Looking for a quote about Tom Robbins, I found this blog. Reading through her posts, I found one about “unschooling”. What could this be? It sounds very…cool.
I googled it, and found this quote on unschooling.com:
“‘I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience.’ — Anne Sullivan” [Ann Sullivan was the teacher of Hellen Keller]
Wikipedia was also helpful with its definition:
“Unschooling is a form of education in which learning is based on the student’s interests, needs, and goals. It may be alternatively referred to as natural learning, child-led learning, discovery learning, delight-led learning, or child-directed learning“
That’s basically what I was talking about in my Students 2.0 post about thinking. It shares a lot of qualities that I described in “neo-education”.
Blogging in class is unschool. One example would be the story of a very beautiful, amazingly intelligent, and incredibly humble young girl from Hawaii who started a blog for her English class two years ago. Sure, some of her posts were assigned by her teacher, but she was able to make the space her own. Through this, her learning became about her diverse interests (including film, art, poetry, sustainability, fiction, and photography), about her personal growth in the world, and about her goals in life. She started her self-directed learning. You could say she got unschooled.
Ok, you guessed it; that story was about me. When I actually think about how this blog has changed me, I get this immense feeling of pure joy. It sounds really corny, I know. But I feel like I’ve evolved, or grown closer to the Sun (like in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave). My chains have been shed, and my head has been turned to the light. My writing has improved, and on a deeper level, I’ve become a critical thinker.
On my most recent post on Students 2.0, a commenter, Mr. R, invited me to Skype into one of his class discussions. He’s doing the student blogging thing with his middle schoolers. After checking out some of his students (Kelly, Aron, and Macy) I’ve become hooked. I really want to hear what they have to say. I want to read their poetry, look at their photographs, and read their short stories. I want to inspire them like they’ve inspired me.
I see unschooling being done. I love it.
Later: As I was looking for a picture, I found this blog. It’s a wonderful post about what Doc learned from unschooling.
20 comments
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February 24, 2008 at 11:24 pm
jabberwockyschlamydia
I personally am an unschooler and it seems to be a lot easier and less stressful than being a student as well as it being that it’s simply a lot relaxed in learning the information you want. -Fluff.
February 24, 2008 at 11:26 pm
lindsea
Could you tell me more about what it’s like? I’m really interested about the whole experience.
February 25, 2008 at 12:31 am
soojin
To be the devil’s advocate for a moment, there are limitations to blogging as well.
Blog and Internet is the privilege for those who can afford a decent computer and a pay of monthly fee for the connection.
To spread the one on one laptop system or something or get the whole world blogging, a lot of money should be spent by the educational branch of the each countries, and poor countries wouldn’t be as willing to do so.
And we can’t just convince all the teachers to follow unschooling and blogging immediately; that would cause chaos and might have negative effects. WE are the ones who have to be the teachers and spread. For the sake of natural flow of change, it will take generations.
Also for globalization, usage of English should be encouraged, but u kno, majority of the country are non-english speakers which blocks the idea of global share.
neways yea sometimes being opposite like this is fun =]
February 25, 2008 at 12:50 am
Eeho
Kevin Smith developed his unique (and awesome) writing style from reading comic books and talking about Star Wars.
Quentin Tarantino learned to write by working at a video store watching movies all day.
Truman Capote spent all of his childhood days reading indoors before he became an acclaimed writer.
I don’t think blogging is too far off from that kind of thing. It’s the best kind of teaching: self teaching.
February 25, 2008 at 12:52 am
Eeho
And what was your film like at the festival?
That must’ve been a great experience.
February 25, 2008 at 4:30 am
soojin
Eeho, u don’t remember what we learned in Aitken’s asian studies class about Tao of Pooh, that self teaching is the ‘worst’ kind of teaching, remember? tsktsk
blogging is the pooh way, being yourself and integrating
February 25, 2008 at 6:46 am
jabberwockyschlamydia
Well there’s a lot to elaborate and I think I’ll go into a really long comment if I were to explain the exact details. (perhaps I’ll write a blog post of it one day if you’re interested). But to sum it down, unschooling is basically where the person goes out and self-teaches him or herself to the type of subject that interests them. Unlike homeschooling where the parents or who-ever the teacher is tends to follow some sort of curriculum to guilde the student on the ‘right path’ or to keep up with normal school standards at home.
People have brought up questions on both these accounts of “How do you know if my child is ready?” or “How do you know if my child knows at least the standards that all the other kids who go to school do?”
Well with unschooling, there isn’t a way of knowing for sure (unless that person goes through tests to make sure they do know ’standard’ level, of course). Unschooling is basically a relaxed; no curriculum way of learning want you want. So if that person didn’t want to learn math, that person didn’t learn math. In a ‘real world’ scenario where if that person were to apply for a job that requires X amount of math knowledge that person can either go off and learn it or find another job. So in a sense, it isn’t dire to know everything or standard level because that person can go off and learn it when it’s needed.
I hope that helped clear the grey water a bit. -Fluff.
February 25, 2008 at 7:17 am
» Sustainable Educational Model Intrepid Teacher
[...] between the time of our meeting and our initial contact, I noticed that she had written a post on her personal blog about our newly made network connection. She had followed my cyber-trail and [...]
February 25, 2008 at 7:19 am
Jabiz Raisdana
Thanks Lindsea…
http://intrepidteacher.edublogs.org/2008/02/25/sustainable-educational-model/
more soon…
February 25, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Aron
Hey Lindsea – thanks for the comment! At the risk of sounding cliche, great blog!
Personally I’ve always been interested in alternative schooling methods – after all, a single teacher can only do so much for an entire class. And the larger the class gets, the more difficult it is for each student to find his or her own place.
Thing about conventional classes today is, some teachers are good for some people, some for others. But if your teacher can’t motivate you or teach you in a way you understand, then there’s very little room to maneuver.
But on the other hand, unschooling (which, by the sounds of it, would probably be quite reliant on the internet) would require immense motivation and maturity from the student. I mean, I have trouble getting myself to do the casually assigned math homework — I shudder to think what would happen if I was actually telling myself what math homework needed to be done!
But either way, blogs are simply so intuitive and useful that they’ll definitely become a greater part of education, whether it is in school or at home.
February 25, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Aron
(missed the .blogspot in my address)
February 25, 2008 at 3:09 pm
diane
Very beautiful, amazingly intelligent, and incredibly humble young girl from Hawaii,
As an older learner, I find that in the past few years, my most meaningful connections have all been made through unschooling.
I’m a teacher, yet I feel the same sense of frustration and longing that so many of our students express: give us all some time and space to explore, and see how we grow!
Someone recently joked on Twitter about being sucked into the void…I responded that it was more like stepping into the light. You said, “my head has been turned to the light”. We agree again, puna!
Your writing is powerful – I’m very proud of you!
Tutu
February 25, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Kelly
Hey Lindsea:) Thanks for visiting my blog, and thanks for the advice of getting a flickr! i might do that, I Really like your blog, ive been looking around and it looks really interesting.
February 25, 2008 at 7:49 pm
lindsea
@soojin, you’re totally right. But I’m not suggesting that everyone HAS to do this type of learning, I’m just saying that it is effective. It’s easy to get lost in the world where everyone has high speed Internet connection and the newest technologies, but like you said, there are tons of underprivileged kids around the world who have never even used a computer before. Right now, blogging is for those who can afford it, but I hope that many more will soon be able to have these opportunities.
@Eeho, I love your examples. People who are passionate about something naturally learn what they love. Blogging definitely is self teaching, and it’s cool because people can comment, like this, have discussions, and grow with each other.
@jabberwockyschlamydia what’s your blog address? It doesn’t show up for some reason.
You did clear the gray water for me. Thank you :)
@Aron, unschooling does sound like it’d be the sink or swim type of thing. I guess there’s always the question of what came first– the student not wanting to learn, or the conventional school method. Maybe we can collaborate on a story sometime? Let’s exchange emails.
@tutu, hehehe, I do love my hyperboles. These connections and possibilities that twitter and blogging provide truly are the “light”. I mean, I met you didn’t I?
February 25, 2008 at 7:50 pm
lindsea
@kelly, thanks for the compliments :) I look forward to watching your blog grow.
February 25, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Aron
Sounds great! :-)
I managed to find (one of?) your emails on your .blogspot account; sent you an email there.
February 27, 2008 at 1:58 am
jennylu
I’d like to use some of your ideas in the post in a presentation I have to make at my school Lindsea – is that all right with you? I share your enthusiasm for blogging – I can see and feel a growth in my learning as a teacher and I want to impart this to my students. Thank you for putting in words the things I feel.
February 27, 2008 at 6:03 am
lindsea
I’d be honored if you used these ideas in a presentation. I’m glad you like blogging as much as I do. I know that for one case at least (mine), it’s been one of the most education experiences in my life.
March 16, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Sustainable Educational Model | Intrepid Classroom
[...] between the time of our meeting and our initial contact, I noticed that she had written a post on her personal blog about our newly made network connection. She had followed my cyber-trail and [...]
April 4, 2008 at 7:01 pm
What do the Rocky Horror Picture Show, education, and blogging have in common? « Love and Logic
[...] earlier in the week came up, particularly about unschooly blogging. I wrote about this in my post Unschooled, and I’m going to touch upon the subject again [...]