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Trying to explain unschooling to someone with no experience with it, is much like trying to explain the color green to a blind person. There are too many shades, tints, and variations which combined make it next to impossible to describe the color extensively. It is much less complicated to debunk the myths and legends about the philosophy and explain what it is not rather than describe what it is.

Unschooling does not fit neat and tidy in a box. From deschooling to radical unschooling, the differences and uniqueness of each families routine varies dramatically. Unlike public school, or even homeschooling, one cannot explain the approach in a way that fits all families. Some unschooling families use some curriculum while allowing their children free discovery in other areas. Some families take their unschooling to incorporate their entire lifestyle.

Unschoolers are not against learning. Many people translate unschooling to anti-learning. In all reality, this translation is the exact opposite. Unschoolers choose not to conform to the societal norms when it comes to education, but that does not imply that they are against learning in all form. Learning, to an unschooler, does not happen at set times within a set of boundaries. Instead, they instill life-learning in their children, and allow them to explore the world around them. Through explorations and discoveries, unschooled children often learn much more than their traditional school counterparts. A seven year old may not be forced to learn to read, yet will be able to calculate at the same level as a 13 year old. Another seven year old may wish to avoid numbers altogether but will be reading novels and writing short stories and lesson plans for younger siblings.

An unschool home is not overrun by irreverent and irresponsible children. The recent trend of radical unschooling has sparked a lot of contention in the education realm. Radical unschoolers take the philosophy and apply it to their parenting and life styles. Children are given choices and allowed to make their own decisions on everything from what to eat for breakfast to how they dress and what they study. This gives outsiders the impression that the parents have lost control, or given it to the children. Again, this is a myth not reality. Instead, the child is allowed to experience life's consequences and rewards in a natural way, and the unschooled children tend to develop social and life skills at a much more efficient rate than their schooled

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