The Unschooling Movement

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, last year almost 50 million American students enrolled into public school, with nearly 6 million attending private schools. A growing number forgo either of those, as over 2 million students were homeschooled. Lumped with the latter group, however, is an educational movement unlike traditional schooling at all – unschooling.

Like any movement, way of thought, or lifestyle, how people define it varies greatly. It can be described as child-led learning, natural learning, and interest-led. In his newsletter Growing Without Schooling, John holt defined unschooling “as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world as their parents can comfortably bear.” It’s a philosophy in which parents allow their children to live and learn in the way that works best for them, through day-to-day experiences and opportunities, without forced curriculum.

The fundamental drive behind it is the thought that children are naturally curious about the world; they seek out activities and adventures that interest them and learn on their own. Children are given the freedom to spend their days in whatever ways excite them or give them pleasure, as well as something even more important. Their parents give them their trust in allowing them to pursue their own interest; they get trust in the assurance they will learn the things they need to know, when they need to know them.

This, of course, brings up one of the major criticisms of unschooling. It’s argued that children, being young and inexperienced, aren’t intelligent or wise enough to know what knowledge will be necessary later on in life. Only skilled educators and administrators should decide what needs to be learned and by what age....

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...t, economics, etc. Even discounting channels like Discovery, television can be a wealth of information. Exploring the creek at the end of the street can be a valuable lesson in science and biological ecosystems. Parents and their willingness to involve their children in the world around them are what make the difference between educational and uneducational.

John Holy, regarded as the father of unschooling, wrote in his book How Children Fail,

It is as true now as it was then that no matter what tests show, very little of what is taught in school is learned, very little of what is learned is remembered, and very little of what is remembered is used. The things we learn, remember, and use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, nonschool parts of our lives.

Works Cited

Holt, John. How Children Fail. New York; Pitman Publishing Company, 1964.