Radical Unschooling (Forget School, Let Your Kids Be Kids)

An introduction to radical unschooling

Radical unschooling takes the concept of learning through life and flips it to another level. Instead of opting out of traditional school, radical unschoolers also opt-out of any formal learning environments; there are no lessons for kids and no curriculum for parents. The idea is that children will learn what they need to know when they need to know it, simply by living.

While this education method isn’t for everyone — and that’s okay! — it does offer a way to take advantage of natural learning processes and avoid unnecessary stress and pressure on both children and parents.

What Does Radical Unschooling Look Like?

It will vary from family to family, but the main crux of radical unschooling is to let learning happen naturally with minimal intervention from the parent. Parents are often the learning facilitators in this way of life, meaning they take their children to museums, libraries, and experts in whatever the child is interested in at the moment to help them learn all they want to on whatever they are currently interested in learning about. For example, if your child has an interest in dinosaurs, then you might get them some books on all of the different types of dinosaurs that existed all those years ago. And it doesn’t stop there.

What is a radical unschooler?

A radical unschooler is a person who approaches learning from the perspective that it does not need to take place within the confines of a school. This type of individual believes in their ability to learn about the world on their own, through experiences and interactions with others. In the case of younger children, this learning may occur under the guidance of adults, such as parents or a nanny.

Unlike traditional schools, radical unschoolers do not believe in tests or grades. They also do not believe that children should be forced to learn things they do not want to know about. Rather than being structured around a predetermined curriculum, learning for radical unschoolers comes about naturally as they follow their interests and passions through life’s daily activities.

The history of self-directed learning

In his book, Self-Directed Learning, writer and life-long education advocate Malcolm Knowles show that as far back as the 1930s, individuals had started to question the effectiveness of traditional education. The idea behind self-directed learning is that a person learns best when they are personally invested in what they are studying. This is sometimes referred to as “learnership,” where one takes ownership of the process of learning. In this way, the learner becomes more active than passive, which allows them to be more aware of their own talents and interests.”

The first known self-directed school was founded by Camillo Leonardi in 1843. The Italian physician believed that young people could learn at their own pace if given access to a wide range of resources and classes. Sometimes called “free schools” or “alternative schools,” self-directed learning environments have been popping up ever since Leonardi took his first brave step in 1843. It’s no coincidence; tradition only lasts so long in an increasingly interconnected world where societal norms evolve daily.

Unschoolers who changed the world

• Some of the most successful and accomplished people in history were unschooled.
• In fact, a lot of well-known entrepreneurs were unschooled.
• Unschooler Steve Jobs co-founded Apple at 21…
• Unschooler Sara Blakely founded Spanx at 29…
• Unschooler Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for physics at 27…
• Unschooler Julia Child wrote her first cookbook at 51…
• If you want to know why radical unschooling is the future, look no further than these success stories.

How kids can learn in just one week

Experts agree that our kids are capable of learning more in one week than they do in an entire year at school. Learning can happen anywhere, anytime. And kids who are allowed to choose what they want to learn are more motivated and more successful.

Unschoolers are strong proponents of radical unschooling, a type of education that is not governed by any curriculum or rules. It is based on the idea that children should be allowed to pursue their own interests and curiosities rather than being given a set curriculum forced upon them by schools and teachers. The idea behind this is that if students choose their own topics (such as volcanoes instead of math), they will be more engaged in those subjects because it matters more to them personally than anything else. This leads them to become lifelong learners — even after graduating high school or college!

If you’ve ever had doubts about how well your child learns, there’s good news: experts agree that our kids are capable of learning more in one week than they do in an entire year at school. Learning can happen anywhere, anytime — even while you’re sleeping!

The problems with traditional education

Let’s start with a few problems with traditional classrooms. First of all, they are overcrowded. In the United States, the average classroom has 26 students. This means that one teacher is responsible for 26 different personalities, 26 different learning styles, and 26 different sets of strengths and weaknesses. This can make them feel like they have to teach the majority. In order to do this, teachers often use textbooks and standardized tests to teach every subject in every grade level regardless of the needs or interests of their individual students. This can make it very difficult for some students to learn effectively, especially if they learn better through hands-on activities rather than memorization and test-taking skills. A second problem with traditional education is that you don’t get much time off from school each year which means no time for travel or exploration outside of your studies.

Cause of the dropout crisis

It’s hard to blame the above statements for why kids are dropping out of school, but they have a lot to do with it. With all of the above in mind, one has to wonder: What is the solution? And if one looks beyond schools and for a moment, what about what we do as adults? How does that factor into the dropout crisis?

Things to Do When Starting to Unschool Your Children

If you’re thinking about unschooling your child, there are a few things you should do first:

* Read everything you can about unschooling. This will prepare you for the journey ahead. I personally recommend authors like John Taylor Gatto, Dayna Martin, and John C. Holt among many others.

* Ask yourself why you think this is the path for your child, and reflect on how your own experiences in school were positive and negative. Remember, it’s okay, to be honest about your experiences in school and in life.

* Follow some unschoolers on social media and read their blogs. Their stories will help you understand the complexities of this way of life.

* If you want to convince your friends to join you in unschooling, seek out some resources that explain exactly what it is and why it’s so great. Dayna Martin actually does some coaching on how to get started and has her own Facebook group for people who are interested in this way of life.

* Be prepared to answer questions from extended family members, who might be worried or even angry at your choice to take this path with your children.

How school hurts the economy

Unschooling, which is a radical form of homeschooling, is not just the future of education: it’s also the future of our global economy. Many people are aware that school isn’t preparing kids for the real world, but few people realize how much their daily lives are being negatively affected by this failure. Here’s why radical unschooling isn’t just about your kids’ futures — it’s about yours too.

By teaching students to love learning and to have an awareness of their own abilities and skills, unschoolers prepare themselves and others around them for success in the 21st-century workforce. That’s because traditional schooling is so focused on rote memorization, following orders, and counting down the days until graduation that it fails to develop any other skills that might be useful in a job setting. Unschoolers graduate prepared with these missing abilities, allowing them to benefit from a stronger economy than their traditionally educated peers.

An Unschooling Future?

• The future, in my opinion (albeit completely unschooled), will be very different than our present. I believe that radical unschooling is the way forward and that soon enough it will become the norm rather than an experimental practice. I think our current education system is deteriorating — with every new generation that graduates each are more clueless than the last. And that isn’t their fault either. With the pandemic changing how we can do school and work from home, I am confident that the more people wake up and understand that learning does not start nor does it stop in the classroom, it happens all around us and we don’t need to force it to be successful in life.