Deconstructing Education #3

Beezy understands that learning happens all of the time, not just when we are "doing school".  But she is also conscious of the lesson plan book I keep, of checking things off and being aware of how many separate items we accomplish.  I feel compelled to deconstruct these lesson times a bit.  For instance, last night Beezy was having trouble falling asleep, so she read a chapter in her Ginn reader and then told me that she read an interesting story about a pancake. She gave me a narration of the story without my prompting her in an obvious way while we were lying in the dark.  I had originally put the idea into her head to read if she can't fall asleep, and on her own she sometimes chooses to do this using a book light, which adds an element of fun.

I am torn. I like the Charlotte Mason idea of doing formal lessons in the mornings, being finished by 1:00 and having the rest of the day free. Is that like unschooling "part time"? I think it's fair to say that those unschoolers who believe that, from a philosophical standpoint, you can't unschool part time have a valid point. The consensus seems to be that unschooling is not doing school at home, so it is quite a different animal from homeschooling methods which duplicate the public schooling experience within the home environment. Yet allow me to argue that any method of homeschooling is indeed a radical expression of liberty. I know, now I am co-opting the term "radical" from the radical unschoolers!

I agree with Astra Taylor that it is important how we name things, and that unschooling, while a form of homeschooling, is something different from the styles which use a set curriculum and are adult led, etc... I also agree with the homeschooling mother in the audience that there is too much division between the two camps, and that it is a very brave decision to homeschool one's children in any shape or form. I also agree with that mother that homeschooling does not equal "helicopter" parenting.

The other night Beezy asked if she could have some gum. Since unschooling had suddenly come into my radar, I told her that she didn't have to ask for gum; she could have gum whenever she wants. She was surprised at this, but I told her that I thought she was responsible enough to make her own choice. I reminded her that brushing one's teeth is especially important if one chews a lot of gum. The thing is, we have always had candy in plain sight, available whenever Beezy might want to have some, yet she has always asked first. She doesn't feel a need to sneak it, and she typically doesn't eat too much of it. She loves sweets but doesn't over-indulge. Since allowing her to choose gum without asking, I have noticed no increase in her consumption of it.

I have also been allowing our days to flow organically this week. Yesterday I pulled my back out right before my RCIA director came to catch me up on classes I had missed. Beezy helped clean the house before the director came, and she ran errands with her dad during our meeting. Since I was in too much pain and couldn't move around well at all, we didn't do school. Beezy decided to visit her grandma. Then her cousin came over to play, and the three of us went to the Ash Wednesday Mass. Her dad and I both read to her yesterday, and she read to herself. No doubt plenty of learning took place despite not having "school time".

I still want to keep track of the books and materials we are using, but I think maybe I will put the lesson plan book aside and not write each activity into a subject box. Sometimes I feel stressed in the effort to get a certain amount of things done. It is nice to have school out of the way early in the day on the one hand, but on the other that gives the message that the most important learning happens during that specific time frame. There is an advantage, I think, in not having sharp lines between school and the rest of life. I also think it is nonsense to say that in the unschooling method one must use absolutely no curriculum. Charlotte Mason advocated a broad curriculum focusing on living books and exploration of the natural world. The whole world and everything in it qualifies as educational curricula! In the Montessori Method, role modeling is the best practice to teach children in the way they should go.

What I want to work on is better preparing the home environment to be interesting and stimulating. This will require more organization and closet cleaning, and Beezy can be a part of that. I want to let the day unfold organically but with a purpose toward creativity, spiritual growth, and learning that is both teacher-directed and self-directed, and I want to extend such open source learning more into the community, traveling and going to intriguing places. Now it is time to make Valentine cards, according to Beezy, and she isn't hungry yet for breakfast. So begins our day!

The Unschooled Life--A Call for Guest Authors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwIyy1Fi-4Q

Here is a link to the youtube video, "Astra Taylor on the Unschooled Life".  Astra is a filmmaker who was unschooled until the age of 13. She has advanced degrees and even attended Brown University, but she never studied cinematography. She reflects on her unschooled life, her experiences in the public school system, and her time in college. She gives a balanced view of both the pros and cons of unschooling and distinguishes this mode of education from homeschooling.

 Astra Taylor

One thing Astra wishes she had more of as an unschooler was an intellectual community where she could be creative with other kids, having fun and doing projects. This was an unmet need even though she had siblings. She found such a community among her public school friends, who she said were trying to give themselves the unschooling experience she had though they went to a public school. They sought to be self-directed learners.

Self-education is the cornerstone of unschooling. Adults facilitate the learning process rather than teach their children according to a schedule and curriculum. Astra emphasized her enriching home environment and the natural world outside as being sufficient motivation for spiking her curiosity and providing the materials to find out what she was interested in learning. This reminds me of my Montessori experience. The prepared classroom environment was key to this method. Children were free to choose any materials from the shelves, as long as they had been shown the proper handling and use of the material, and they were free to come up with their own variations.

The lessons teachers gave were predominantly individual and small group, and children had the right to not have the lesson if they were not interested or were busy working on something else. We did our best not to interrupt their concentration. But being a school situation, there were lunch times, group circle lessons, and outdoor play times. We tried to make transitions smooth and not hurry the children, and to allow a child who really did not want to break away from his work to finish it whenever possible. It wasn't an ideal situation, and for some children, the school day was excessively long. They could come as early as 7:30 a.m. and stay until 6:00 p.m. The spirit of following the child, a child-centered rather than teacher-centered approach, was intrinsic to this method.

But what about the unschooled child who does not have an enriching home environment or adequate exposure to the community and the arts? Who doesn't have books at home or access to a library? The idea of "radical unschooling" disturbs me, by which I refer to the practice of giving children no rules, no formation of good habits, no regular routines of sleep or meal times, letting them do whatever they want, whenever they want, trusting them to somehow "self-regulate". If they are not exposed to certain things, how will they know what interests they would like to pursue?

So to further my understanding of unschooling and the different types that may exist, I am inviting unschooling parents, and even the kids themselves, to be guest authors on this blog. We could do a Q&A session, or you can write your own article. Please contact me via Facebook or on the blog comments site if you are interested! I look forward to learning more about the unschooling process.

Everyday Minuets #1

 Minuet by Frederick Hendrick Kaemmerer

Sometimes a topic for this blog easily comes to me, but sometimes I just want to write--like in a journal. Not necessarily about anything in particular, but still with some centering purpose. Perhaps rather than the grand, universal  theme, it's the little details comprising a typical day that can inspire the most contemplative food for thought.

This morning after playing with her cats and getting dressed, Beezy wanted to go outside to the trampoline and practice her tumbling. Yesterday she had discovered that she could do somersaults on the trampoline, which she had learned a few years ago in tumbling classes but had since forgotten how to do. She created two variations on the somersault, one of them being the simple, standard type, the other done with more forward-propelling energy and panache. She decided she liked the 2nd one best!

So this morning I watched out the window unbeknownst to her and saw her lying on her back on the trampoline. Then she got up and practiced the somersaults, talking to herself along the way. At another point she was lying down again. There was a definite system at work here, organically developed. On a late summer day while most children are confined to an indoor classroom, Beezy is teaching herself something important, evaluating her own progress, working toward her own method and goals. Out in the fresh air, soaking up sunshine. Resting when she needs to rest, working when she is compelled to work. Self-directed.

This is like a minuet--an old-fashioned, slow, graceful dance, done in 3/4 time... We will get to our formal "school" time, but first we have a heavy, mysterious package to open from Beezy's grandmother who lives in New Mexico. We have the pleasure of allowing our day to unfold.

So here is my proposition: I will write from now until I am done with the experiment in a series of minuets, reminding me that life is a dance, and it is a slow one to be savored. We will pay attention. Listen for the inner promptings, the whispers that will guide us if we are willing to hear the musical strains all around us; find the freedom within the form.

Self-Taught Swimming

Last evening Beezy, age 8, went down the big water slide at our public pool by herself for the first time! This is the first summer that she has been tall enough, but even though she met the height requirement this year, she still had to conquer her fear. I did not push. I have noticed that her progress in swimming has been very self-directed and self-initiated and find this to be fascinating. Is it a result of being homeschooled, perhaps? Beezy has many friends that she sees at the pool, but she is not really interested in socializing with them there. She has her own agenda. As long as she is polite, I allow her to do her own thing. She seems to be on an internal mission, and I respect that.


On her own she decided to learn to swim underwater, without plugging her nose. She figured out the breathing by herself. She is very into goggles, wanting to be able to look at things under the water. She can swim across a full length of one part of the pool. While she still wants a parent close by, she is not very keen on receiving advice. In fact, she will go under water so as not to hear it! But if I see something that she needs to do differently in order to achieve her own goal, I gently insist (that is to say, I persist) in sharing my helpful hints. For example, she was teaching herself to swim on her back, but I noticed her bottom was too low in the water, so I demonstrated a better posture and recommended kicking without bending the legs so much. She did follow my advice and improved her technique. It is not easy to keep from being invasive while at the same time providing a bit of helpful teaching! Then again, perhaps she would have figured it out eventually if left to her own devices...

We did pay for private swimming lessons a couple of summers ago, and then last year just built on that ourselves, in an informal manner. So I was surprised at how much she has progressed this year with hardly any adult interference. And we solved the big slide problem together last night. While I could not be standing right at the bottom of the slide, I could go up with her to alleviate her minor fear of heights (one I share, so it helped me too to have a hand to hold!). Then I went down first, so I could be right by the steps in case she needed me when she got to the bottom. Which she didn't. After four trips up and down I was done, and so I found another child, a couple of years older, to escort her. In the process of this new achievement, she also made a friend! The point to consider is that while I encouraged her in trying the slide, once she had expressed the interest, I left it up to her. I only provided a plan for conquering the fear. She did it when she was ready, and she consequently made an independent decision in her own education and interests, and she had a blast!

This is how kids can be. They still want their parents close by, but they want to figure some things out on their own. They don't want to be spoon fed. We let our babies make a mess while they learn to eat, don't we? It's the process, not the product, that matters in the end.