Is there an increasing interest in a method of home schooling, called "unschooling"?

Question

I see, and have answered an increasing amount of questions about unschooling; on this forum as well as in our own home school community.

There seems to be a growing interest in what it entails.

Do you think this is due to the fact that home school parents often start with bringing the school home; emulating a traditional school setting, and finding out that does not work?

Are they becoming more comfortable over time seeing that learning does indeed happen even when no textbooks, work sheets, or ridged schedules are involved?

Or do you think that due to the vast availability of information, and the rising number of families who are choosing to home school, they are actually looking from the start for a method that would best fits their family's life style?

Answer 1

hey, i was "unschooled" until 5th grade.  my mom taught me the basics and i devoured every book i could get my hands on.  since i didn't have all the pressure and busy work and vacuum packed info. to hold me back i loved to learn.  by the time i started traditional homeschooling (with a curriculum) i was at the perfect grade level.  now that i'm in 10th grade i'm an A student and LOVE to learn.  i am almost completely independent too (with my mom doing some grading).

mine is one example of the success of unschooling.

*sorry this doesn't really answer your question :D

Answer 2

As I understand the term, unschooling refers not just to the lack of a rigid schedule, but to a situation where the child decides what and when to learn.  This might work with older students (16-18 years old), but the younger the child is, he more it seems like this is a bad idea.

Answer 3

Unschooling only works for someone with a long attention span.  It's not for someone who gets bored of a new toy in one day.

I unschooled in chemistry with a chemistry set at age 8, meteorology at age 10, planetary astronomy at age 11, filmmkaing starting at age 11.

Creative writing was also a backbone since age 6 and my first publication in Sky and Telescope at age 16.

My mother homeschooled me in touch typing between 6 and 7 and I was going at 45 WPM by age 8 with all fingers.

I undschooled in music starting at 5 with a little recorder and my mother taught me to read the basic notes and we had those bells you ring by color and note.

At 17 I took up guitar and my mother homeschooled me in harmony and theory (she had been a pro musician for 20 years before getting into the computer business).

To this day I still have my Aneroid Barameter from my meterology kit and I remember how to do wet and dry bulb and can read basic weather charts.

I still know what's out in the night sky.  I can point out Venus, Jupiter, Mars without much trouble and make a guess on Saturn, it's not as easy.

I can point out the dippers, Orion, the Peladieds, I can find the Great Nebula in a telescope.

I remember when most of the major meteor showers hit.

My unschooling in film went into 16mm and audio went into 2" 24 track and digital Pro Tools work.

My musice went into 30 years on stage as a bassist and occasinal keyboardist and arranger for the band.

I was the only one who could figure out the chords from the record and change the key for the singer and write the charts.

All of this was unschooling or homeschooling.

I unschooled in computer programming later in life for about 14 years and produced a few commercial progarms.

I worked on CP/m Atari ST, Amiga, Mac, PC Dos and PC Windows platforms

I did programs in Basic, VB, C, Modula 2 and Perl.

Answer 4

I'm interested because, the methods I am using now are not working to my standards. I like the idea that children are meant to learn and will learn without too much prodding. I'm hoping to eventually  loosen up enough to unschool when my child is a bit older. What we do for ourselves is so much more valuable to us than what is done for us.

Answer 5

Have you seen Dayna Martin's video blog on YouTube?  She is very convincing.

I am trying to 'let go' of my 15 year old.  He does not like school, even with homeschooling in a relaxed manner.  I don't feel that I am lazy to relax even more.  It gives me time to learn more for myself. I think that watching me learn has helped him understand what he has not understood when I use only words.

To answer your question: Yes, I think more people are going with unschooling.  With today's technology, kids learn more by accident than we did, at their age, on purpose.

Answer 6

Yes, I believe there has been a resurgence of interest in interest-led learning, or "unschooling," recently, not only among homeschoolers but education people in general.  The method has been practiced for many years than I've been around, though, and I would argue that pure homeschooling that allows the child to learn at his/her own pace and interest level has been around since people have wanted to learn. It really isn't a new concept, it has only developed a new awareness among the general population.

Many communities in the US have begun to question their education systems and they look to what might be considered "alternative" education methods for answers.  Unschooling/interest-led learning has proven time and time again that success can be earned by those who actively seek it.  Thus, the increased interest in the method among parents and educators alike.  

The only problem I've found is that some in the education field who consider what unschooling means to their livlihood might wonder how to diminish unschooling's effectiveness because by letting kids learn, and learn well, on their own makes the whole basis for public education look pretty darn bad.

As for looking from the start at unschooling as a learning method (notice I did not say "teaching" method), I'm not so sure that is happening. If a family comes from public school, like the vast majority of new homeschoolers nowadays, we are already pre-programmed for public school-style teaching and learning and it takes some experience and knowledge to come around to the unschooled way of life and accept it with happiness.

I think people know unschooling as a method of learning exists, we just don't trust it.  Once I started reading my copies of Home Education Magazine and read John Holt's book, it became a no-brainer for us. It is just hard to explain to the relatives how our kids learn when they don't focus on a daily schedule of subjects!

:o)

Lisa S.

http://giftedandhomeschooling.blogspot.c...

Answer 7

For us we started with school at home, and while it was working okay, I did not like the implications. All the things I didn't like about pubic school were still there, teaching without regard to interest or applicability, less regard for present level or progression, and still feeding someone information. You can provide more, but still it is adult led with little input from the kids. Even if they say they like dinosaurs, and you prepare a unit lesson, the subject may be preferred, but the way it's presented, even the minute things you are learning, aren't self-chosen.

We started unschooling by accident. The kids had already finished  a years worth of curricula by August, the same time I was put on bedrest for premature labor. Lo and behold, without me teaching, they were still learning! It wasn't you know, memorizing the preamble (although my oldest did do that for the fourth of July), it wasn't finessing the fine formulas of the space-time continuum (athough my seven year old has figured out some basic physics formulae through observation), but they were learning things that were meaningful AS WELL as building blocks for more information later on.

After two years of unschooling, I can assure you that young children can unschool as well as older. Unschooling does not mean unparenting, in fact, it is much more intense because you must know your child well, you must be prepared to support them instantly in whatever means necessary to support learning. My six year old has learned to read without phonics programs or lessons, my eight year old has learned multiplication, division, and even order simply by learning through life. My oldest child has decided that college is important to him, so he has an ACT prep book he's working through. It provides the basic information and it is up to him (and me) to go back and find holes in the basic education. But you'd be surprised, there aren't many there!

Unschooling.com has a lot of info, also read John Holt's book "The Unschooled Mind".

Answer 8

I think interest in unschooling is expanding because interest in homeschooling is expanding.  As more homeschool, more will look into all different methods, and end up picking the one that they are most comfortable with, and which suits their child and their situation best.

Answer 9

Great question!

So many of us (e.g. me) have been programmed to believe that only a traditional type instructor led school approach will work.

Our first year of homeschooling we followed that model and both my son and I ended up very burned out!  We got a lot done but it was not as much fun as it could have and should have been!

We have evolved into more of an eclectic approach that blends instructor led (coop) and experiential with much more interest driven learning.  I think my son learns more when he is not "in school."

I feel the pressure of prepping him for his college aspirations and still cling a little bit to the traditional for certain core courses such as mathematics.