Thoughts on Unschooling
The term “unschooling” is a polarizing term. As with many things these days, the term invokes strong opposition from proponents of a more structured approach, and complete buy-in from the side that has taken the term as a central part of their identity.
First off, what is “unschooling”? It’s defined in many ways, but it has one core principle that seem to be agreed upon by almost all its proponents.
Learning must be self directed. The child has the right to choose what they will learn.
This is a philosophical belief about the rights of a child, applied to the context of education.
Does the unschooling philosophy have merit?
I believe that it does. Certainly it is taken to the extreme by some proponents who shun all structured learning situations, to the detriment of their children. However you could also argue that other parents subscribe to far too MUCH structured learning, which is also detrimental.
For me, unschooling reminds us that natural learning does occur for children, as they are innately curious about the world around them. Especially at a young age, they must be allowed to explore and to gather perceptual nodes of data about the world around them. They must learn through their senses of sight, smell, sound, etc. They must be allowed sustained time to focus on particular objects. To play with them. To ask questions about them. This is learning.
However, that is not what ALL learning is. There is knowledge that took humans millennia to discover. Great minds build upon the knowledge of other great minds to better conceptualize the world around us. Scientific discoveries have led to recent progress that is unmatched throughout history. It is at this point that many unschooling opponents conclude that these deeper lessons are impossible to discover on one’s own, and therefore unschooling results in a child no more well educated than a simple caveman who’s mind is withheld to only those things that can be perceived through ones senses. If unschooling didn’t allow kids to read books, take classes, and delve deeply into topics, then this would be a valid critique. If unschooling ONLY involved free play, and it was never guided by others, sure you’d be very limited in the feedback you could get from the world around you. But outside of the 9 or so unschoolers that don’t allow children to use books or technology and shun parental guidance, it certainly IS POSSIBLE to learn these things AND unschool.
Are there valid critiques?
Yes, I believe there are, most of which are grounded in human nature. My first would be in reference to to crux of Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking Fast and Slow. In it he points to humans biological need to save energy as a prime deterrent to thinking hard about a subject. It takes energy (as in burning actual calories) to think hard about something. To save energy, our minds usually make a best guess based upon what we know (the things we’ve memorized and are stored in our long term memory). We can draw on more bits of information if we have more knowledge stored in our long term memory. However if a child has NO guidance in what things will lead to a better conceptual framework of the world, there are no guarantees that the necessary background knowledge will be acquired with which to gain that robust conceptual framework. Some unschoolers provide this guidance to their kids, and others take a hard line stance against providing this guidance to avoid “coercing” the child to learn what they want. I personally advocate for the former.
What about having the resources and knowledge available to learn deeply about topics? Isn’t this where schools excel? Some perhaps. Well staffed and well equipped schools have the physical materials and resources to teach everything from science to art, music and theater to physical education. However it’s certainly not distributed evenly. Professional teachers could be the best way to motivate and teach kids about a subject, and while some teachers are, many others are not. (I’ll write a separate article defining “teachers” vs tutors vs guides at some point). Many of these resources are available outside the school building. It’s just a matter of finding and networking them into a coherent system. (This is a problem we are working on at MySchool.)
Even if a parent guides their children to learn certain things, and they are able to find resources to substitute for the ones that schools hold exclusive dominion over, how can the parents ensure they help guide their kids to all the things they should know? How do you ensure they don’t miss things? Again, I find this a legitimate question. I think the complete lack of structure is a major deterrent for many families, and I have no answer to this one.
Instead I have an alternative proposal. Education should be a combination between structured education and unstructured education. The split between them changes in proportion to the age of the child. Up until age 3, it’s pretty much 100% unschooling. All free play and guided play. Beyond that structured learning should be included, and increased as the child ages, but limited to certain core subjects including those from which a deeper understanding of the world around us can arise, and other subjects, vocational skills, hobbies, etc SHOULD be pursued, but generally pursued through an unschooling or self-directed philosophy.
HOW would you do that through a traditional school that requires attendance 5 days/week? Frankly, you can’t. Educational systems need to increase their flexibility to allow for an approach that embraces this diversity of learning experiences. Long term, this may be possible. In the short term, it is ONLY POSSIBLE by homeschooling or though some other non-traditional educational option. That’s frankly why we homeschool. You can combine unstructured and structured learning in a more balanced way, whereas traditional schooling greatly overemphasizes the time allocated for structured learning to the great detriment of children.
Overall, I’m confident this will be the best path for my own children, and I hope that my work helps to expand these opportunities to more kids as well.
