'UN' Schooling

 “Modern schooling requires each child to learn a specific subject matter in a particular manner, at a particular pace and time regardless of that individual's present or future needs, interests, goals, or any pre-existing knowledge he or she might have about the topic”

Finishing school I had a hard time deciding what university course I was interested in, the only subjects I had learnt where the few available to learn at my particular school and that was all I knew, there are thousands of courses out there that I hadn’t even heard of until doing further research into courses and universities myself prior to finishing school and not knowing what to do with my life. There were jobs that I hadn’t even heard of or knew existed; this overwhelmed me because I simply didn’t know what I wanted to do! I had gone to school for 8 years with having no motivation to be there, it was purely the social side I enjoyed.. I learnt what I was being taught and given (course work given to the school by the state’s education system, teaching us to have brains that are clones of one another basically.. completely impossible leading to setting individuals up for ‘failure’! ), yes there were some elective classes though these are still limited to what the school can offer.  Now I’m stuck a year a half out high-school working a part-time 9-5 office job that I hate because I simply didn’t know who I was or who I wanted to be. Through life experiences that I’ve gone upon since finishing school I’ve learnt far greater than I ever did during school, I’ve learnt somewhat who I am, what I want to do and a little bit about the real world that I live in.

I believe environment can play an enormous roll on our motivation. In order to have a drive or a passion we need to be surrounded by an environment that can provide or assist in providing us with that.  Personally I know I prefer being outdoors, give me a text book, no time limit and the sun and I’ll happily dig into the book, but whether I retain the information I’ve read depends on whether I’m interested in it or not. So not only does the environment we are surround by have an impact, but our own individual personal interests play an vast part also, and everyone is different so why should we be confined to learn the exact same thing.

In school my favorite subject was, no surprise here, health, though I wouldn’t do my work in class, nor would I listen or pay attention, most of the time to be honest I was eating (what can I say I’ve ALWAYS had a big appetite) or talking… But what I would do before a test or exam is I’d go and see the teacher in my own time and we would talk and have a general open conversation about the topic (not in a confined in a classroom with my friends and writing down notes that require me to simply copy off of the white board while my teacher explains it all to us).. well let’s just say that never once that year did I drop below 90% on a test..

 ‘Unschooler’s’ on the other hand learn through their natural life experiences, responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, travel, books, family and the list goes on, basically it’s everything most school don’t/cannot provide you with.

Unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, believing that the more personal learning is the more useful it is to the child based on the fact that it has greater meaning and is greater understood. If the child requires the knowledge he/she will seek the information required to gain the knowledge, and as previously stated being interested in what you are learning and having a desire to learn it results in greater learning as concentration levels are likely to be higher and there is a higher chance of the information being retained.  Through this children have all of the information that they currently need and avoid any forceful or negative connotations associated with the process of learning

According to unschooling pioneer John Holt, "...the anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don't know."

I do believe and understand that children do require to know and learn the basics like reading and writing in order to survive in the current ways of this world, though these are two things that children begin to learn themselves at their own pace before schooling takes place, schooling simply just teaches you the same thing over and over making it harder each year no matter where you individually in terms of progress.   

Children begin talking at all different rates, they slowly, at their own pace, begin to learn naturally themselves the basics, like when they pick up a pencil and try to write or when they pick up a book and make up a story by looking at the pictures eventually they start asking about letters and then words and spelling, when children need and show an interest in learning the information, they ask, children ask more questions than most to the point of it sometimes being annoying.. but this is how they absorb things.

We should be getting taught in schools how to budget, about drugs and alcohol, sex education.. real sex education, different religions, racism, sexism, speciesism, why people are hungry, different governments, the media, not believing everything you see/hear,  how to be ourselves, individuals with our own opinions and our own specific needs based on the differing contributing factors we all face in our personal lives.. we probably shouldn’t be learning about gym, the importance of health, nutrition and being active yes, but doing the beep test or having to participate in a team sport, no, by all means participate if you want to but making it compulsory.. I’ll let you decide.

I believe we should be getting taught the basic foundations we should know in order to survive, be at peace and be happy before being thrown into the real world on our own after being imprisoned in a school majority of our child + teen years to be bombarded with these things at once.

Lil xx