UnSchooling

Have only seen it as a train wreck. Children that were unschooled for most of their lives (and always the latter part of their childhood) were woefully behind their peers. Many could not read.

Google search pulled up this definition: unschooled) lacking in schooling; "untaught people whose verbal skills are grossly deficient"; "an untutored genius"...wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn<---was the reference whether they wrote the definition or not, I do not know...

PBS Parents...defines it this way: "...unschooling is creating and maintaining an environment in which natural learning can flourish.”

And I am sure beyond these two extremes there is an array of other 'definitions'.

And now for what I have witnessed close up and personal. I have homeschooled my five for 23 years, (12 of those years as a widow.) I am very active in several homeschool groups with an average membership of 150 members.

The homeschooling community makes up less than 3% of the populus and that number is often hard to nail exactly because some who do "online schooling" consider themselves homeschoolers, by where they do this online schooling, while they are still part of a State or private schooling system. Homeschoolers do not count these folks as homeschoolers. But UNSCHOOLERS are a very small percentage of those who homeschool.

There is a full-range of "styles of unschooling". I probably personally know of 20 or so families who call themselves "unschoolers".

I wish they would have chose another name, truly. The name UNschoolers to the average Joe translates to ANTIschoolers! While this may the rare case in some instances it is not by any measure the majority.

There is a HUGE difference between NEGLECT (just allowing your kids to do whatever the heckerini they would like) and guiding or encouraging a lifestyle of self-initiated learning.

The families I know, watch very little television and limit screen or computer time (video games)........ books are prevalent floor to ceiling in nearly every room (though one is not likely to observe text books per say). If a student is so inclined to build with let's say Lego's for a chunk of the day, they are permitted to do so. But despite all of the parents claiming their children are "free" to learn as they'd like, I note that all of the unschoolers I know, would pull in dialog about physics, or the history of the Legos or some counting and the such not. Unschoolers are BIG on field trips, and kinesthetic (hands-on) learning experiences.

In Ohio, homeschooling laws require an evaluation done by a State certified teacher in one of two forms, testing or portfolio, or the submission of State tests administered by an accredited company, (ie. OGTs). Unschoolers typically have a bit of a trickier time proving such, because there tends to not be such a long "paper trail" or crisp defined lines of subjects, but the unschoolers "learning" is none the less, legit.

I hate generalizing or boxing things up nice and neat (that is why in the beginning I stated I am a homeschooling widow...while I do know there are other widows who continue or start to homeschool, I am the ONLY one I know personally, in a fairly broad circle----sooo I rarely fit into generalized descriptions. I also am a senior towards integrated Social Studies 7-12 and (new) micro-business owner whose business is directly related to education (own a teachers resource resell shop). Sooooo, at the risk of doing what I hate having done, I will make some quickie generalizations; but please know that this is NOT what one will always find when encountering unschoolers, and that these are simply eye-witness observations, not something I personally do.

Unschoolers tend to embrace the idea of "being" rather than "doing".
Unschoolers tend to be more "free-spirited" and into the "arts" more heavily than other groups.
Unschoolers are NOT as a rule a threat to public school format...they do not want to be told what they can and can't do and likewise do not usually tell other people what they should or should not do.
Unschoolers tend to have subject areas more developed while others are not so strong...ummm one inclined towards writing books or poetry may be lacking in math, while yet another thinks in numeration and may be weak in writing skills. This I personally believe is true of all children but in homeschooling it becomes more evident and in unschooling even more pronounced.
Unschoolers for the most part are less concerned with clocks, schedules, goals, or scopes and sequences...they vie for the here and now and the spontaneous.

I have personally not observed any difference between unschoolers, homeschoolers, or public schooled children in the way of ratios of how many go onto college, how many go straight into the workforce, or how many stay home....(I suppose I should include drop out.....but that is harder to detect in unschoolers or homeschoolers if they "stop learning" as opposed to one in public school, who does not show up for class).

Hope this has cleared up a little bit of who "unschoolers" are, at least the ones I have met!!

Wow---that is frustrating and sad........ truly.............and see again I would deem that neglect or abuse to not teach a child to read........I fight all the time in the inner city where I live to put books in kids' hands ANY AGE....BUT, for quite some years now I have collected books to give to teen moms.....and explain to them again and again and again that if they want to break any negative cycles that they thought were part of their own lives, that they HAVE to read to their babies...the twenty plus gals that I have helped in this way almost always got tears in their eyes....and they take those books like it is the greatest gift anyone has ever given them.....and some I have had a chance to see again, and the young, young mommies, will say to the toddlers, tell Miss Kelly what we read....or show Miss Kelly your new book...... your post breaks my heart.....

smh............ just simply do not get how some people think....or rather-- don't think.......

I think Unschooling could be incredibly beneficial I younger grade students (K-3), maybe, as long as it was (I knows oxymoronic...) structured....

I.e.: a child expresses a keen desire in learning about dinosaurs, and they direct their learning in that direction while at the same time are being taught to read and write, etc.

Aren't home schoolers and the subset that is unschooling a threat to public Ed in the same way charters are? That is, they pull money away from public Ed? Do most states allot funding based on attendance? So every home schooled kid means less money for the public school, right? Or am I missing something about funding?

Most home schoolers I've met do it for religious reasons. The packaged curricula are atrocious- I have had kids bring me their books for yucks and giggles... A lot of the "earth is 6000 years old" business.

How are schools funded in Washington? Where I am, it is based on number of kids in attendance for first twenty days. So, one less kid who is being home schooled = the public school misses out on that funding.

In Hawaii, the school has to sign a paper to release the student from 'compulsory education' for them to be homeschooled. Any principal with half a brain doesn't sign the release until after the 'count day' for funding, especially considering that the school must still provide for the student's right to FAPE (Free and Appropriate Public Education) whether they're homeschooled or any other alternative placement.