In Freedom and Beyond, John Holt writes, “Another consequence of defining education as schooling is that as we put more and more of our educational resources into schools, we have less and less left over for those institutions that are truly open and educative and in which more and more people might learn for themselves.” This conference had little to say about education models that aren’t like school, but it’s a start.
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I have two strong impressions after viewing the movie Unschooled. One because I personally know Peter Bergson and the second because of my experience advocating for unschooling and self-directed education.
I went to the screening already knowing that Peter was upset with his portrayal in the film and with the film’s over-riding narrative of “kindly white person saves inner-city minority youths.” . . .
Read MoreI think homeschooling is getting a bad rap during the pandemic. Parents are pulling their hair out trying to teach their children at home and cursing homeschooling as a result. However, participating in daily classroom lessons sent from school to do at home is *remote learning*, not homeschooling. This is why many homeschoolers use the word *unschooling* to describe what they do: learning at home doesn’t have to occur only at home nor resemble learning in school.
Read More“If you look at how much of the morning goes into waking the kids up when they’re not done sleeping, getting them to shower, go to the bathroom, eat, arguing. ‘Come on. You need to go! You’re going to be late.’ They sometimes started to cry and I had to hurry to work with that on my mind.”
Read MoreToday’s vision of education isn’t about morals, citizenship, personal development, or social cohesion: it’s about sorting the winners and losers in a race for jobs. Here are more life-affirming visions of education than social Darwinism.
Read More"This article may be very useful to homeschoolers, not only as a guide in their own work with children, but also as something to quote from in their homeschooling proposals."—John Holt. This excerpt from math Prof. David Wheeler's paper contains his five principles of remediation, which can be helpful as you seek to walk a more patient path of learning with your children.
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Now, there’s no doubt that homeschooling is a choice, but for me and other homeschoolers I know, it was not a choice of schools, it was a choice for our family to avoid the rat race of school: its busy work and pressure for labels, grades, class status, and homework. Our choice was not to go to school and to not turn our home into a school—and that’s a choice I never read about in the school choice literature . . .
Read MoreMontessori’s ideas are being adapted by some to meet the growth of the homeschooling movement and the organizer of the Montessori Homeschool Online Conference asked me to talk about some general principles I’ve learned as a homeschooling advocate . . .
Read More"Informal or spontaneous learning is often far more effective than formal learning." If you agree with this position, please share this video with your friends and let us know your thoughts, or join the Alliance: http://www.self-directed.org
Read MoreWe want ASDE to be a self-sustaining and steady voice in support of self-directed education in this time of intense technological and bureaucratic surveillance and control of our lives and learning. We want self-directed education to be seen as normative, rather than alternative, in the public discourse about education . . .
Read MoreSome thoughts about about unschooling and homeschooling after speaking in Dublin, Ireland and Brooklyn, NY recently, plus an article, "Awakening Ourselves to New Possibilities in Education."
Read MoreShilpa and Manish Jain are grassroots education activists located in the United States and India, respectively. This spring each is putting on a unique event that approaches vast educational change at a personal, empowering level . . .
Read MoreTwenty-two personal accounts about why and how fathers decide to embrace and support unschooling. Peaceful parenting and thoughtful support for their children's mental, spiritual, and physical development are some of the important themes that get explored by the men in this new collection.
Read MoreChildren's rights are not a conversation starter in most circles, but this recent interview I did goes there in-depth.
Read MoreOver the last few months we created this series of six videos, handouts, and a private member's forum to help you start and continue homeschooling in your own way. I wrote a new book, How to Report Unschooling to School Officials, as a capstone to this project (you can get the book separately). But you can get a special price on the complete package . . .
Read MoreUnschooling and self-directed learning are gaining advocates around the globe . . .
Read MoreThis photo shows our living room during a typical day of homeschooling. I'll talk about how moments like this add up to powerful learning and enhanced self-esteem for children in my next Starting to Homeschool webinar . . .
Read MoreBoles always moves from the theoretical to the practical in this book, and I enjoy how he doesn’t present learning as a series of boxes to check on a report card, but as an adventurous journey that shapes your life right now, not after graduation and you enter the “real world.”
Read MoreNorth Star celebrates self-directed learning in its local community with an annual award that goes to a publicly nominated person who did not complete high school (though they may hold a GED) and who “lives as a model of successful self-directed learning . . ."
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