by Jenalee Larsen

Created on: January 28, 2011

Unschooling is a True Legacy for Future Generations.

Unschooling could be the answer to the education problems we have in our country.  It won’t be an immediate solution.  If parents get involved in educating their children, they can provide a better education than sending their child to school with twenty to thirty other children their age and one teacher to teach them all.  Some arguments against unschooling are that parents don’t have the time to work with their children.  There was a time when raising a family was the most important thing you could do.  Earning a living was important because it provided for your children.  Today how much money you earn and your job status are more important than teaching and being with your children.  Parents might ask themselves, “Do I work to live or do I live to work?”   

Arguments against unschooling have been raised that children need to learn social skills by being with others their age in school.  It is true that social skills can be learned in school, but some of the things learned are not helpful.  Learning to be the victim of bullying happens in school because there may not be enough adults around who are aware of what is happening.  Learning how to swear and tell off color stories happens in school.  Learning to use drugs, alcohol and tobacco happens from socializing at school.  Learning how to deal with people of many different ages doesn’t happen in school.  In school you learn to be very competitive and to be better than everyone else.  In some classrooms children learn that if one child misbehaves the whole class will be punished.  There are few opportunities to learn to work together as a team to accomplish a goal.  You learn to sit quietly and to please the teacher.  If a child is too active, the label “attention deficit disorder” is put on the child; and drugs such as Ritalin are prescribed.    

With computers making access to knowledge readily available to any one, unlearning can be a very real way to get an education.  It has been argued that children won’t want to learn-that they will just want to do fun things.  Example, though, is a powerful teacher.  If a child is read to, they will want to learn to read for themselves.  If they see someone painting, they will want to try painting.  If they see someone using a tool to

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