I’ve been credited with the description below, but it was written by Joyce Fetteroll and tweaked by Pam Sorooshian and me before it was published at the UnschoolingDiscussion site, on googlegroups:
Although unschooling is often described as a homeschooling style, it
is, in fact, much more than just another homeschool teaching method.
Unschooling is both a philosophy of natural learning and the
lifestyle that results from living according to the principles of
that philosophy.
The most basic principle of unschooling is that children are born
with an intrinsic urge to explore — for a moment or a lifetime –
what intrigues them, as they seek to join the adult world in a
personally satisfying way. Because of that urge, an unschooling child
is free to choose the what, when, where and how of his/her own
learning from mud puddles to video games and SpongeBob Squarepants to
Shakespeare! And an unschooling parent sees his/her role, not as a
teacher, but as a facilitator and companion in a child’s exploration
of the world.
Unschooling is a mindful lifestyle which encompasses, at its core, an
atmosphere of trust, freedom, joy and deep respect for who the child
is. This cannot be lived on a part-time basis. Unschooling sometimes
seems so intuitive that people feel they’ve been doing it all along,
not realizing it has a name. Unschooling sometimes seems so
counterintuitive that people struggle to understand it, and it can
take years to fully accept its worth.
—Joyce Fetteroll, aided by
Pam Sorooshian
and Sandra Dodd
SandraDodd.com/unschooling
photo by Clare Kirkpatrick
