Greetings from the land of ice and snow!
I attended a wonderful online group meeting the other day, where we were discussing all things homeschooling. As sometimes happens, the subject of unschooling came up (it's been in the news lately). I've touched on my feelings on the subject in the past....
Let me just throw it right out there: I'm not a fan of using an approach that is soley child led, with no structure or goals set forth whatsoever. I realize that I come from a background as a college-degreed educator, who spent over 10 years in the public school environment in one form or another. This means that, at least in part, I partook of some of the kool aid and decided it didn't all taste disgusting. As a society, we are arguably better off because of the public school system, because prior to its existence, very few were literate. Now that the majority of society is literate, however, I feel the role of the public school system is changing.
Now that we have a generation of mostly-literate adults, we are now in a great position to make different choices for the education of our children. We now have enough adults who are able to read and write in a position where they can adequately teach their own children how to read and write (for example). We now have sooooo many resources available from which to learn, from free public libraries to the internet. We no longer need to accept that the public school system is the mandatory system it once needed to be in order to produce a literate public. There are other ways to produce a literate public, and more and more people are availing themselves of those ways each year.
I do, however, feel that certain criteria and standards are helpful in order to prepare students for further education, and I feel that certain standards are important in order to have a competitive society. By the time a child reaches the age of 18, I feel that (barring any physical/mental/intellectual delays or challenges) they should have the basics in "the three r's". In my mind, "the basics" means they would be competent to enter a community college with their skills.
I do try, however, to present subjects that might not be of immediate and intense interest in ways that feel relevant and in which my children can feel a sense of value.
For example: My son has pencil-grip issues, and so writing is always a challenge for him. That doesn't mean, however, that I am going to wait for him to have interest in writing. What it means is that I keep his writing assignments to an absolute minimum, and I have them be about subjects in which he has an interest.
For the rest of the week, I allow his writing to be in the form of typing on the computer. When he's playing online games and using the chat feature, by necessity he needs to formulate sentences that make sense to others. I did give him the criteria, however, that he is to use good grammar when chatting. In other words, "wher u gone?" is not acceptable. He must write "Where did you go?" or similar sentences with proper grammar. It is slower to take the time to do this, but he knows that in order to be allowed to play on these games, it's part of the package deal.
It only takes a little extra effort, and does not take away from his enjoyment of his game.
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Of course, for those following along, this is where we veer away from the Waldorf approach. I know they don't approve of technology for kids before a certain age (I think puberty is where they draw that line). I do appreciate their reasons - mainly that it is a distraction from imaginary and open-ended play, somehow warps brain cells, somehow discourages play in nature, and any number of ill effects.
My son spends plenty of time each day in imaginary and open-ended play. He loves to listen to stories and enjoys music. He enjoys being outside (provided it's not 20 below zero outside!) and is a wonderful observer of nature. We don't watch a lot of TV in our home, so commercialism is not a real part of our lives. My son, for example, couldn't even come up with a Christmas list! He is so grateful for and happy with what he already has, that he felt no urgency about any commercial items whatsoever.
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I realize I have digressed a bit away from unschooling, but I wanted to point out that our learning environment is one in which we take elements that work and discard ones that do not.
I'm not a fan of math, nor are my skills in the subject great (great understatement here!), but because I had a basic understanding of it, I am able to:
do my own taxes, balance a check book, figure out tipping % in a restaurant, factor the price-per-unit in a grocery store to find the best deal, and (very shockingly) it allowed me to not only hold a clerical job at a large local insurance company for two years when I was in college, but also to acquire a summer job as an accountant for a local country club one summer! When you consider my general dis-ease with math (and disliking of it!), these seem like particularly good selling points for basic skills in subjects that might not be someone's favorites!
If you've held on this far, I'm not only amazed,but impressed!
I'd now like to put a plug in for some child-led learning now.
Yes, now that I've made the case for ensuring children are exposed to basic subjects, I'd like to make the case that not *all* of a child's education should be structured and dictated by parents!!!
I try to keep a minimum of our day/week filled with structured learning (and as mentioned above, I do my best to relate the subject to the kids and their interests whenever possible). The rest of the time, I stay in the loop with what my kids are interested in and then help them find meaningful activities in the areas they are excited about.
My son, for example, loves history. We are listening to Story of The World (vol 2) on audiobook, which he cannot get enough of. He doesn't just want to race through the book, however. Instead, he likes to dive deeper into each chapter. We recently finished the chapter on how Christianity came to England (St. Augustine of Canterbury), and from there my son wanted to watch videos and look up more info about St. Augustine. We checked out videos on the types of manuscripts created by the monks in the middle ages, and watched some skits by Horrible Histories on youtube about the era.
We located Canterbury on a map and saw how far the travel was from Italy. We chatted about the pros and cons of monastic life, as well as the helpful and possible hurtful results of religious conversion (in particular as it relates to St. Augustine and his followers). We discussed some ethics of the mission as well, which always brings about interesting conversations!
We spent an extra week on this chapter, and while I might have been tempted to push forward to keep up with a timeline, I am happy to let my son decide the direction we go into for a while.
The ideas my son is pondering right now are things that will very likely spur our learning into other directions as we move along. I suspect we'll take lots of side trips whenever we study history, since he has such a great interest in it. While he's so on fire for this subject, we're going to indulge him.
For us, the key is to find a balance. Part of his day includes math worksheets at the table along with a reading and writing assignment (usually on a topic he enjoys), and the rest of the morning may be all about digging deeper into history. The afternoon often winds down with a science exploration of some kind, with read-aloud time to round out the evening.
Happiness for us is when there's no unhappy coercion, when difficult/less-desirable subjects are presented in a gentle way, and when lots of time is allotted for child-led and interest-driven learning.
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