Reading a post by Idzie Desmarais on her blog called Unschooling is Forever there was a comment in response to this post about a boy who resented his mum for not having prepared him for entry into high school.
I was reminded of a kid I know for whom something similar happened. Only after the shock of 10 pages of math homework at worn off and the realization that his spelling and note-taking was not at 'peer level,' this bright, motivated, very confident, very well loved young man took on the responsibility (with his dear mother's support) to tackle wholeheartedly these shortcomings- which he did not view as obstacle but instead as challenges.
He too, might have felt a little dismayed at his mother's not having prepared him for entry, but he got over it quickly because he realized that he had chosen to enter school. It was his decision and instead of feeling 'behind' in these areas and so disadvantaged some how, he drew upon the many wonderful and empowering skills and qualities he developed under that mother's thoughtful guidance, nurtured through unschooling.
These were qualities such as self directed learning, curiosity and perseverance which are far more important in the long run than learning a bunch of facts or even proper spelling. These later, as the young lad is finding are easily picked up; the other kind need plenty of time to grow.
In the end, the best thing that unschooled kids learn is that they are trusted to learn what they need to and want to-that they CAN learn, WHEN and IF they want to.
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