Unschooling an experiment? Say it isn't so.

We keep talking about unschooling as an experiment.
But is it?
Perhaps it is schooling that is the experiment- the gamble we take when we throw kids into institutionalized schooling.
After all, institutionalized schooling is a relatively new idea.. It's only 160 years old or so.

I would prefer to say unschooling adventure-rather than experiment.  We can be experimenting with unschooling, We can experiment when we unschool- that is we can pursue interests and experiment with these interests.
But the act of unschooling is not an experiment. We are not conducting a controlled test. There are no controlled conditions. That would be schooling.

Here's a neat quote from a famous composer, Edvard Grieg:

He preferred the dream world to the real one. At the Bergen school he was regarded as both lazy and stupid. He devised all kinds of ingenious methods for being sent home from school, or for coming to school late. He hated his studies and resented being a continual object of ridicule for his teachers. "At that time," Grieg later recalled in an autobiographical sketch, "the school seemed to me nothing but an unmitigated nuisance, I could not understand in what respect all the torment connected with it were to a child's advantage. Even today I have not the least doubt that the school developed only what was bad in me and left the good untouched."
p315 -Milton Cross 'Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and Their Music (Doubleday 1962)

Control

I've been reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton with my 12 year old (for bedtime reading), on the recommendation of my 13 year old.

It's her favorite series right now.
I am gathering a world of wisdom for the one character, Ian Malcolm, mathematician and skeptic of the project (recreating dinosaurs from DNA extracts found in amber) from the get go.
Here's a good one about control and is in keeping with my thoughts on

"You know what we are really talking about here," Malcolm said. "All this attempt to control...We are talking about Western attitudes that are five hundred years old. They began at the time when Florence, Italy, was the most important city in the world. The basic ideas of science- that there was a new way to look at reality, that it was objective, that it did not depend on your beliefs or your nationality, that it was rational- that idea was fresh and exciting back then. It offered promised  and hope for the future and it swept away the old medieval system, which was hundreds of years old, the medieval world of feudal politics and religious dogma and hateful superstitions fell before science. But, in truth, this was because the medieval world didn't really work any more. It didn't work economically, it didn't work intellectually, and it didn't fit the new world that was emerging."

"But now," he continued, "science is the belief system that is hundreds of years old. And, like the medieval system before it, science is starting not to fit the world anymore. Science has attained so much power that its practical limits begin to be apparent. Largely through science, billions of us live in one small world, densely packed and intercommunicating. But science cannot help us decide what to do with that world, or how to live. Science can make a nuclear reactor, but it cannot tell us not to build it. And our world starts to seem polluted in fundamental ways-air, and water, and land-because of ungovernable science." He sighed. "This much is obvious to everyone."
...."at the same time, the great intellectual justification of science has vanished. Ever since Newton and Descartes, science has explicitly offered us the vision of total control. Science has claimed the power to eventually control everything, through its understanding of natural laws. But in the twentieth century, that claim has been shattered beyond repair. First, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle set limits on what we could know about the subatomic world. It doesn't make any practical difference as we go through our lives. Then Godel's theorem set similar limits to mathematics, the formal language of science. Mathematicians used to think that their language had some special  inherent trueness that derived from teh lasws of logic. Now we knw that what we call reason is just an arbitrary game. it's not special, in the way we thought it was.

 "And now chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives. It i mundane as the rainstorm we cannot predict. And so the grand vision of science, hundred of year old-the dream of control-has died in our century. .. Science has always said that it many not know everything now but it will know eventually. But now we see that isn't rue. It is an idle boast. As foolish, and as misguided,a s the child who jumps off a building because he believes he can fly."
...We are witnessing the end of the scientific era. Science like other outmoded systems, is destroying itself. As it gains in power it proves incapable of handling the power. Because things are going very fast now.....And that will force everyone to ask the same question- What should I do with my power>-which is the very question that science says it cannot answer."

"So what will happen?" Ellie said.

Malcolm shrugged. "A change."
p312-313 

Grown Unschooler Candra Kennedy shares her thoughts about growing up unschooled

Candra Kennedy is an adult unschooler living in Philadelphia. She leads a very busy life working at two different places teaching individuals with visible impairment. Kennedy is a script writer currently putting the finishing touches on a play she has written for a fringe festival coming up in September

She is also recording an album that she wrote.
Kennedy has produced youtube videos as a response to Good Morning America's mostly negative and ignorant portrayal of unschooling.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp-6VgpcQ-8

Listen to her share her views and insights on unschooling and growing up unschooled.
http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/50383

Read more from Kennedy at her tumblr:
http://stumblegoat.tumblr.com/

What advice can you give a kid who wants to leave school and is trying to convince his or her parents that it is a good idea?

I think that if you want to get out of school, it's best to not just focus on how bad school is for you but focus on all the positive things that will happen if you are out of school; all the good things that you will accomplish if you are not in an institutionalized educational setting. Candra Kennedy

Learning to learn-and is there a problem here?

In his article Problem Solving- A skill for the 21st century, Richard Rusczyk, mathematician and founder of Art of Problem Solving understands that getting straight As in Math will not guarantee you a spot on the 'intellectual frontier' of our times- the cutting edge -where the action is.

He gets that the skills for that can't be taught, 
"because no one knows what specific skills will be important in the future."

As another mathematician Paul Lockhart said, "I worry that the most talented mathematician of our time may be a waitress in Tulsa, Oklahoma who considers herself bad at math."

 

Where I take issue with the article though is his  thinking that we have to learn to learn.

I don't think so. I am getting really, really tired of this ridiculous notion that masquerades as a fundamental truth or wisdom, when really it is a manufactured and unquestioned belief readily perpetrated by 'school type' thinking.

"Learning to learn" is another brainwashing concept that gets bandied about making people feel again that they have to go to school in order to learn.....how to learn?

We already know how to learn -until someone tells us otherwise. Or until they unknowingly mess it up for us. When we need to learn something- we learn it.
Some learn things faster than others. Some will never be able to learn a skill to any level of proficiency. So how can a person "learn how to learn?"

I also question the idea that what we need in this world more than anything else are problem solvers. In an interview with John Taylor Gatto we discussed that notion. He said that problem solvers are often the cause of even worse problems.

The biggest hype that comes through school, is that the highest form of thinking is problem solving. That is very far from the truth. Problem solvers are valuable people who often cause hideous problems because they don’t understand that their problem is part of a much more complex context. That by solving their problem, they might make things considerably worse. The example, I usually use is the problem that was set long ago to America’s best biological scientists. It was to come up with a bug spray that kills all the bugs so we could double and triple and quadruple food harvests and they did. They solved the problem. It was called DDT. And by 1960 the whole food chain on the planet was being threatened by the accumulation of this poison that didn’t biodegrade, and past some point caused sterility. So by solving the problem, which they did brilliantly, they put life on the planet at peril. You see what I mean about problem solving. The great thinkers are people who think in contexts and understand the historical and the economic, the philosophical, the religious, the social aspects of what they are thinking about. So they can judge whether a problem should be solved, or forgotten, or lots of stages in between. That takes judgment.

What we need to learn as far as I can see is limits. We need to learn to stop and consider before rushing ahead with our 'wonderful, so fantastic solutions.'

A week in the life of an unschooler

I am very busy. So busy that sometimes I feel like I am neglecting my unschooling 12 year old. So today, I am going to write down what's happened this past week (that I can recall anyway) and see just how bad it is:
Sunday.
She and her friend help out at the launch of a youth group I start at my place of work (an environmental organization).
There, they help put the display boards up and set the table for the refreshments.
When the youth arrive they watch the film "the story of stuff.' After juice and pizza the youth (all older and in high school) gather to discuss what ideas we can move ahead with.
My daughter is unafraid to be one of the first standing up and suggesting that kids like to  "be a part of something that is cool," and that we need to have something to draw other kids to social change - "has to be catchy."
The other kids agree.
They decide that they want to create an anti- ad video for screening at film festivals, schools, and other community groups.
Back home, she pines for a dog. She reads. Plays piano.
Monday
My daughter who likes a little 'self created' structure and a bit of a plan to her day begins the morning by doing some math (with my help) from a work book we picked up at Chapters. She then writes a three page essay on her favorite soccer player, is disgusted that her favorite female soccer play does not even have her own team. She listens to music.
She goes out to the yard to check on her quinzhee hut that her dad and she built. We then head to the library and to get groceries. She pines for a dog.
She does a lot of facebook, talks on the phone, goes sledding with her friend  next door. In the evening she has a piano lesson.
She goes to bed and I read her  Jurassic Park where we learn about DNA, chaos theory, genetic engineering technology and what happens when humans do not understand nor respect natural limits.
Tuesday
She tidies the house, pines for a dog, listens to me read the news, reads a little of Jurassic Park, listens to music and works on her dance routine, reads up on Koala bears and then goes out to check on her hut. Does a little math and makes grilled cheese. Goes cross country skiing with her dad. Her oldest sister has her watch Hetalia (anime manga) and tells her about the cold war and the countries involved in that and more about the axis powers --and how she plans to 'cos play,' (dress up) as England at the spring Anime North conference in Toronto and would she like to come too?
In the evening, we go to a free lecture given by an astronaut ('Planetary Stewardship). She aims to get his signature and she does.

Wednesday,
She helps her older sister decide what to wear to school. She watches a film about wildlife in the amazon, she researches how she can start her own animal rescue group and how she can raise money for WWF. She contacts the WWF to find out how to get her fundraising package.
She decides that drawing might be the answer and she immediately begins a collection.  She does some math. I remind her that she needs to practice piano. In the evening she watches Billy Elliot and learns about strikes, scabs and the tough life of miners as well as following your dream- if you have one. She pines for a dog. She goes to bed with a bed time story (Jurassic Park).

Thursday
We read the news online. Friends come over for French language and drawing. We get bagels at the coffee shop and stop to talk to neighbors. She walks the neighbor's dogs and pines for a dog.At dinner time we talk about GLBTQ rights. In the evening we go to our hip hop class. We read some more of Jurassic Park. She also has another book on the go (How to Steal a Dog) and reads until lights out. 

Friday
She hangs out with her dad. They see what the weather and temperature is like in other parts of the world. They go skating and then to the University where he works. She shows the students how to make buttons for their working group. She has a chess game and nearly beats her dad. She pines for a dog. She reads. She goes on facebook and talks on the phone with her friends. At dinner, we talk about when it is appropriate to intervene if you think a friend has depression. We discuss depression and it's causes. She plays piano, reads and goes to bed.
Saturday
In the morning she goes track and field. We walk back home stopping at the library. She hangs out on the computer.Her sister and she make funny video clips. In the afternoon she goes to soccer and then hangs out with her friend. They dress up in costumes and play spies.  She pines for a dog. They have a sleep over.

All this, and much much more.  It really helped to put this down and understand the breadth of authentic learning: all that living and learning -learning incidentally, problem solving, researching, creating, collaborating, self-directing-that we might not think to account for if we go by the book.

Lament for Japan

Everything I wanted to blog about this weekend now seems frivolous and insensitive in the face of the horror that is happening in Japan. Japan, my heart and thoughts go out to you, Island nation.

We who are in Canada, protected for now by our geography, are not immune to your suffering.
Tonight, while I look at the footage coming in over the internet, while I read the words on the paper I
can not find words to express my sorrow and chagrin for the people of this country.

Wake up. The poisons that are currently being released will not be contained nor isolated in a little corner of the earth. We, the offspring of Earth can no longer talk endlessly of change. We are being forced to change- our destructive ways,our greed for more, our egocentricity. Big changes are happening-whether we like it or not.

Unschooling Rules?

Who is this book for? Who is the audience? 

 That's the first question to come to my mind when I opened up the pdf file for the Unschooling Rules:55 ways to unlearn what we know about school and rediscover education.

 Is it written for people who don't know anything about unschooling? Is it for people who know about this strategy for educating and who want to show case how good a job unschooling does?

After reading this short, concise work, I think the author Clark Aldrich would have done better to name the book Unschooling Schools or Unschooling Lessons:What  teachers should know or Transforming the classroom with Unschooling.

Turns out the book is aimed at people who have numbers of children in their care. If you are thinking of starting an alternative school the book is for you.

In an ironic choice of wording,  Unschooling Rules is more of a handbook, a curriculum for how to educate kids better. Using the knowledge garnered from unschooling proponents, Aldrich describes how 'self-directed learning' theory can be applied to a school setting/ or to a group of kids situation.

For the most part, Aldrich does a very satisfying job of summarizing the unschooling philosophy in a very simple, clear way.

But there are paragraphs where I'm thinking, "Yes. But no."

Take this:

Whatever learning activities adults want children to perform, they have to model themselves. If they want children to read novels, they have to read novels. If they want children to do science experiments, they have to do science experiments. If they want children to write blogs, they have to write blogs.

Unschoolers understand that 'modeling in order to influence' is inauthentic and kids know.
They know when you are doing something for 'their own good.' You, the adult with a young person or young people in your care should not do a thing with the goal of trying to 'get' them to do that thing. Do it because you love it.
There are so many pursuits out there- why restrict kids to what YOU think is the most worthwhile?

Here is another idea that does not fit with unschooling philosophy:

Math must be part of a critical core curriculum. It is one of the few subjects, along with reading and writing, worth making mandatory. No one should enter the productive world, nor can they make good life decisions,without a deep and comfortable experience with math.

This is an opinion:Aldrich's opinion.

Still, the author offers useful ideas and tips that not only those new to unschooling can learn from, but even the seasoned unschooling practitioner can make use of.

However, there remains a perfect tool and context for math for the many people who do not share that passion. And that is a good spreadsheet, which can be created with Microsoft Excel, which many people have on their computers.


The built-in math functions of a spread-sheet have accurately captured a range of abilities necessary for planners, decision makers, and scientists to use.
Finally, spreadsheets allow for accessing in-formation visually through symbols as well
as graphs. Will Wright, the brilliant creator of SimCity and e Sims, mused in a conversation we had if it wouldn’t be better initially for a person to teach math without showing any numbers at all!

Aldrich has grasped the fundamental of unschooling with the idea that less is more when it comes to education:

The truth here is that for schools, getting out of the way may be the best thing they can do. Students,
left alone, will build things. They will create unique,surprising ways to meet specific needs that only they understand (even if the need is to enable an elaborate prank).

In short, a useful book.