Airy- Fairy Unschooling:National Post Reporting

I was interviewed yesterday by a National Post reporter about unschooling although she didn't end up using my interview. She seemed reasonable but as it turns out, it's the usual slant you'll read whenever you pick up an article on unschooling. This includes the critics who worry that the unschooled kids are not getting enough exposure to diversity of people.
If these critics are so concerned about overarching exposure to diversity, why aren't they worrying that public school kids are not getting exposure to kids of the rich and famous and powerful?
They're never going to rub noses with this crowd- but no one is sweating about that.

The question that those 'reporting' about unschooling always drag up is the"'what about structure?" Had the  reporter included my response in the piece, structure arises out of sustained activity that the family and children are pursuing.
Furthermore, it is not because you follow the ding- a- ling of a bell that you are 'following structure.'
Instead, you are being trained.
"Going around, unfocused, not focusing on anything," was how she put it.

What can I say?

Unschooled kids have even more opportunity then schooled kids to be focused because they have time (and less stress) to really delve into a subject or area of interest. This is not the fast- food style delivery you can expect to receive with public schooling. This is authentic learning- giving learning time to 'stew.'
I think I've already mentioned in another post about how interest based learning draws in all sorts of incidental learning. For example, my eldest who was unschooled to grade 8 and is now in grade 10 at public high school is a huge anime manga fan -and she  particularly loves the Hetalia series -a series which presents an allegorical interpretation of political and historic events, particularly of the WWII era, in which the various countries are represented by anthropomorphic characters. This deep fascination has led her to have 100% in history class as well as developing a keen interest in world politics and civics.

I really wish people would take more time to investigate the topic-you know be self directed and make the effort to educate yourself.

Concerned about what kind of adults unschooled kids will turn out to be?
There are enough studies and reports (many of these on my blog) that showcase real life grown unschoolers and what they are doing so why not read about them, talk to them, meet them?

It's like the other day,a woman -a retired teacher - who heard me saying that my kid doesn't go to school interjected with, "Oh. Unschooling? Illich and that? Well it works for some kids but often it's just all airy fairy."

Uh huh. And so schooling works for everyone does it? Every single person who goes through the system, who wears the badge of school on their chest is.. successfully educated are they? Even if this statement were true I would still come back with,"So what? So what if your education is complete? What are you doing with it? How are you bettering the community?"

Not with the whole family!

We all want our kids to get along; to really like one another. When you unschool, it’s a given that you see more of the family.  This is great for learning how to get along, resolve problems and creating strong bonds between all the members of the family. But there are times when a kid just needs a little more space and time alone.

This post is in defense of the kid having his or her own friends and interests and not having to have the whole family tag along all the time.

I write this because I’ve noticed that sometimes when I’ve put an age limit to an event I am organizing, or if I have invited a youth over to work on something with my kid (age 12), the mother will say, “No! Not without the whole family.” 

I am the first to say that learning is a family adventure. Heaven knows as a family we are all forced to learn about things from individual members by virtue of living in the family. I know for a fact I would never have taken a second look at say- Manga graphic art or Dogs and their behavior or America’s Next Top Model or canoing with Bill Manson.

But there comes a time in a child’s life when he or she wants to get serious about something-really dig into something and does not want brothers and sisters and mother trailing along.

Sometimes, the kid would simply like to hang out with friends her age or not her age-doesn’t matter but just away; but mom expects her to include the siblings.

Other times the kid’s friend is over and mom wants them (kid and friend) to include the siblings as well. In my case, I am guilty of doing the reverse where I will urge my other daughters to join the pair; “Come on. Get off the computer and hang out with them too.”

In both situations, I don’t think we as parents are showing respect towards the youth who might be wanting time away from the family-to stretch their wings and not feel obligated by expectations of ‘family togetherness.”

It comes down to a question of balance as usual. When is too much.. too much? 

As my girls get older, I recognize their desire to be less around the family.  We can not expect to be their 'one and all.' I encourage them to talk and meet with other families, adults and peers who have so much to offer.

I try to make sure though, that opportunities to strengthen family ties are present. We have our common area which is the dining room where we often work on the computers do home work, chat, eat and hang out.  This is probably the most important place for us to enhance our bonds.

I wonder how other families play out the balance between ‘with the family’ and ‘without the family’? Tell us about it.

Entitled

I was at my daughter's soccer practice a few days ago and while I waited I chatted to an acquaintance.

"How is it going?" I asked referring to his job at Mohawk College. "It's been crazy," he responded. "The Mental Health Clinic is nuts. Busy all the time we can't keep up."

" Oh?  What gives?" I asked.

"It's the damned internet," he joked. "People spending too much time online. But seriously though. It's kids coming in who are feeling depressed. They are feeling lost. They can't keep up with the work load."
What it boils down he said, is that there seems to be a sense of entitlement. A feeling of deserving the best- top marks.
"One mother came in saying that Mohawk College had better pull their socks up as her son is failing.So there is a lot of blame being put on the teachers."

Maybe it's the internet. Maybe the teachers aren't doing their jobs right. But I've come across this concern of kids feeling a sense of 'being owed,' often because they've paid good money for the courses.

The director of the not- for- profit I work at also taught an online course at one point last year and she noticed that the students in her course would often come back to her demanding that she give them a higher mark. They would get upset and angry with her when she wouldn't give it to them (as the quality was poor).

So what's this? Out of touch with reality?

One of the good things about the 'follow your interest' learning (unschooling) is that kids, from a very early age are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and for their actions. I think it is the best lesson anyone can ever have.

Today, my daughter said to me, "Humm. I'm feeling bored with the same old. I have to make my own adventure." This is a 12 year old kid who already knows that it is up to her to create her own fun; make her own path."

The tragedy of schooling is that too often people go through years and years of schooling to end up expecting others to 'make it happen' for them.

Unschooling At You

What do you do when you’re interested in something- say, ‘dark matter’ or rope making?
You go to the computer and start a google search. You go to the library and check out the resources. If you need more expertise you talk to people who have more knowledge than you do- a master in the field. You take specialized courses. You read up on everything you can find about the topic.
By mindfully pursuing what interests us, we gain expertise and mastery over that area of interest. 

Even during that period of our lives when we are in school and being schooled, outside of school hours, we continue to go after what really interests us.  Everybody does! That is what unschooling is about.


Learning follows this interest-an inevitable offshoot of doing what we want to do.
Why then is it such a leap of faith to allow children to learn in this way, everyday, during those ‘school hours’; that is, to learn without a curriculum- to unschool?

The truth is, if school as we know it shut down permanently, never to reopen again learning would still happen.


Education and learning would not stop- just as we’ve seen when we go about pursuing our interests and learning and acquire education in our everyday lives-without institutionalization. 

Should the support that schools have enjoyed for over 200 years be withdrawn or at least unsettled, rather than the predicted pandemonium and  ‘outbreak of ignorance’ scenario amongst our young citizenry, a more vibrant, self-sufficient society might have the chance to emerge; creating opportunities for and permitting that locked up part of the population to be active participants and co-creators of culture.
 
That inclusive society is already happening, eager to fully take root.

Volunteers needed/please help/upcoming book

Dear Unschoolers,
Re: Radio Free School interview as a book chapter.

We (Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko and Carlo Ricci) hope that this email finds you well. We are co-editing a book together.
The book will be divided into three sections

1. What is unschooling or natural learning;
2. What does it look like in practice;
3. The stories of those who unschooled and are now adults.
We are using the interviews that were conducted for Radio Free School as our source.

We are looking for volunteers to help us with the following:

1. Contact us and we will send you a link to the Radio Free School talk that we need help transcribing
2. Listen to the interview that we send you and transcribe it word for word
3. We are hoping that we will get the transcript within one week of us sending it to you. Of course, if you need more time please let us know and we will try our best to accommodate. It will likely require about 3 hours
of your time.

We both thank you so much for considering our request and hope that you find this project as worthwhile as we do and agree to help us by transcribing an interview. For your help, you will get a wholehearted thank you and your name will appear in the appreciation section of the book. If we transcribed the interviews, as we have been doing, it will delay our project longer than we would like.

So with each of us doing one, obviously we will complete this part much sooner. Thanks again.