Unschooling and the value of self-directed learning continue to spread around the globe, as these groups show. I find it inspiring that people are creating educational organizations around the globe that go beyond conventional school reform efforts, and that alternatives like unschooling are getting some more traction with parents and teachers who want more than read-a-book-and-take-a-test schooling.

Edu on Tour is on Facebook and it is a 6-week program “during which a group… takes on the challenge to transform our education systems.” The website of the organizers of the Edu on Tour program provides a good overview of their wide approach to teaching and learning. Some of the videos on the Edu on Tour channel on YouTube include short interviews with Brazilian education entrepreneurs, such as Spin Rocinha, who “opened a DJ school, totally free to its participants and financed only from tourist tours inside the favela, given by Rocinho.”

I can’t believe how quick and helpful Google Translate is for viewing foreign websites using the Chrome browser. Yeah, the English translation is clunky and often does not read well, but at least I can get a good sense of what is being conveyed, whereas before I would just leave the page. With that in mind, you might enjoy reading these websites.

I learned of this new Brazilian unschooling website from the Unschooling The World page on Facebook. This site features three families’ unschooling and homeschooling stories, and the parents who formed the site are looking to post more.

I have been corresponding with Stefan Hasenauer of Austria about unschooling and he recently wrote that he and a colleague created a website, Learning Cultures 3.0. The site is written in German, but as noted above, the Google translation is okay to get the gist of the site.

What I find heartening about these sites from other countries is how they are all rooted in the same basic ideas about learning and teaching that I share: that children learn well in a diverse community, not just a classroom; that ordinary people can help children learn and grow; and that children should be treated with respect as people, not as educational projects to be graded and sorted like eggs or other commodities.