Unschooling

Children investigating insect deposits in tree bark as part of an unschooling activity

Unschooling is a practice of self-driven informal learning characterized by a lesson-free and curriculum-free implementation of homeschooling. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, under the belief that the more personal learning is, the more meaningful, well-understood, and therefore useful it is to the child.

The term unschooling was coined in the 1970s and used by educator John Holt, who is widely regarded as the father of unschooling. Unschooling is often seen as a subset of homeschooling, the key difference lying in the use of an external or individual curriculum. Homeschooling, in its many variations, has been the subject of widespread public debate.

Critics of unschooling see it as extreme, and express concerns that unschooled children will be neglected by parents whom might not be capable of sustaining a proper educational environment, and the child might lack the social skills, structure, discipline, and motivation of their schooled peers. Critics also worry that unschooled children will be unable to cope with uncomfortable or challenging situations. Proponents of unschooling disagree, asserting that self-directed education in a non-academic, often natural and diversified environment is a far more efficient, sustainable, and child-friendly form of education than traditional schooling, as it preserves innate curiosity, pleasure, and willingness to discover and learn new things. However, some studies suggest that children who have participated in unschooling may experience academic underdevelopment.

History

The term unschooling probably derives from Ivan Illich's term deschooling. It was popularized through John Holt's newsletter Growing Without Schooling (GWS). Holt is also widely regarded as the father of unschooling. In an early essay, Holt contrasted the two terms:

GWS will say "unschooling" when we mean taking children out of school, and "deschooling" when we mean changing the laws to make schools non-compulsory...

At the time, the term was equivalent to home schooling. Subsequently, home-schoolers began to differentiate between various educational philosophies within home schooling. The term unschooling became used to contrast versions of home schooling that were perceived as politically and pedagogically "school-like," in that they used textbooks and exercises at home in the same way they would be used at school.

In 2003, in Holt's book Teach Your Own (originally published in 1981), Pat Farenga, co-author of the new edition, provided a definition:

When pressed, I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world as their parents can comfortably bear. It allows children to develop knowledge and skills based on their own personal passions and life situations.

In the same passage Holt stated that he was not entirely comfortable with this term, and would have preferred the term living. Holt's use of the term emphasizes learning as a natural process, integrated into the spaces and activities of everyday life, and not benefiting from adult manipulation. It follows closely on the themes of educational philosophies proposed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Paul Goodman, and A.S. Neill.

After Holt's death a range of unschooling practitioners and observers defined the term in various ways. For instance, the Freechild Project defines unschooling as:

[T]he process of learning through life, without formalized or institutionalized classrooms or schoolwork.

American homeschooling parent Sandra Dodd proposed the term radical unschooling to emphasize the complete rejection of any distinction between educational and non-educational activities. Radical unschooling emphasizes that unschooling is a non-coercive, cooperative practice, and seeks to promote those values in all areas of life. These philosophies share an opposition to traditional schooling techniques and the social structure of schools. Most emphasize the integration of learning into the everyday life of the family and wider community. Points of disagreement include whether unschooling is primarily defined by the initiative of the learner and their control over the curriculum, or by the techniques, methods, and spaces used. Peter Gray suggested the term self-directed education, which has fewer negative connotations.

Motivations

See also: Motivations for homeschooling

Parents choose to unschool their children for a variety of reasons, many of which overlap with reasons for homeschooling.

Unschoolers criticize schools for lessening the parent–child bond, reducing family time, and for creating atmospheres that are fearful. Some unschoolers argue that schools teach children facts and skills that will not be useful to them, whereas, with unschooling, children learn how to learn, which is of more enduring use. Some assert that schools teach children only how to follow instructions, which does not prepare them to confront novel tasks. Another argument is that the structure of school is not suitable for people who want to make their own decisions about what, when, how, and with whom they learn because many things are predetermined in the school setting, while unschooled students are more free to make such decisions.

In school, a student's community may consist mainly of a peer group, that the parent has little influence over or even knowledge of. Unschoolers may have more opportunity to share a role in their community—including with older and younger people—and can therefore learn to find their place within more diverse groups of people. Parents of school children also have little say regarding instructors and teachers, whereas parents of unschoolers may be more involved in the selection of the coaches or mentors their children work and build relationships with.

According to unschooling pioneer John Holt, child-led learning is more efficient and respectful of children's time, takes advantage of their interests, and allows deeper exploration of subjects than what is possible in conventional education.

...the anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don't know.

Some schools have adopted relatively non-coercive and cooperative techniques in a manner that harmonizes with the philosophies behind unschooling. For example, Sudbury model schools are non-coercive, non-indoctrinative, cooperative, democratically run partnerships between children and adults—including full partnership with parents—in which learning is individualized and child-led, in a way that complements home education.

Concerns about socialization can also be a factor in the decision to unschool. Some unschoolers believe that conditions in conventional schools, such as age segregation, the ratio of children to adults, or the amount of time spent sitting and obeying orders of one authority figure, are not conducive to proper education.

Unschooling may broaden the diversity of people or places an unschooler is exposed to. Unschoolers may be more mature than their schooled peers on average, and some believe this is a result of the wide range of people they have the opportunity to interact with, although it may also be "difficult to find children [...] for, well, socialization". Opportunities for unschoolers to meet and interact with other unschoolers has increased in recent years, allowing unschoolers to have interactions with other children with similar experiences.

Methods and philosophy

Natural learning

Unschooling may emphasize free, undirected play as a major component of children's education.

Unschooling is based on the belief that learning is a natural and ongoing process, and that curiosity is an intrinsic part of human development. Proponents argue that children have an inherent desire to learn, and that traditional educational systems, with their standardized curricula and structured schedules, may not always align with individual needs, interests, or abilities. Critics of conventional schooling suggest that a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach can limit children's potential by requiring them to engage with specific subject matter in a uniform way, without considering their personal pace, prior knowledge, or future goals. However, this perspective is debated, and many believe that structured education can provide valuable support for diverse learning styles and needs.

Create an environment

Create an environment that nurtures growth by treating the home like a garden—one that you water and care for, rather than focusing on direct instruction. Simple actions, like placing a pile of paper with a cup of colored markers in the center of the table, bringing a piano into the home, or filling the space with books, are easy ways to cultivate this atmosphere.

Learning styles

Psychologists have documented many differences between children in the way they learn. Standardized testing, which is required in traditional American schooling (a study conducted by the Council of Great City Schools has shown that students in U.S public schools will take, on average, 112 standardized tests throughout their school careers ), is widely regarded as a poor gauge of intelligence. Its formulaic and rigid way of questioning does not allow for any creative thought or new ways of thinking. Unschoolers assert that unschooling is better equipped to adapt to such differences in thought processes, measuring intelligence through observation, rather than testing.

People vary in their learning styles, that is, how they prefer to acquire new information. However, research in 2008 found "virtually no evidence" that learning styles increased learning or improved performance, as opposed to being a matter of preference. Students have different learning needs, but in a traditional school setting, teachers seldom customize their evaluation method for an individual student. While teaching methods often vary between teachers, and any teacher may use multiple methods, this is sometimes haphazard and not always individualized.

Project managing skills for kids

Encourage a child to choose a personal project they can work on while their parents focus on their own tasks. Ask questions like, "What is your project?" or "What are you working on?" to teach time management and project skills, such as setting deadlines, holding meetings, and managing budgets—even if the project is something as simple as a lemonade stand.

Developmental differences

Developmental psychologists note that just as children reach growth milestones at different ages, children are also prepared to learn different things at different ages. Just as most children learn to walk during a normal range of eight to fifteen months, and begin to talk across an even larger range, unschoolers assert that they are also ready and able to read, for example, at different ages. Natural learning produces greater changes in behavior (e.g. changing job skills) than traditional learning methods, although not necessarily a change in the amount of information learned. Traditional education systems typically require all students to begin reading and learning mathematical concepts like multiplication at the same age. Unschooling proponents believe that this one-size-fits-all approach can cause some children to become disengaged if they have already mastered a topic, while others may struggle if they are not yet ready to learn it.

Music and Unschooling

While not necessarily an essential part of a formal education, most students in America take part in some form of music making. 97% of American public schools offer some form of music at the elementary level. The traditional approach to teaching music theory involves learning how to read music and play it exactly as written. The unschooling approach follows the "Garage Band Theory," created by Duke Sharp. This method is a take on "playing songs by ear"- it draws on a person's natural ability to recognize music and pick up on the same sounds in different songs. Unschooling parents believe it is a more effective way to learn music compared to sight reading.

Essential body of knowledge

Unschoolers sometimes state that learning any specific subject is less important than learning how to learn. In the words of Holt:

Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever must be learned.

Unschoolers suggest that this ability for children to learn on their own makes it more likely that later, when these children are adults, they can continue to learn in order to meet newly emerging needs, interests, and goals; and that they can return to any subject that they feel was not sufficiently covered or learn a completely new subject.

Many unschoolers disagree that there is a particular body of knowledge that everyone, regardless of the life they lead, needs to possess. In the words of John Holt, "If children are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world than anyone else could make for them."

The role of parents

Parents of unschoolers provide resources, support, guidance, information, and advice to facilitate experiences that aid their children in accessing, navigating, and making sense of the world. Common parental activities include sharing interesting books, articles, and activities with their children, helping them find knowledgeable people to explore an interest with (for example physics professors or automotive mechanics), and helping them set goals and figure out what they need to do to meet their goals. Unschooling's interest-based nature does not mean that it is a "hands-off" approach to education; parents tend to be involved, especially with younger children (older children, unless new to unschooling, often need less help in finding resources and in making and carrying out plans).

Paradigm shift

Because unschooling contradicts assumptions of the dominant culture, advocates suggest that a paradigm shift in regards to education and child rearing is required before engaging with unschooling. New unschoolers are advised that they should not expect to understand the unschooling philosophy at first, as many commonplace assumptions about education are unspoken and unwritten. One step towards this paradigm shift is accepting that "what we do is nowhere near as important as why we do it."

Compared with other homeschooling models

Unschooling is a form of homeschooling, which is the education of children at home or places other than in a school. Unschooling teaches children based on their interests rather than according to a set curriculum.

Unschooling contrasts with other forms of homeschooling in that the student's education is not directed by a teacher and curriculum. Unschooling is a real-world implementation of the open classroom methods promoted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, without the school, classrooms, or grades. Parents who unschool their children act as facilitators, providing a range of resources, helping their children access, navigate, and make sense of the world; they aid their children in making and implementing goals and plans for both the distant and immediate future. Unschooling expands from children's natural curiosity as an extension of their interests, concerns, needs, and goals.

Unschooling differs from discovery learning, minimally invasive education, purpose-guided education, academic advising, phenomenon-based learning, and thematic learning.

Branches

There are a variety of approaches to designing and practicing unschooling. Some of the most popular include:

• Worldschooling, in which families travel around the world and learn through experiencing other places, people, cultures, and activities typical for these locations.
• Project-based unschooling, which holds that students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges, problems, and projects that they can do in their own way and at their own pace.
• Gameschooling, employs various games like board and card games to facilitate learning. In addition to developing skills in math, language, and history, board games also develop social skills such as interpersonal communication, negotiation, persuasion, diplomacy, and virtues like good sportsmanship.

Complementary philosophies

Unschooling families may adopt the following philosophies:

• Unconditional Parenting and Punished by Rewards—parenting and education books by Alfie Kohn.
• The continuum concept, attachment parenting, and attachment theory—theories and practices attempting to encourage the child's development.
• Voluntaryism—the idea that all forms of human association should be voluntary, as far as possible (voluntaryism opposes the initiation of aggressive force or coercion).

Other forms of alternative education

Many other forms of alternative education also prioritize student control of learning, albeit not necessarily by the individual learner. These include free democratic schools, like the Sudbury school, Stonesoup School, and open-learning virtual universities. Democratic schools gives students the ability to take classes as they please, as well as befriend children from all age groups (as the schools do not separate students into grades). Students can also practice the idea of democracy in many ways, as voting is a large part of their school experience.

Criticism

See also: Homeschooling criticism

As a form of homeschooling, unschooling faces many of the same critiques as homeschooling. Criticisms of unschooling in particular tend to focus on whether students can receive sufficient education in a context with so little structure compared to standard schooling practices. Some critics maintain that it can be difficult to build sufficient motivation in students to allow them learn without guardrails, and that some students might be left behind as a result, and that they might fare poorly compared with their peers.

Opponents of unschooling fear that children may be at the mercy of bad parents, like those who withdraw their children from school without taking on the role of "teacher." This leaves children directionless, which can affect them later in life if they have no practice expanding their curiosity and integrating into society.

In a 2006 study of children aged five to ten, unschooled children scored below traditionally schooled children in four of seven studied categories, and significantly below structured homeschoolers in all seven studied categories.

See also

• Anti-schooling activism
• Alternative school
• Anarchistic free school
• Autodidacticism
• Democratic education
• Deschooling Society
• Gifted education
• Montessori method
• Not Back to School Camp, an annual gathering of over 100 unschoolers ages 13 to 18
• Reggio Emilia approach
• Special education
• Taking Children Seriously
• The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
• Waldorf Education

Unschooling Books

• Learning All The Time Book by John Holt
• "Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling" by John Holt and Pat Farenga, A foundational text in the unschooling movement, this book explores self-directed education and the philosophy of trusting children to learn naturally
• "How Children Learn" by John Holt. A classic that examines how children learn through curiosity and exploration, this book is a staple for understanding unschooling principles
• "The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child's Classroom" by Mary Griffith. This practical guide includes real-life stories and tips for integrating learning into everyday life
• "Homeschooling - The Choice and the Consequences", Ari Neuman, Aharon Aviram
• "The Call of the Wild + Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child's Education" by Ainsley Arment. This book challenges traditional schooling norms and celebrates child-led education
• "The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide" by Pam Laricchia. Laricchia offers a personal and philosophical exploration of the unschooling lifestyle, tailored for families starting their journey
• "Sandra Dodd’s Big Book of Unschooling". A comprehensive collection of thoughts, practices, and stories about unschooling, it’s designed for both new and experienced unschoolers by Sandra Dodd
• "Free to Learn: Five Ideas for a Joyful Unschooling Life" by Pam Laricchia. Part of a box set, this book dives into fostering a joyful and enriching unschooling environment

Persons of interest

• Albert Cullum, elementary school teacher from 1960s
• John Taylor Gatto, New York City's 1989 Teacher of the Year, New York State Teacher of the Year 1991
• Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
• Grace Llewellyn, author/advocate/speaker/camp director
• Wendy Priesnitz
• Daniel Quinn, author/cultural critic
• Ken Robinson

Adult unschoolers of note

• Sawyer Fredericks, singer/songwriter, The Voice (U.S. season 8)
• Lisa Harvey-Smith, astronomer
• Neil Stephen Cicierega, musician, singer/songwriter, animator, video game designer/creator, filmmaker, actor
• Dale J. Stephens, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and founder of UnCollege
• Aaron Swartz, political activist and computer programmer
• Astra Taylor, filmmaker
• Sunny Taylor, painter and disability activist (also younger sister of Astra Taylor)
• Billie Eilish, singer/songwriter
• Julia Gat, Photographer, daughter of Emanuel Gat, Choreographer. Known for her photography project Khamsa khamsa khamsa about her upbringing.
• Astor Taylor – Speaker and artist, advocate for creative education.
• Devin Young – Co-founder of Changemakers, social entrepreneur.
• Jeremy Stuart – Filmmaker, director of *Class Dismissed* documentary.
• Peter Kowalke – Creator of *Grown Without Schooling* documentary.
• Zac Sunderland – Youngest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe.
• Dale J. Stephens – Founder of UnCollege, Thiel Fellow.
• Logan LaPlante – TEDx speaker on "Hackschooling" and self-directed learning.
• Maya Donnelly – Writer focused on identity and alternative education.
• Kio Stark – Author of *Don’t Go Back to School*.
• Nathen Aaren – Entrepreneur and coach inspired by unschooling.

Further reading

Books

• John Holt (1990) Learning All the Time. How small children begin to read, write, count, and investigate the world, without being taught
• Mary Griffith (1998). The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0761512769.
• Grace Llewelyn (1998). The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. Lowry House Pub. ISBN 978-0962959172.
• Grace Llewelyn & Amy Silver (2001). Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School. Wiley. ISBN 978-0471349600.
• John Taylor Gatto (2000). The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling. Odysseus Group. ISBN 978-0945700043.
• The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto (complete download)
• Van Gestel, Nanda; Hunt, Jan; Quinn, Daniel; Kream, Rue; et al. (2008). The Unschooling Unmanual. The Natural Child Project. ISBN 978-0968575451.

Essays and articles

• "Why Schools Don't Educate - Teacher of the Year acceptance speech"
• Everything We Think About Schooling Is Wrong! – Interview with Gatto (PDF file download)
• What is Self-Directed Education?

External links

• Growing without schooling by John Holt
• Common Objections to Homeschooling by John Holt The Natural Child Project
• Joyfully Rejoycing by Joyce Fetteroll
• Living Joyfully with Unschooling by Pam Laricchia