Fighting a Flawed System

A blog link caught my eye on one of my favorite Facebook groups today.  The group was “Wildschooling” and unschooling was the topic of the post.  It was a typical unschool query – I want to unschool, “school at home” isn’t working, kid just wants to play Minecraft all day, what to do?  As all bloggers are whores for clicks, many people shared relevant blog posts, myself included.  I commented about our experience as unschoolers who limit screen time as I don’t feel screens are conducive for authentic learning experiences.  Every comment was kind and helpful (love that group!) but I saw a theme develop that for many, unschooling is all or nothing.  To follow a curriculum discludes you from the unschool gang.  To insist on a specific structure during your day puts you out of the club.  To believe that certain skills need to be attained by a certain age means you are not an unschooler.  These comments were not explicitly stated but the undertones were loud and clear.

The blog post that caught my eye was titled “You Can Not Be a Part-time Unschooler.”  Granted, I didn’t read the link . . . I rarely read other people’s blogs, so this is where I feel the need to THANK YOU for taking the time to read Unschool Day . . . but the title alone struck a nerve with me.  Why can’t people part-time unschool?  My brain immediately jumped to a pretend family who buys a curriculum, does the work on a loose basis and agrees that current educational philosophies are flawed and only a revolution can bring it back to a sane place.  And while nomenclature is important and there exists a “standard” of unschooling, there is no unschool police and families don’t need to worry if they are unschool enough.   If they identify as unschoolers, who am I to argue?

The uschool message is clear:  America’s modern model of education is broken.   Boxed-in classrooms, children grouped by age, learning

divided into subject areas, HIGH STAKES TESTING, punitive discipline techniques, homework, most of the day spent indoors, the list goes on and on.   We will not sacrifice our children to a deeply flawed system.  If you identify as an unschooler, raise your hand high and don’t worry about fitting into a neat little unschool box.  Every family’s unschool path will be unique but the message always remains the same:  we can do better for our children and we can do it ourselves.  No rules required.