Unschooling On Good Morning America And In The Mainstream
Where to start?! The media is, well the media. They are a business. They feature stories that will boost ratings. They use shock value to stir up attention and in turn receive more viewers.
So why we are surprised by both the Good Morning America and the Discovery Health reports on Unschooling? They are typical examples of biased reporting. Both were short segments filled more with shock value than facts and true glimpses into real unschooling.
Mainstream America just doesn’t get Unschooling. They aren’t going to. For heavens sake only about 25% of American adults have a face book account. I thought everybody was on face book! So imagine how the majority of the world could possibly understand Unschooling? Especially with the shows that Discovery Health and Good Morning America put out. Yet, it is so easy for me to forget that we are radical. It is so easy for me to forget that my family is so different than almost everybody else.
Partly because I don’t reflect the mainstream and haven’t for so long. I have my own fairly large community that I identify with. I belong to a food co-op and rarely shop at Kroger and I love my public radio station where they don’t play anything you have ever heard of. —–That’s weird…… Yeah, I guess. I recycle, compost, use cloth napkins, shop at the thrift store and line dry my clothes—-Oh, your one of those hippies!….. OK. My kids don’t go school—-Oh, you homeschool? Will you always do that? Do they socialize with other kids? ……No,we Unschool—— Huh?????? Like those crazy people on TV? Did you see that, they let their kids eat donuts for breakfast—– That is main steam media for you!
I don’t sit round and think about how different we are. We just live. We aren’t purposeful in every move we make. We aren’t living for “the unschooling movement.” We don’t look different. We don’t walk or talk differently. (well maybe a little differently 
) Our daily life is pretty uneventful to the outside world. We get up and go about our day just like everyone else. Only we have learned a little secret that seems so unfathomable to the rest of the world. Choice
We all have them. Really we do have choices in everything we do. Yes, some choices make life harder than others but we have choices in life. And as Unschoolers we have made many, many unpopular choices.
Kids don’t have to go to school–gasp! They don’t have to get up at a certain time of day to be productive—gasp! They don’t even have to be told to learn! No, really, it’s just automatic. Adults may think they have control over what kids are leaning but kids and adults everywhere are learning ALL THE TIME!
I googled learning and Wikipedia gave me this: (from a very mainstream source even!)
Learning is a process you do, not a process that is done to you. Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without it being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant
- ^ Russell L. Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg (2008), Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track (pdf) HTML. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
- ^ Greenberg, H. (1987), “The Art of Doing Nothing,” The Sudbury Valley School Experience. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
- ^ Mitra, S. (2007) Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves (video – 20:59). Minimally Invasive Education, Retrieved February 18, 2010.
These choices we have made are hard. And Unschooling is a journey of sorts. The vast majority of unschoolers did not wake up one day and decide to make all of these radical choices in one day. But it is easy to forget that.
Beginning with following your heart and letting go of what other people think. It’s your life –who care’s what other people think. Really–let that go and be the real you. We only have one this one life to live. Live it the way you want to.
Then giving up the ” should do’s” and the “have to’s”. Really question why you are doing things. Do you really want to? Or are you just doing them because you should do them? What will really happen if you don’t do them? Can you live with that result? Can you make a different choice to get the end result you want? Then make your decision based on that. It is a process. These choices we have made seem so normal and automatic to us now that sometimes we forget how the other 99% of the world is living. There really are so few have to’s in our lives but we assume that we must do way too many of them. Don’t follow blindly. I want to make my life just what I want it to be. And fill it with what I want. You can to. You have a choice.
So to the outside world our life may seem uneventful but really it’s just the opposite. Really we are choosing to exercise our choices. We aren’t living lives full of have to’s. We are living fully everyday. Not just on the weekends or when we go on vacation. Not just when we have time. And you can too. You have a choice–to put your kids in school or homeschool or really trust yourself and live your one life freely and Unschool.
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Their desire to learn for retention is really the entire point! Schooled children cram information in their heads so they can regurgitate it on a test. Once they move to the next level, the information previously learned was not retained. This is not real learning, this doesn’t give a child joy to really know a topic.
I just wish that we could be accepted for our choices to grow they way we wish to grow.
I think the shocker for the supposed normal people out there is it throws a wrench in thier spokes , it just blows the whole concept that people do not become a somebody without ” education ”
I’m radical too in some ways . I don’t believe just because the world is now run on a European style of education , that that is how it is supposed to be . I am an avid reader and am a writer by trade , heart & soul but I do not believe the world was meant to run on the knowldge of the written word and have people be less then if the written word is not apart of thier life . So many cultures survived without reading or writing why is it now a must for someone to be a whole person .
I think unschooling really throws people off too when they see me out with my two unschooled boys and they question if they are learning , how do you teach them ? is always asked , then when they learn we have 4 adult children who are all working , beautiful indvidual persons out there in that great big world functioning supporting themselves and thier partners , well it blows them away .
I know being a person of obvious ethinic origin ( aboriginal etc. ) I also get people who are just dumbfounded when they learn I a woman , aboriginal & know stuff ! I also realized it frightens many people when they meet a self educated intelligent indian . They are somehow supposed to be the ones educating us , helping us , they often feel thier role is threatened and do not know how to respond because now what are they supposed to do . Wow an indian who taught herself ! yikes . she even has a university library card and does not attend university ! lol
again blow it wide oipen us unschooling crazy people , how dare us for living and loving life to the fullest !
ps; I sent you an email about visiting Columbus
“…They continue to graze most of the day- cheese, turkey, yogurt, TONS of fruit, crackers, cereal, cookies, hard boiled eggs, carrot sticks, smoothie popsicles, etc. The donut was a crappy attempt on the part of the production co. to emphasize free choice. It’s a free choice when we go out, certainly, but not something we keep in the house.”
Apparently the Discovery Health team BROUGHT THE KIDS DONUTS so they could show them eating junk food for breakfast. You can pass that on next time someone gripes about it.
Thanks, Kristen!
I was just talking to a friend about choice. People find ways to make it look as though they HAVE to do something. But what if they didn’t? Not nearly enough people question the choices they make. They just, as you said, follow along blindly. We unschool becasue it is our choice and as such it gives us the opportunity to be who we are. I had enough of being stuffed into a “one size fits all” type of learning and living experience when I was growing up. I don’t want that experience at all anymore (didn’t want it then) and I definitely don’t want it for my child. Thanks for being here.It’s always and inspiring place to visit. -Debbie