To School Or To Unschool? By Susan T Roberts At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Many parents feel passionately about giving their children the best and having the freedom to raise their children the way that they believe is right. This often shows itself in the causes that a parent will fight for, and also in the decisions that parents will make even when they go against the grain of society. Home schooling is a practice that is born out of parents’ desire to give their children a very specific type of education, as opposed to that of the local school system. A parent might choose to home school for religious reasons or for other more unique family circumstances.

It is no secret that many parents are dissatisfied with government schools or the government and local school system values. Therefore they choose to home school their kids in an attempt to protect and pass on their values. The decision to home school children is nothing new. Home schooling has been around since the United States was first formed. Although in the 21st century home schooling would be considered the less conventional way of educating children, it is traditional in many ways.

Although home schooling can give children a less pressure-filled education, most homes follow a specific curriculum, even if very loosely. In most States in the USA, home schooled children are tested on a regular basis (usually annually) to ensure that they are on par with other children of the same age group that attend conventional schools. This forces parents to at least have loose guidelines as to the subjects they must cover with their children and at what level these things must be explored each year.

Unschooling is a method of teaching children that derived from home schooling. With this method, parents basically use every day life as a classroom and as the catalyst for the day’s lessons. Unschooling freely allows any activity to be a teaching moment. Families basically allow their child’s curiosity to guide the subjects that they explore each day. Parents that use this style of teaching, speak about visiting a sausage factory with their child after they began to ask questions about where sausages come from. It is a method that apparently never leaves children bored.

Educator and advocate of home schooling, John Holt coined the phrase ‘unschooling’ in the mid-1960s. Around that time, he published a book entitled, ‘How Children Fail’. Holt and his writings have been very influential in promoting the idea of home schooling and for the increasing popularity of the unschooling style of home school education. His teachings are challenging and always leave home schooling parents with the question, ‘To school or to unschool?’

Unschooling sounds like a very ‘cool’ way to educate children and it sounds very laid back and ‘happy’, however traditional educators have many questions and doubts about this way of educating children. First of all, they feel that every day life does not provide adequate enough intellectual challenges to help unschooled kids compete with their peers at traditional schools. They also doubt whether these children can compete with a child that is being challenged at high levels both scientifically and technologically.

As innovative as unschooling sounds, it seems that it can only be successful if it is done with certain boundaries in place. Unschooled children should not be placed at a disadvantage, they should be able to compete with other children their age. More importantly, although it is great to follow a child’s interests, there will be and should be certain subjects that must be taught whether children like them or not.

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