't even become "recommended by law" until the 1950's, if this was being done to any other group, I guarantee you they'd say that was slavery, millions of children are still treated like that every day.
Also being beaten isn't a requirement to qualify as a slave anyway, if a slave master in the past didn't beat his slaves and was kind to them, would we not still call them slaves?
If they say they get an "education" and that is payment, slaves learned how to cook food, brush and feed the horses, pick cotton, grow vegetables, read and write so their master could have letter's which arrive read out to him, build structures like barns and chapels and took bible studies (could be compared to religion class, only you actually do learn) maintain farms and plantations not to mention anything and everything picked up in conversation listening to the dinner guests from more privileged backgrounds discussing everything from religion to politics, history, law and their personal lives.
We still would call them slaves and that's much, much, much, much more than I learned in High school (or my entirety of schooling) plus the "customer feedback" from schools (which is frequently atrocious) has millions and millions of people asserting the same, why ignore the feedback from those we say we serve? imagine a hospital ignoring such concerning mental health reports? or a business from it's employees or any institution of any kind at all, we'd say how rude and careless even cruel.
@CeeThecatmom Part 2 -
If you permit your son/daughter to go into a dangerous environment, they call you a "neglectful parent" if you force them into one they call you a "good parent" as long as doing so has been culturally normalised because culturally normalising something, "socialisation" removes any limit as to how bad that thing can be whilst keeping people from seeing it, Nazism, public executions for petty crimes, various bigotries and heinous practises have all taken advantage of the "normalisation" effect to make people ok with all of those too in the millions.
If you tried to argue against any of those in the environments they were normalised in you'd be found with endless excuses, distractions and personal attack but never a direct non bs answer as to how it is not "doing unto other's what's hateful when done unto you" it's the same thing happening here, how could something so common and pervasive not be normalised by now? and thus taken advantage of this effect.
Even if someone doesn't concede it's slavery, ask them if slavery is evil? if they say yes then ask them why are they having their children around something which at least resembles something evil? and if they say it doesn't even resemble slavery at all reiterate my paragraphs above, to say it doesn't even resemble it at all is mad, inhumane treatment is NOT a requirement to qualify anyway cause they'll find the worst thing ever from the old days and assert that is slavery to try and make school seem like it isn't but this is not the definition they actually subscribe too because they 100% would consider a humanely treated, educated slave in the past a slave so if that qualifies why don't the children who are inhumanely treated and not getting anywhere near as much education.
If they say someone needs to profit from your work for you to qualify as a slave then ask if the plantations back in the day had days they didn't profit, were they not slaves those days? and how do teachers not profit from it when they're being paid to give it? compulsory schooling is provided them a living just as slaves back in the day provided it for their masters, many teachers, administrators profit financially do profit from the system, while the students frequently don't and give negative feedback regarding effectiveness and mental health and safety issues which all get ignored, if women treated like this for being women "misogyny" in that case this is "misopedia".
There is also a presence of many alternatives, my favourite being "unschooling" which is a movement in some places (like Australia and UK) which has instead of negative customer feedback and reports of misery, it's got positive feedback and high levels of happiness, they get an education and don't suffer whilst doing so. You can read all about it on a blog called "happiness is here" very good blog.
There's also books about it and "Peter Gray" has been trying to abolish compulsory schooling for years because it has been shown to be the cause of many, many issues in society (it sets off ripples) and massive damage not traced back to it, I've noticed a lot myself he doesn't even cover so remember even his list is woefully incomplete and actually understating it.
There's a RUclips channel called "End School Slavery" there's a website called "SuperMemoGuru" if you type that in plus end school slavery it should bring up the site, it lists many categories in one of it's pages -
Learning
Creativity
Memory
etc, etc, they have links to pages citing studies and evidence into how every single one of the brain functions listed actually work's and then there's another category called "Education" which has a bunch of stuff showing how school is the extreme opposite and antithetical to what Science shows us is the truth (and honestly common sense).
There's also a concerning category called "health" with many articles under it, one example is one showing how stress destroys children's brains (these are the adults you're interacting with, ALL of us our kids of older ages) and how horrid it is for mental health, memory retention, physical health, warding off diseases throughout life etc,
The thing is if you look into the modern schooling system, it's the "Prussian" system and the creators of it explicitly stated they wanted to create obedient factory worker's, who accept crappy pay for menial tedious work and accept working overtime (where homework comes from) this was during the industrial revolution, it (like everything else) was NOT done with our education or mental health in mind it was done with money in mind, profit for them, then other nations of people in power thought it'd help make them richer and borrowed it, children/everyone from 1860's onward (meaning of course, you and me and our relatives, friends etc, everyone to come along after) was of NO concern to them, only their bank accounts were, which is why when you're at school it feels like you're serving it, not it's serving you, that is the case.
The real curriculum these schools were designed to teach it's actually *very* good at teaching (unlike the fake one) and it's the reason why you meet so much push back. You can find more about this real curriculum of compulsory schooling in "Against Education: For the Abolition of School" subtitled -
"The only thing wrong with education is that you don't learn anything. Except obedience, systematic abuse, monotony, and of course the necessity of more education"
That last part "the necessity of more education" look how well it taught that! school is actually very effective at teaching it's actual curriculum look how insistent the ones you encounter are about that. Only the most mentally strong can see (or admit) this to themselves but problem is school makes everybody mentally weak.
Anyway I hope you find everything I cited in this comment, that "Against Education" thing is a PDF you can find on google and it, plus the RUclips channel and other site I mentioned go into so much more detail there's a particular article on "SuperMemoGuru" which is so good, I wish I could find it and show you, it's genuinely depressing to read even really scary because of how much it shows the global damage this obedient factory worker model has done to the world and how it's hidden and how parent's are actually to blame because they keep passing this on every generation mindlessly whilst there is ton's of stuff in science which has arisen since the 1800's conception of it to show how damaging it is and how we actually have an innate "drive" to learn which it impedes on and destroys, this innate drive is something you see in little kids and it ensures you will get (an actual) education, people could also read and write for thousands of years before this schooling system came into place and they had to maintain these abilities and pass them onto the next generation for thousands of years that is MUCH longer than this Prussian schooling system has maintained it, literacy also grew so much because human population grew a lot plus we developed greater means of communication to spread it.
@CeeThecatmom Yes exactly and any effort to paint it as anything else is due to cognitive dissonance nobody wants to own up to being complacent with (or supporting) such a thing so they pretend it isn't, they also don't want to cope with the idea people who were supposed to protect and nourish them would permit or help enforce this, this exact same effect can be seen when trying to convince people their parent's assaulted them/domestic violence, they don't want to admit it for the same reasons, guilt/conscience concerns and normalisation.
I'd also forget the "definition game" and focus on the effect being in such a place is likely to have on someone regardless of what banner/label you put under it, after all if you and I decided it was NOT slavery and decided to call it another term entirely, would it now be any better?
Does a rose by any other name not smell just as sweet? point is changing terms **only** changes perception, not the nature of the thing or it's effects, that's also worth keeping in mind because people substitute labels for other labels all the time to manipulate their own perceptions of the thing, marketer's have done it when customer's had harmful reactions to their product but removing the harm would reduce profit so they "changed the packaging not the product" they dropped the "master" title from schoolteachers (used to be what they were all called) because student's being beaten by their "master" for underperforming in their forced, unpaid full time job with the same instruments adult slaves were was too on the nose I guess so they changed it from a -
"Master/headmaster" beating children for underperforming in their forced, unpaid full time job with the same instruments adult slaves were beaten."
to
"Teacher/headteacher" beating children for underperforming in their forced, unpaid full time job with the same instruments adult slaves were beaten."
And called it a day! "change the label and you change people's perception" the thing itself still remains just as painful just like the rose remains just as sweet, corporations do this a lot so do people and it's manipulative and dodgy. I prefer to call it "child slavery" it has more punch, is more accurate because it hasn't just went on in the "modern day" but is by now a couple of hundred years old and this allows us to see the scope of it and how entrenched it is, it also reminds us it's "fu**king children!" we're putting through this cruel institution, we also hold them to a higher standard of behaviour than adults (try telling a room full of them to face the front and be quiet or don't accidently swear under threat of being hurt).
We expect a underdeveloped brain to have more self control than a fully developed one and insist the possessor isn't responsible for their actions but then we punish them for those actions? we expect children to behave more responsibly than adults and give novices and beginner's less patience in a lot of ways than experienced people who've learned cultural customs, imagine a pianist taking lessons and when someone who's never played before or is only beginning messes up and hits the wrong key they get yelled at, hit or some other plenty like their valuables are taken but when the experienced player who's been doing it years, knows all the what to do and what not to do and who's said to be fully responsible for mistakes (unlike the beginner) does the same they get forgiven? it's totally backwards and school is filled to the brim with that attitude and lot's of hypocrisy and rules back when adults were slaves they likely didn't even have to put up with for example -
There's a "zero tolerance policy" which has actually gotten support and been implemented in countless schools which not only says it's ok for teacher's to hurt children who're being beaten up/bullied for it but actually states they have to do it as part of school policy.
I am referring to the rule that when a physical altercation happens between student's it doesn't matter who started it, if it was self defence or even if the victim didn't hit back at all because all altercations are classed as "fights" and punished severely, imagine some cruel people hurting your daughter and then the teachers coming over and hurting your daughter by punishing her for it, in addition the guilty ones? Worse still I attended a school in Europe which had this policy so shows it's not a USA thing just but common in multiple countries/districts of countries.
Now can you imagine when adult's were slaves, all slave owner's would be that stupid or even cruel? some of them would think it was unfair, you know when a slave owner is recognising you as unjust, you've seriously went off the deep end, I remember my teacher (this was only a little over a decade ago, I am young) saying if we defended ourselves from a bully or avoided them hurting us even by blocking it'd be classed as a fight and we would be punished just as bad as they are, some student's told her how horrible that is and asked her concise, irrefutably, logical questions and she just sat their in silence and ignored them not even answering, repeated herself later on and refused to engage us on it because of this "what would a kid know attitude" which is the height of misopedia and bigotry. We spoke the **truth**.
@CeeThecatmom You're a strong person! those who can take criticism's from all sides and keep going because they *know* they're right are much more valuable to change (and humanity) than those who just repeat what was done before and expect change to come. Albert Einstein famously said -
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
People do this with children. All. The. Time. In homes in a large variety of ways and in school too. That means every last one of us, is being born into a system which practises "insanity" in the hopes we can improve things without changing them.
I really like these videos, im learning alot thank you
I am fascinated by this!
Thank you for this informative video. Ill be sending this to the hubby to view.
Awesome video thanks for sharing this. Will use it often.
Freaking incredible video. Thank you for asking great questions and for creating this channel!
This is the first schooling video I’ve seen that I am in complete and total agreement with. Simply put, there is a best way to learn everything and that is never the way it is taught in school. For instance languages are best learned by total immersion, but only the Defense Language Institute in Monterey do that, except possibly for Peace Corps TEFL training for conventionally trained teachers. Then also, the best way to learn history is by reading history books written for the educated public by professional writers, and not those poorly written slim little paperbacks written by college professors. I also like the library model of schooling as indeed, the brightest students at my high school could always be found haunting the stacks at the public library across the parking lot.
The hardest part about unschooling is the state and public's opinions about it. It would be nice if you could legally raise your own children and family the way you want to in this country without persecution.
So, basically this is another story of someone who comes from a place of privilege (parents own a business) and a majority of her “success” derives from her ability to generate wealth through said business until the point where she has abilities enough to open her own business promoting the idea that there is no need for formal schooling. Does anyone else see the circular argument to her acclaimed “success”? Until I see an unschooler able to translate their abilities outside the traditional expectations and achieve positions that require formal education then I will accept this path as a meritorious pathway. Until such time, it holds little credence for the general masses (albeit accepting the various flaws that currently reside within traditional educational systems).
Excellent video!
Sierra seems so chill
They might be onto something. This is food for thought.
loved this video!
Thanks for the video!
Missing from the entire conversation is how wealthy she is…
Some of our presidents didn't go to school or learn reading and writing until age 12. Many early presidents wouldn't have attended schools until 12 or older and like Lincoln no real formal education at all except maybe a year and taught himself to be a lawyer. This was very normal, and to have the privilege of school at 12 would have been a big deal.
Really helpful info 👍🏾
It works !
I started to learn the day I walked out of school in 11th grade.
I didn’t hate everything about school but I really struggled both socially and academically. (I did enjoy classes in foreign language, English, and the arts. Depending on the teacher I enjoyed science, math and geography. I disliked history until I reached the college level. However even for classes I enjoyed my grades rarely reflected that. I was a C student generally.) I think it is wrong to force every youth through a system that doesn’t work for every student. I have always been intensely curious about many subjects and i take an unschooling mindset as an adult: formulating my own questions and researching the question on my own.
I was given a liberal arts college preperatory education aka a “good education”. There was a lot of talk of teaching “critical thinking” and “learning how to learn”. I do think I learned a lot but there was more emphasis placed on facts and figures than on the critical parts of how to live a balanced adult life: how to choose the right partner, rhow to choose the right career path, how to manage your finances, how much time to spend on your passions versus time spent chasing money, relationship skills, and how to cope with setbacks. I have a feeling unschoolers must face these problems much sooner than traditional schoolers and the major advantage of unschooling is giving youth the opportunity to start working, earning and managing their time and money at a much younger age (since they are not in school) or give them the time to fully delve into projects of their own design.
You are never truly able to achieve “flow” in school since every time you start to understand a concept, the bell rings and you are shuffled off to the next classroom/the next lesson. It is actually counterintuitive to learning. I have a lot of issues with the school system but the reality is is that most parents need to work and have no other choice than to send their child to school.
That’s great except her attachment to freedom without having to sacrifice for it by learning to be disciplined and reliable means she is unprepared for any work other than freelancing
thanks for the content.... I have a question.....
Thanks for the content! I appreciate it. I couldn't get to edit's YT channel. Do you have a link that works please?
I keep trying to post the link but it keeps getting deleted. At least it looks like it. If you just Google EDIT education in transformation you can go to their website. There's a bunch of videos on there but you can also scroll to the bottom and click on the RUclips link
I've updated the description! Thanks for the heads up
wow...this video is amazingggggg....hope for humnaity..haha
I started homeschooling my 6th grader in November. What I’m having a hard time with is for our state she’s required to do 600 hrs of core work. How do I unschool and track those hours??
Write down each day what she does, most of the time you can relate it to certain skills or subjects.
i could have done that since i was 8
10:34 it's Bad, FULL STOP.
Having a singular method of teaching stupid when you consider that some kids learn faster while others need a little more help
👍😊
Your clock is broken.
19 2533
Yea did Beyoncé ever really attend school?
Gv x.
So ....she did curriculum.
This is so validating.