Unschooling

Let me forewarn you: I'm homeschooled. The thoughts and ideas expressed within are my own, yet they have been influenced by the way my parents have raised me. As the school year starts, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on education. Every year my parents reevaluate what is best for each child, and it may not necessarily be homeschool. Homeschooling isn’t easy (especially for parents!), and not everyone has the ability to do it. But today, I want to highlight some of its merits.

When I tell people I’m homeschooled, not many people really know what that means. Some say they would love to be homeschooled so they could get out of doing their homework. While I still haven’t decided if everything I do is homework--or nothing--I do know that being homeschooled doesn’t mean I don’t have to do any work. I love being homeschooled: in fact, every time I drive by a school, I pray a little prayer for the poor people locked inside. Okay, okay, I don’t believe the school system is evil. In this blogpost, I have set out to explain my views on education and why public school shouldn’t be the “norm”.

Although the term Unschooling is a fairly recent addition to the English language, the concept has been around for thousands of years. According to Wikipedia, “Unschooling is an educational method and philosophy that rejects compulsory school as a primary means for learning.” Although there is technically a difference between “Homeschooling” and “Unschooling”, my homeschooling is based on the principles of Unschooling, so I will use those terms interchangeably.

I love learning; that’s one of the most important things my parents have taught me. But I don’t believe the only way I am going to learn something is in a classroom. Learning from life experiences better equips me to enter the “real world” than a textbook does. Especially for someone who learns by doing. Not only can you learn from books, at museums, and on train rides, but you can also learn by experiencing normal life. I am so glad that have had the freedom to be a part of some really cool things--because I haven’t been stuck in a classroom six hours a day. What will I learn more from: a home ec. class, or being allowed to cook at home? As Mark Twain reminded us, don’t let your schooling get in the way of your education.

One of the things I love about unschooling is a different focus on time. I tried an online charter school for a few months, and it absolutely infuriated me that I was legally supposed to spend X amount of time doing work each day, no matter how quickly I could accomplish my assignments. Many of the things I wanted to do didn’t count as school--even though I learned from them. Does interning at my church count? Does writing a book? In unschooling, you realize that everything you do is an opportunity to learn. The flexibility of time allows me to use my time to accomplish more than 6.1 hours of butt-in-seat time. As Jordan Taylor so wonderfully articulated in the Blimey Cow video titled “7 Lies About Homeschoolers”, if I’m doing things I enjoy and you’re stuck inside a classroom all day, guess who doesn’t have a life.

I have grown up in a family that values education. We have books everywhere. We use museums (and other homeschool “field trips”) as opportunities to learn. Whenever we see a “historical marker” sign alongside the road, we have to stop, even if it means we get stuck in a snowbank. Education is more than just reading a textbook, following guidelines, and turning in homework. I am an individual, I have a unique learning style, I learn at my own pace, I am interested in unique things. When we make everyone learn the same things in the same way, we kill unique skills. We are training students to be good at test-taking: standardised tests don’t measure intelligence, but test-taking ability. I know people who are extremely smart, but they aren’t good at doing “schoolwork”. People are unique, so when we demand that everyone conforms to the same pattern, we are doing them an injustice. Part of the reason my parents decided to homeschool me was so that I could get a custom-fit education.

My parents also decided it was important that they be able to spend time with me and pour into my life. Since my parents are my teachers, it allows them to have more of a say in what gets poured into me, and eventually to let me take the reigns and make my own choices. God created families so that parents could raise children, but in modern times, we have removed the parental influence by shipping our kids off to school. Thankfully, the government has chosen everything kids need to know. But there are some things that schools can’t teach, like morality. As Chuck Colson often said, the breakdown of the family is what is killing our society. I am so grateful for the influence my parents have had on my life.

Many people assume that public school is “normal school” and homeschooling is weird. For thousands of years, children have learned everything outside of the classroom, in families and in apprenticeships. This has generally worked. Because we have confined learning to the classroom, we feel like we have to make up for things we miss. Kids sit at desks all day and aren’t allowed to be active, so we have created PE. And, oh by the way, we expect every kid to be able to do an equal amount of push-ups and pull-ups, because God created everyone equal. And by the time they graduate high school, they’re not yet ready to be adults, so we give them four more years in college to pretend to be kids before they must become adults. No, this is not the way God created learning to work: public education should not be considered “normal”. Non-traditional doesn’t mean abnormal.

Another thing that amazes me about high school in particular: we learn things half-way so we can learn the rest in college. But if I can take a Dual Enroll college class that applies to both college and high school, why bother take the class in high school? High school schoolwork has always seemed like a waste of time to me when it should be an amazing time to learn, grow, and prepare for adulthood. I turned 17 this week, and even though 18 is not a magic number when I become an adult, it symbolises something important. I have set out on a one-year adventure to figure out what I need to learn before I move out.

A few years back, I read a book titled, “College without High School: A teenager’s guide to skipping high school and going to college.” This book really struck a chord with me and got me thinking. The author described Unschooling as a mix between Adventure, Interest Work, and College Prep. God gave us this time in our lives as a really cool opportunity to try new things (Adventure), do things we love (Interest Work) and prepare for the future (college and beyond). We can leverage this time in our lives to learn the skills and tools we need in order to step into adulthood.

Another book that has made me think is “Do Hard Things”, written by two homeschoolers, Alex and Brett Harris. They challenge teens to think of the teenage years as a time to do hard things, not just have fun and party. We are the future of the world, and if we just goof off, we will not be ready to take that responsibility. Society sets low expectations on us. If it demanded more of us, we have the potential to do great things. But because we can “get by” by jumping on the bandwagon and trying not to raise a fuss, we do so. Three things adults can do to help youth grow are mentoring us, expecting much from us, and giving us opportunities to take responsibility. But none of those are the norm because we're "just teens" and can't be trusted. Yet, how can we learn or prove ourselves trustworthy if we aren't given opportunities to fail?

I love learning, but for college, I want to do something non-traditional. I hate the idea of putting my life on pause for four years, and by the time I’m ready to start adult life, being a hundred thousand dollars in debt. Education takes time, money, and hard work that I don’t want to use frivolously. I want to learn along with doing real life. (I think my parents spoiled me.) Inasmuch as education is an important part of our teenage life, our career defines the rest of our life. Lately, I’ve been trying to think through the idea of “Unworking”. What would an “untraditional job” look like? There has been much talk recently about how the workforce is changing: instead of a holding the same job for 40 years, as our grandparents did, we will jump from opportunity to opportunity. I’m still trying to figure out what this all means, and I hope to flesh this out more in another blogpost soon. If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment!

This is a note of thanks to my parents for being amazing.

(If it sounds like I am biased against public schooling, I admit it. But I hold the teachers I know in high regard and have some amazing public school friends. As I said at the beginning, I understand that homeschool isn’t for everyone. Please don’t think I believe public schooling is evil.)

Just one more person

Yet I have much to offer

My life is vital