Unschooling is also known as natural, interest-led, and child-led learning. Unschoolers learn from everyday life experiences and do not use school schedules or formal lessons. Instead, unschooled children follow their interests and learn in much the same way as adults do-by pursuing an interest or curiosity. In the same way that children learn to walk and talk, unschooled children learn their math, science, reading, and history. John Holt, schoolteacher and founder of the un-schooling movement, told educators in his book, What Do I Do Monday?: "We can see that there is no difference between living and learning, that living is learning, that it is impossible, and misleading, and harmful to think of them as being separate. We say to children, you come to school to learn.' We say to each other [educators], 'our job in school is to teach children to learn.' But the children have been learning, all the time, for all of their lives before they met us. What is more, they are very likely to be much better at learning than most of us who plan to teach them something."
Typical Unschooling Schedule
Every unschooler's schedule is different and will follow the interest of the child for that day.
- Mornings: Children wake up when they are rested and decide for themselves what they would like to do that day. Some unschooling parents give their children a list of chores to do and suggestions for different activities for the day. Many uncschooled children establish goals for themselves and work with their parents to set up a schedule that will help them achieve that goal. Each day will be different. One day, the child may be hungry to learn new spelling words, so they will do spelling first thing in the morning. On another day, the child may be excited to set up a special science experiment and may run to the kitchen first thing to begin their project. Unschooling parents have a tendency to leave educational materials out for their children to "discover" -they may leave the microscope out on the kitchen table, or a new book on the coffee table, or a new cookbook in the kitchen. They direct their children's learning by stimulating the child's interest in a particular project or subject.
- Afternoons: Many unschoolers spend their afternoons out in the community - volunteering at the library, working at a part-time job, or taking private lessons. Unschoolers have a tendency to pursue their interests passionately and in depth for a time and then move on to their next interest. They also have a tendency to stay up late, engrossed in a good book.
For help, unschoolers turn to other homeschoolers and to the community. They set up classes and clubs together. They trade private lessons with other homeschoolers. They do not take tests and do not teach to state-mandated standards or schedules.
Ms. Pat Montgomery, homeschooling adviser for forty-seven years and founder of Clonlara Private Day School, defined unschooling in a speech she made to parents at a homeschooling conference in August 2001, titled "Unschooling: Catch the Spirit."
I think, first we have to define what unschooling is, because it is different things to different people. For some it is living and learning without any school at all. For others, it means not using any prepackaged materials. For others, it is letting kids do whatever they want. For me, unschooling is taking responsibility for your own learning and the learning of those around you. It's focusing on the interests of the child. It's focusing on your own interests, your own abilities. It's learning in spurts and it's goofing off-not necessarily in equal doses. And, all of it, for me, spells freedom. Freedom to learn. Freedom is never given. It is taken.
Unschoolers embrace that freedom and believe strongly that learning happens naturally and effortlessly and they trust in their child's ability to direct their own learning. Jebediah Purdy was allowed to spend his formative years learning naturally on a West Virginia farm. Much of this time was spent reading, being read to, roaming the woods, creating collections of natural objects, and receiving lectures on political economy while helping a Yale-graduate-turned-farmer neighbor put up hay. Jebediah moved on to Harvard, then to Yale Law School, where he was a student when he wrote the critically acclaimed For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today. It's no surprise that Jebediah sees a future of limitless possibilities, "a combination of teaching, writing, and doing public work, probably in the areas of environment and human rights," he says, pursuing his lifelong interest through the design of international standards for the environment.* The advantage to unschooling is that unschooled children have the time and research abilities to become experts in their areas of interest, just like Jebediah did. The disadvantage is that because unschoolers do not follow the typical school schedule, they may not do as well on grade-level assessments and may have a harder time if they reenter the school system.
*This quote originally appeared in Homeschoolers Success Stories by Linda Dobson (Prima, 2000), p. 38.