I am happy to be walking down this road. Every day I seem to meet more and more people who share my vision of a free world. Not just a "freer" world, but a FREE WORLD. Before, I thought I was the only one in China who felt that way, alone in the desert. Having begun traveling this course, I am meeting others along the way.

One of those men is Yuan Laoshi (袁鸿林). He is one of China's original home schoolers. This is part of his story and what I learned from him:

"Every Morning Was a War"

Was how Yuan Laoshi described it when I asked him why he chose to homeschool his child. His daughter simply hated going to school. She didn't feel safe. She wanted to stay with her parents, like every child does.

She refused to go. Yuan Laoshi, explained that if he continued to force her, he would likely cause long-term psychological damage and irreversible changes to her character. So he pulled her out and taught her himself.

Keeping her at home, in a comfortable and safe environment, he taught her reading, writing, and math. He exposed her to Japanese, French, and English. She learned how to play the violin. After she reached twelve years old, he let her choose what she wanted to learn.

Yuan Laoshi spent a lot of time teaching his daughter himself. He recreated some aspects of school at home. Some parents, thinking about unschooling, fear the time commitment involved. They fear that they must "do school" at home, being the teacher in every subject and knowing all of the answers in advance.

It's not the case. As legenday unschooling author John Holt wrote:

Much of school time is wasted time. Think back to your school days. How much time was spent on actual learning, and how much was spent on the teacher dealing with questions from other students, discipline issues, telling stories, repeating themselves, et c.. Mastery of a topic takes a great deal of time, but simply understanding a concept doesn't take long at all.

A Nine Year Old Published Author

Freed and feeling safe at home, his daughter became a published author at nine years old.

She shared her experiences of school, being taught at home, what she learned, and what she hoped for the future. I'm struck by the fact that the book is so long, over 170 pages!

Most school children barely write one page before giving up. However, all children can create a work of this magnitude, if they are given the freedom and time to do so. Internal motivation is a powerful tool.

Kurt Robinson(@churdtzu) got it right. We all have the potential and ability to do such great work at an early age. As adults, it may be difficult to accept that we had the opportunity taken from us.

"Every 14 Year Old Can Go To College"

That is the title of Yuan Laoshi's book. In it, he laid out his plan for his daughter's education, timeline and methods. He personalized her education in order to accelerate it. It worked. At nineteen years old, she is nearly finished with her university degree, and is currently working, already making money.

I was struck by the book's title. I remember when I attended Arizona State University, my freshman year classes covered material I learned in 8th grade. Yuan Laoshi was right! I was ready for university when I was 14.

Won't Sell Out

Word spread among family and friends about Yuan Laoshi. Others asked him to educate their children as well. He began doing so in his home, helping them liberate their potential away from the coercive school system.

The local police department did not like what he was doing and asked him to leave or face punishment. Yuan Laoshi believed so strongly in what he and his family were doing that nearly every year they needed to relocate to another province in China. That takes courage, fortitude, and perseverance and I respect that.

Yuan Laoshi put his family first. He has a Ph.D. and could have given up, taken a well-paid comfortable job and sent his daughter back to school against her will. He placed principles and his family over his own comfort.

He didn't sell out.

No way man, not Yuan Laoshi