Unschooling my kids

I read an online unschooling article from the New York Times today called Homeschoolers Content to Take Children's Lead. It talks about how homeschooling is a growing trend (and this article was from 2006) and how unschooling is on the most extreme end of the homeschool spectrum with the rejection of conventional education, the classroom, curriculum, and textbooks. This is true. I don't choose to keep my kids at home because I feel I could do a better job than teachers at teaching from a textbook and following lesson plans. I keep my kids out of public schools because I don't think they need to be taught at all. They need their curiosity nourished, their questions answered, their time filled with free play, their individual needs respected, and the ability to learn at their own pace. I am here for encouragement, guidance, to help provide resources for learning, and above all unconditional, non-judgmental love and support.

The article then goes on to talk about how unschooling is raising concern among some education officials and social scientists. One Colombia University professor says, "It is not clear to me how they will transition into a structured world and meet the most basic requirements for reading, writing, and math." Wow, really? If this is unclear then maybe this professor should take a look at unschooled teens and I bet she would find that most of them can read, write, and do math at a level surpassing most high school graduates. And honestly, I don't want my kids being trained on how to live in a structured world. I want them to live by their own moral codes and have the ability to think outside of the box with an open mind. They are not robots who need to become part of the machine we call society.

The article states, "There is scant data on the educational results of unschooling." Well, I don't know about you but I parent from love and instinct not research and data. Unschooling is an extension of parenting and I'm confident that my child is happily learning everything they need to know without the statistics to back me up.