by Sara Mcgrath

Created on: December 04, 2009

Anarchy and unschooling have complementary, oft misunderstood philosophies to describe a self-directed, self-regulated, free life. Unschooling, for its part, describes an approach to learning.

Some people fear that unschooling will promote anarchy, by which they mean 'chaos, lawlessness, and disorder.' However, as the 'un' in unschooling simply means 'without school,' the 'an' in anarchy, simply means 'without a ruler.' And as with unschooling, people often misunderstand the concept.

Perhaps, because the term, unschooling, begins with a negative prefix, unschoolers typically attempt to define unschooling by what it excludes. The lack of a positive definition contributes to a multitude of misperceptions about the relationship between unschooling children and their parents. I could say the same about definitions of anarchy.

Anarchy describes, not the absence of order, but the absence of rule, i.e., coercive authority and strict top-down hierarchical organization. It promotes a community of cooperative partnerships, responsible self-governance, and voluntary, respectful relationships between leaders and followers. In an anarchist community, leaders gain followers through natural authority, i.e, by having useful skills and experience. A ruler, on the other hand, such as an authoritarian parent or teacher, uses laws, enforcement, and punishments to create an involuntary ruler-follower relationship. Therefore, the ruler does not truly lead.

Unschooling parents use their natural authority as elders to help their children achieve personal goals. They also remain willing to follow the child's lead when it makes sense to do so. In this way, children and parents live cooperatively in partnership.

According to anarchist philosophy, parents have responsibility for and to their children, but not ownership of them. For example, my responsiveness to my children, the reliable and loving meeting of their needs, creates the foundation from which they mature into cooperative, free-thinking people, unbound by unmet needs. We learn respectful cooperation by experiencing it.

If one of my children acts in a way that endangers her or someone else, I respond by protecting whomever needs protection. I might offer empathy and engage the offending child in conversation about the incident to help the child understand the feelings involved, but I will not attempt to add pain (where pain already exists) through arbitrary punishment.

Both anarchist and unschooling philosophy view education as inseparable from life itself, and discipline as the development of self-regulation which can only come from a life free of inhibition, threat, and coercion. Unschooling parents guide their children by acting in a thoughtful, responsible, and courteous manner.

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