UnSchooling
Yesterday I had the privilege to spend the morning and early afternoon with a colleague. I called her an unschooler. Thankfully, she found the name appealing.
One of my delights in this world, is giving children the gift of time. As I spent the day with nine two year olds, I realized how often children (mine included) are rushed, rushed onto the next bigger better “thing”. The children happened upon a raised garden bed, as they approached, I noticed that there was a layer of water over a layer of ice. The children dove in (well not literally) and got wet within seconds. One child had a plastic dump truck, he scooped stone and water from the bed into his dump truck. Another child approached and joined by helping scoop more water. I asked, “do we need more cups, bowls, trucks and spoons?” The answer of course was “yes!” After locating these items, I offered them to the children (there were 5-6 in the water, at any given time) and they dumped, poured, scooped and mucked about in the water.
You can imagine what came next.
Yes, they were wet. So, I gathered dry gloves and helped the children peel off their soaked gloves. Admittedly, their gloves weren’t the only part of them wet, but never fear, they were wearing snowsuits, so really, they were dry. One of the children mentioned that his other gloves, (2nd pair) were wet and he needed a New Pair. I helped him search for a dry pair but we had used them up, so I glanced at the clock and noted it was time to go in for lunch. He replied :”I no need them.”
What did those kids learn?
1)Weight, measure
2)does ice float/sink (buoyancy)
3)co-operation, frienship
4)hot/cold (weather, temperature)
5)mud/muck
6)Time/space
7)new language (possibly…this would be hard to determine without parental input)
In reality, what I was doing with children was unschooling, child lead learning, with some emergent curriculum thrown in. In truth, I was having fun and so were they!
Now, how does my calling my friend an “unschooler” fit into this well…
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What Is Unschooling? This is also known as interest driven, child-led, natural, organic, eclectic, or self-directed learning. Lately, the term “unschooling” has come to be associated with the type of homeschooling that doesn’t use a fixed curriculum. When pressed, I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world, as their parents can comfortably bear. The advantage of this method is that it doesn’t require you, the parent, to become someone else, i.e. a professional teacher pouring knowledge into child-vessels on a planned basis. Instead you live and learn together, pursuing questions and interests as they arise and using conventional schooling on an “on demand” basis, if at all. This is the way we learn before going to school and the way we learn when we leave school and enter the world of work. So, for instance, a young child’s interest in hot rods can lead him to a study of how the engine works (science), how and when the car was built (history and business), who built and designed the car (biography), etc. Certainly these interests can lead to reading texts, taking courses, or doing projects, but the important difference is that these activities were chosen and engaged in freely by the learner. They were not dictated to the learner through curricular mandate to be done at a specific time and place, though parents with a more hands-on approach to unschooling certainly can influence and guide their children’s choices http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html
Yes, technically we couldn’t be unschoolers but our hearts are! (if you happen to read this my dear, just letting you know what a wonderful teacher you are!) |
Posted on April 1st, 2008 by karen
Filed under: Uncategorized