|
Cherie Thomas What is Unschooling? Generally,
people use the term to mean schooling without a curriculum. Earl
Stevens, a columnist for The Home Education Magazine, says, "The
standard curriculum exists in school because it is too much trouble to
cooperate with each child in determining individual diets. It exists in
homes primarily because it exists in schools."
He continues, "Many parents begin home schooling under the
impression that they can only be successful by following some variant
of the traditional public school curriculum in the home." That's
certainly how we began. With a child-size table and a schedule for
which subjects should be studied and when. But we learned that our
children lost their excitement for learning that way. The less
structure I imposed upon them, the more creative and absorbed they
became in their self-directed learning. What Do Unschoolers Do All Day? A
year ago, after being inspired by Kathie Christensen's talk on
Unschooling in our support group, I announced to my children (then ages
9, 5, and 3) that I would like to try an experiment for a few months. I
would no longer require any schoolwork of them. We would still read and
discuss the scriptures every morning, after breakfast. And they would
still have clean up tasks around the house. But the rest of the day was
theirs to spend as their interests led them. I explained that I
believed in them, in their ability to educate themselves. They both
flashed me cautious smiles. I got the feeling they were starting to get
excited. Their brains were spinning with all the ideas of what they
wanted to do. I did ask that they not play with their friends until
after lunchtime. And TV never was an option. (We have an old black and
white which we leave unplugged in our unfinished basement, and bring up
only 2 or 3 times a year.) "I want whatever we do to be your
choice," I said. "If you want to give up your music lessons, that's
your choice, too. And the Great Brain projects. I don't want to do
something just because it's my idea." But they chose to continue with
violin and piano lessons. They chose to join a home school drama group
and to try out learning Italian with three other neighborhood children.
So we do have some scheduled hours every week. But they are
scheduled by the children, not by me. The rest of the time we spend
largely reading, pursuing projects and hobbies, playing, and going on
field trips to visit interesting places or people. I clip articles out
of the newspaper every night and share them with the children in the
morning. Sometimes the articles inspire us to write a poem or a story,
sometimes they spark an idea for a Great Brain project. Sometimes, they
lead us to make a call and ask if we can tour someplace or visit
someone with an interesting hobby. John Hold said, "A
child's curiosity grows because of what it feeds upon. It is our job to
help find the food." The "food" might be reference books, art supplies,
craft materials, scientific tools, musical instruments, games of
reasoning and logic. Unschooling families often find that just putting
something out on the living room table, no explanation given, is all
the child needs to start exploring and experimenting. Another
sure way to fire interest is for a parent to just start working on his
own interests. When my husband decided to purchase a kit and make his
own telescope, the children were irresistibly attracted to his working
area each night when he came home from work. They wanted to watch, to
help, to talk about it, to make suggestions. If it was interesting to
him, it was interesting to them! The fears and concerns I
most often hear expressed when people talk about unschooling are: What
about math? What about college? What if they go back to school? What if
they don't do anything all day? Some of you may be familiar
with the Colfax family, with three sons who attended Harvard. They have
done very well by academic standards and yet Micki Colfax says, We
didn't have any set program that even remotely looked like a public
school program until the boys were fifteen or seventeen...They did math
when they were seventeen and eighteen, and it was easy for them when
they were doing more complex math because the maturation had taken
place... "We did not sit around the kitchen table and do
schoolwork ever. They sat down at the kitchen table and did schoolwork
when they were fifteen or seventeen in order to prepare to go to
college - once they decided they wanted to go to college. But there was
never this notion of the fluttering mother hanging around and saying
you have to finish that page before you go out!" Raymond
Moore, who has written many valuable books on home school, tells of a
famous psychiatrist, J.T. Fisher, whose father insisted he go out and
live on a ranch at the age of eight, before he began formal schooling.
He returned from the ranch at age 13, and started schooling, beginning
only then to learn to read and write. He finished 12 grades in three
years. Fisher believed that any normal child with a wholesome home life
could do the same. An experiment in connection with Columbia
University found that if mat is delayed - even as late as the seventh
grade when children are more mature in their reasoning - they will
learn faster and easier and will outdistance others. (See Home School
Burnout p. 47) In regard to going back into public school,
Earl Stevens writes, "Unless a child has been doing nothing but
hunting, fishing, and living off the land like Tarzan, it is usually an
easy matter to prepare for school entry in a fairly short period of
time. Some kids will need to do practically nothing. Others may need to
do some calm background preparation in one or two specific areas." What If My Child Doesn't Do Anything All Day? This
seems to be a problem mostly with children who have spent a long time
sitting in classrooms and who are used to being told what to do from
moment to moment. Most families find that the child needs time and a
patient, loving parent to help them find their real interests and
hobbies. (See Bibliography for details on Bringing Your Children Home -
The Transition Period.) How Can I Tell if Unschooling is Working? This
is the fun part. Observe your child. Is he happy? Is there a good
feeling in your home? Is your child interested in the world and the
things that people do? Does he feel good about his abilities? Does she
like to explore places and ideas? Then it's working. George
Bernard Shaw said: "What we want to see is the child in pursuit of
knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child." But they need space,
freedom, and time. I used to take the best time away from them. I
insisted that we do math or science or history in the morning when they
were fresh. Then, whey they were done with all of my "have to"s, they
could work on projects or hobbies of their own choosing. They often
didn't have much energy left for those things. By that time, they just
wanted a break; to ride their bike, to swing on the swings, to get away
from me or from the house. Now I've given the mornings back
to them. Our scheduled classes are mostly in the afternoons, and that
prime time when the world is fresh and the day is new, is all theirs.
And they delight me with the stories they write, the creations they
sew, the games they invent. How Important Is It To Give Children Freedom? Harold
McMurdy, a researcher for the Smithsonian Institute, surveyed the
backgrounds of hundreds of outstanding people, and wrote that they had
three things in common. - Warm, responsive parents who minimize structure.
- Much more time with parents that with peers.
- Been given generous freedom, under parental guidance, to work out their own ideas and explore for themselves.
That
freedom is so hard for us to give, sometimes. It is so hard to trust
children to define their own education, and to recognize their play as
their work. Nancy Wallace's book Child's Work, Susannah Sheffer writes
that "...at first (Nancy) interrupted the children's doll play without
giving much thought to how much this upset them. Gradually, she learned
that they felt just as frustrated by those interruptions as Nancy felt
when someone interrupted her while she was writing. In other words,
Vita and Ishmael saw themselves as busy, as engaged in important
work...Thus, her story is about...learning to recognize that the
ordinary activities of childhood are as valuable and as deserving of
respect as any important adult work... "What if all children
had time to experiment, to pursue their own work, to draw on the
resources around them? Might we then discover that children's
capacities, and their ability to find work they love and pursue it
wholeheartedly, are greater that we ever dreamed?" I believe
in this. I believe in my children. Once in awhile, another child will
say to my 10 year old, "I can say the timetables up to eight. You wanna
hear 'em?" She says, "OK", and when they're done, she says, "Do you
want to hear a song about Prime Numbers? It goes up to 101!" She is not
interested in timetables right now, but she is interested in life. And
someday, when timetables are useful or interesting to her, I have
confidence that she will memorize them as quickly as she memorized the
constellations or the names of the arches in our national parks. How Do We Define Education? Some
months ago, Lynn Stoddard, one of the authors of the book Designing
Education for Human Greatness, wrote a letter to the editor which
appeared in the Deseret News. He wrote that the word "educate" comes
from the Latin "educare", which means "to draw forth", not "to pour
in", as we do in traditional curriculum-based education. This certainly
fits with my new role as an "unschooling Mom". I am no longer a teacher
so much as I am a partner in learning and growing with my children. My
major role is to help draw forth the interests, the abilities, the
potential inside them by providing tools and trust, resources and time,
opportunities and freedom. Good books about unschooling - Learning
All the Time, by John Holt. $7.50 plus shipping. How children and do
pick up the basics on their own, and the unfolding of the children's
self-initiated education. Very interesting!
- Better Than
School, by Nancy Wallace. $9.95 plus shipping. How the Wallaces decided
to teach their own, and the unfolding of the children's self-initiated
education. Very interesting!
- Child's Work, by Nancy
Wallace. $10.95 plus shipping. A continuation of Nancy's first book,
about how her children grew up and found work they love.
- Free
At Last, by Daniel Greenberg. $6.50 plus shipping. The story of the
Sudbury Valley School, where students are given great freedom to learn
what they want to learn, when they want to learn it. Nearly all of them
gained entrance to the college of their first choice and/or become a
solid, contributing member of their community.
- I Learn Best by Teaching Myself, by Agnes Leistico. The author gives specifics on how they unschooled in their home.
- The
Teenage Liberation Handbook, How to Quit School and Get a Real
Education, by Grace Llewellyn. Inspiring book for teenagers just
starting home school or for parents of teenagers. Guides for planning
your own curriculum, getting into college, finding apprenticeships.
Firsthand accounts by many youth.
- Plus, for an ongoing
resource of unschooling experiences and insights, order the magazine
Growing Without Schooling. ($25 per year, 6 issues.) Growing Without
Schooling, 2269 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140.
The preceeding were notes from a workshop taught at the UHEA Convention. |
