There's a fun fallacy in people who sort of hear about unschooling and then condemn it. They often seem to have taken the position that they know all about school, and we aren't sure what or where it is. 😊
I don't know why I've survived all these years, still helping people. It's really tiring, because school defenders think we're clueless about school, and structured homeschoolers seem to assume that we have no idea what "a curriculum" might be. The same arguments and defenses and attacks, over and over.
But then some of them stick around to see what they're mad about, and discover that there's actually something to it, and even if they think it's crazy and irresponsible, the seeds have fallen, and someday when they're frustrated, and their child is sad, the ideas start to grow in them.
I guess that's why I stick around, too.
photo by Niki Lambrianidou
A mom wrote, of this post:
ReplyDeleteThis could be said about any kind of societal change, I imagine. Thank goodness for people like you who don't just let society wear them down with their constant questioning and doubts. I know I, for one, am very glad the suffragettes, for example, did not just cave in and rage quit when everyone told them they were a bunch of nutters :-) Besides, I am really starting to get that unschooling is a lifestyle and not just a means of education BECAUSE two of my kids have decided to go to school. At first I was heartbroken and thought everything was ruined, but I have come to realise that respecting their decision, supporting them and letting them try new things is exactly what we have been doing and will keep doing, even if school is part of that picture.
I say:
A child who chooses school is in a different sort of place than others at the same school who have no choice. For them, if the parents are willing to let them come back home, the doors and windows are open. Their experience will be different because of that.