Why I Unschool

Here's a piece that I wrote from Parents Canada magazine. I am very pleased with the piece and that it got into a mainstream magazine. It's my unschooling story.
Unschooling: A step further in self-directed learning.
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It’s early winter and I’m a volunteer at the local elementary school. I have high hopes of becoming a school teacher and want to gain some hands-on experience. Inside the classroom, 28 little children sit in their chairs, working on their ‘paper cutting skills.’

I glance up from supervising a child when a most wondrous sight catches my eye: snow flakes are softly falling outside the window. Great, fluffy flakes float gently down from a purple sky. It brings to mind a cherished snow globe I had as a child. It was a famous landmark – the Eiffel Tower I think – encased in a plastic dome. When I shook it, the little white flakes would descend in a swirling mass, to land at the bottom. Then I’d do it all over again. The toy would amaze and amuse me for hours on end.

It’s a magical world, but the teacher has a different opinion. She hurries over to the window where the children are already gathered to watch the snow fall. Swiftly, abruptly, she draws the curtains closed. “The children are getting distracted,” she says.

The suspicions I had been harbouring about the nature of schooling and how it might actually prevent learning are being confirmed in this very classroom. These curious minds are missing out on experiencing falling snow. They don’t get to observe, engage, or be awed by it. Judging by the looks on their faces, they know they are being cheated but can’t do anything about it. Instead, under the teacher’s management, they must return to their seats and complete the assignment before the bell rings. At that point, they will move to the next learning opportunity that’s been prescribed for them.

My hand hovers uncertainly over my pregnant belly. Is this what awaits her?
Read more here:
http://www.parentscanada.com/school/unschooling-a-step-further-in-self-directed-learning

Rich read.

The reading skills of children coming from rich and highly educated parents improves over the summer time. It is the opposite for poor kids. Their skills go down the toilet when school shuts down for the summer. That's what a recent article in our local paper reports on an ongoing land mark study.

Kids whose parents hold Master’s degrees, PhDs and so on saw their children’s reading skills go up by two months "even though school was closed,” I can almost hear the reporter gasp, so amazed was she that learning can happen out of school.

The reporter quotes professor of sociology Dr. Scott Davies of McMaster University, who is leading the study as saying;

“It's like French immersion, but I call it socio-economic immersion — there's nothing like having two months with highly literate parents modeling vocabulary, exposing you to reading; it's like having your own private tutor or being in summer school at home.”

I was pleased to read Davies comment that, “While the benefits of educational camps, family trips, extra books, newspapers and computers account for about 25 per cent of the so-called “summer surge” experienced by children in more affluent families, those things aren't the key.”

What is key?

“It's also the daily conversations that are sophisticated and expand children's vocabularies, and being read to regularly by seasoned readers, one-on-one…
“This informal role-modelling is available to affluent children seven days per week. Less advantaged children, in contrast, have less constant exposure to those quality resources.”

Is this not proof enough that unschooling is one of the best models we know for educating children? Learning informally works.

The children of unschooling families learn informally all year long, every single day of their lives.
Can I say it again? They learn outside of school every single day. Not just during the summer.

Maybe it is less about being rich and more about being interested in and spending time with the child; actually taking the time to engage the child.
Anyone who spends time with children, and who treats the child with respect and is genuinely interested in the child and what he or she has to say knows that children learn through conversation. You talk to the child, your read to them, you read together, they read on their own.

And when it comes to reading, the philosophy of unschooling is that we read not because school tells us that we should so that we will get good grades but because it is an enjoyable activity to do and because we are intrinsically motivated to do so.
Reading is rewarding in many ways. You learn a lot from reading. You relax, your imagination is stirred. But reading is only one of many ways to learn in the world and we do a disservice to intelligence when we act as though  reading is it's only reflection. I am saying this as an avid reader who respects the fact that reading is not everyone's cup of tea.

I also wonder who will still be reading from this study, years down the road, when those kids have grown up. Will it be true that they are still readers?
I am curious, as adults, who reads and what do they read?

Won’t be boxed.

Humans like to put things in boxes. Nice, neat and tidy boxes- categorized, classified, organized. We do it to stuff. We do it to people. You might know the classic song ‘Little boxes’ by Malvina Reynolds.The band 'Walk off the Earth' has recently covered it. It goes like this:
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same…
And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there's doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same……..

There’s looking ‘just the same’ and then there’s fixing people for life in those boxes so that they feel suffocated by other people’s impressions and expectations of who they are.

The other day, my youngest complained about ‘being boxed’ by well intentioned family and friends.
“You’re the soccer kid; the girl with the ball,” they’ll say.
“I am more than that,” she protests. “I can do more than that. Just because I love soccer does not mean I don’t want to do anything else.”

My daughter tells me how confusing it can become because getting annoyed at said people, she wants to stop doing what she loves just to show them she likes other things too. But that would be a betrayal of  her passion and she will only end up hurting herself.

"It’s like people act surprised if you express an interest in something other than what they know about you," she complains.
It's possible that kids may become wary of pursuing something new to them because that’s “so and so's” thing. 
"Sometimes, friends feel challenged-and even threatened- if you develop an interest for something they deem is on their turf," my daughter continues.

Boxing people also means that we perceive them in a certain way and we will continue doing so even though they’ve long since changed or are trying to change. Families do this especially. As a child you might have been shy. As a grownup, you’re not any more. But family still thinks of you as shy.

As parents, I think it is worth checking in on your child every now and then to see where they are at.
Be mindful of the changes that are going on so that you can help him expand the boundaries that have been set about him.

Web Video, Crowd Accelerated Innovation and Radical Openness?

Like most people who follow TED talks, I watch them to get inspired. A presentation with TED’s head curator, Chris Anderson was right on my ‘open source’ wavelength so that I had to write about it here.

Anderson opens his presentation by saying something awesome about what large human crowds can do.

Crowds can be overwhelming (I tend to avoid crowds like the plague). Our population explosion is terrifying. But sometimes, a large human crowd is a good thing.  Innovation emerges out of groups. As social beings, we spark off each other.  

In this ‘Age of Participation’ a fascinating example of 'open source' in action is taking place. It's a worldwide phenomenon that organizations and individual people can tap in to and Anderson calls it Crowd Accelerated Innovation (CAI).

 In brief, you’ve got these ‘cycles of improvement’ driven by people watching web videos.

Web taught? Absolutely!

Be it in the evolution of dance where you have dancers challenging one another to get better, TED speakers spending more time in preparation, or even scientists publishing peer-reviewed work on line,  poetry and spoken word and on and on, people can learn by watching the best and the brightest, and get inspired to step up their game.

Step your game up alright.

Anderson notes three areas that are needed to kick start CAI:

1.       A crowd of people who share a common interest. They are creating the eco system from which innovation emerges.

2.       Light. Clear open visibility. The best of what people are capable of- that's where you will learn, get inspired and participate.

3.       Desire. Without it innovation is impossible.

So on the web, all these three elements are connected! "The crowd shines a light on them and fuels the desire." Anderson describes this as a self-fueling cycle of learning. The internet makes it easy to find the best stuff.  You can watch repeatedly and gain knowledge and skill.

This possibility of a new type of global recognition is driving huge amounts of effort. Because you can see the best, everyone can learn.

Anderson points out that this is a model any organizationcould use to nurture its own cycle of crowd accelerated innovation: “Invite the crowd, let in the light, dial up the desire.”

 But there is a catch. To tap into its power, organizations will need to embrace what has come to be known as ‘radical openness.’

What does that mean?  It means you have to share. You have to give. You have to let people see your deepest self.

When TED started opening up their talks to the world, billions of people started spreading the word. The idea of radical openness works for TED. And it can work for you.

It works so well this web video learning because our brains are uniquely wired to decode meaning through face to face. As Anderson says, “It’s an ancient art form gone global."

What does that mean for global education you ask? Chris Anderson asks, “Is it possible to imagine a similar situation? Does it have to be this top down painful process?

Chris Anderson replies, “Why not a self fuelling cycle in which we all can participate? Schools can't be silos we can't stop learning at 21.” 

 “For the first time in human history, talented students don't have to have their potential and their dreams written out of history by lousy teachers. They can sit two feet in front of the world's finest.”

We know it. The world's universities are opening up their curricula. Self-directed and passion-lead learning has never been easier to do. People are finding new ways to learn and to share data and knowledge. Our future is "many to many not one to many."

There’s a whole lot more that Anderson says but for this post lets end with this:

What if the crowd could be net contributors as opposed to net plunderers. Who is the teacher? You're the teacher. You're part of the crowd that maybe about to launch the bigger learning cycle in human history – a cycle capable of carrying all of us to a smarter, wiser more beautiful place. 

Yes!

Student Liberation Project

Here's something to help those kids who are in the school system but who want out. It's a blog called Student Liberation Project: Getting Students out of School and School out of Students by Andrew Pappin  in Santa Cruz.

Imagine you wake up tomorrow and school is no longer compulsory. What would you do? Would you go to school anyway? Or would you scream for joy until your voice went out? I know what my 10-year old self would have done. I would have started running and jumping and skipping and dancing. Life would have been vibrating through every part of my body pushing me to run faster and jump harder. Then I would have calmed down, and life's endless possibilities would have danced through my head.
But that is not how my 16-year old self would have reacted. I probably wouldn't have reacted at all. My excitement at life was gone. What was left was expectations. I no longer lived my life, but lived other people's idea of life.
What happened to me in those 6 years?
School happened to me.

School happens to most of us.
School that will have us believe we have to go through- in order to 'build character.'
School with its  heavy-handed, clumsy approach to education.  An introduction to a lifelong addiction of doing what you're supposed to do.  Years of lassitude and boredom. School. Ruiner of imagination. Suffocating, forceful; school that isn't so bad.
After all, how else can we get educated? How else will we make citizens of little savages? How else will we make level the ever-expanding playing field between rich and poor?

If you are one of that increasing number of people who doesn't believe the hype, if you are a youth looking to do something different, the Student Liberation Project is a nice place to get you started on unschooling or deschooling. Andrew has compiled a list of resources, articles and more to inspire and encourage you.
Check it out!