On Unschooling
In 2007, I was working as a middle school teacher at a small private school on Guam. I was unhappy, stressed out, and missing my babies. At the time Seth and Noelle were 3 and 1 and in daycare.
Not only was I unhappy, my son who at the time was in the sixth grade was unhappy — mostly bored with his classes and was not very motivated to participate in the goings on of school.
It was then that I started to think about alternatives to teaching and traditional learning for my kids. Fortunately for us, my sister-in-law had been homeschooling her daughter and would often talk to us about their successes and how much fun they were having doing it. I was skeptical at first, because I was a teacher after all and believed what was so ingrained in me about the necessity of traditional education. After much thought and discussion, we decided to give homeschooling a try.
In the beginning, we tried methods of homeschool that we thought would most benefit our kids. Styles that were more structured and parent led. After some time of trial and error, we came to understand that learning occurs in every instance of life. Thus, our decision for unschooling.
It’s hard to let go of the ideas that are so prevalent in society about how children should be learning. But, we had to trust that our children could and would learn what was interesting to them when they wanted to in the manner in which they choose. I see that when they are motivated to learn about something, they are good at using the resources afforded to them to do just that. To learn.
Our days are not structured at all. We talk with our kids and find out what they are currently passionate about. We encourage them to be creative and to find things out for themselves. We are around for guidance but the choice is ultimately theirs. Of course, there are some things that we regulate. Those things that we feel would be harmful to them. But, they are essentially in control of what it is that they would like to learn.
It’s the coolest thing to listen to your 10-year-old son talk for days about Greek mythology. Watch him devour books on that very subject. To have so much pride in seeing your daughter (ever determined) spend hours, days, months learning how to origami, make friendship bracelets, learn Japanese, draw, try her hand at voice acting and song writing, animating, start a cupcake business. To feel absolute joy when you read what your nine-year-old wrote on her blog about all of the things she is thankful for or, seeing her create videos for her YouTube channel. It’s inspiring to see in them the desire to learn how to program. To see them work together to achieve goals.
There are some aspects of unschooling that may not be like those of traditional learning that I sometimes worry about. There are triumphs and failures. But, overall I am so happy that we decided to do it. I’ve learned so much on this journey and am excited to see how things work out for them.