MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH HOMESCHOOLED AND UNSCHOOLED CHILRED AGED BETWEEN 5-14
"The end of education is Character"
Never a truer word has been spoken in my opinion! Whilst so many people are considering homeschooling their children, many decide against it out of fear for their children's' long term security and welfare. It may be hard to believe that a child who has never been to school on a daily basis would be 'smart' and able to function or integrate in the world. Whilst homeschooling is without doubt a big responsibility, it is a path that I recommend to anyone who is considering it. I have met many homeschooled and even unschooled children, and also have lived with 6 European children for several years during my time in a small community in India. Having a good character is one of the most important factors to a successful and happy life, and is even more important than qualifications! If a person has good character, they will be noticed and in all the right ways and all the doors will open for them.
Let me say this. ALL of the homeschooled and unschooled children that I had spent time with were not only smarter than just about any child I have met, but they are also happier and full of life, love and creativity. I watch them play and create, and see how naturally intelligent they are. The questions they ask us often blow our minds, and the answers they have to our questions are also just as amazing! They are all also very well educated in other ways that I never learned in school! These children know how to build things, even houses after joining us for self-build workshops! They can climb the tallest trees, with no shoes and no fear, and if you give them a few seeds they know how to plant and grow them an will return you some vegetables or bread a few months later ;-) (they are all amazing cooks too!) These children are SO FULL of love and joy and have a real sense of belonging and community spirit. I think that these children will ALL go on to be SO successful in whatever they do because they are so grounded, smart, open, present, and engaged with people. All they used to do was play ALL day when they were very young! Even at age 13 they still all live on a beach for their 3 months winter holiday where they meet other children from all over the world, and what they learn from these interactions is priceless. I'm definitely jealous of these kids !
The hard graft of learning Math, Language, etc can happen through a child's own desire, OR with a dedicated teacher. I have spent a little time with a 13 year old girl who was totally unschooled. She lives in a small community in Auroville and they spend a LOT of time planting trees and improving the area in a very special community. When I met her she was learning on her own, and figuring it all out with some help from Mum and Dad. You would never know talking to her that she was unschooled, and she spoke English perfectly well, even though her first language was Hebrew. She spoke at least 2 languages fluently. I on the other hand learned French at school until I was 13 years old, and today I can't remember much more than "Je Voudrais un Tranch De Jambon" which isn't very useful at all being mostly vegan! I remember almost nothing I learned at school in History, Geography, French, and even English! I could write a WHOLE post about how terrible teaching methods are in most schools. Teaching us HOW to think rather than WHAT to think is the kind of education you get when you are homeschooled!
So I wanted to share this with everyone as I know this is an incredibly difficult decision for many parents.. but believe me, your kids will most likely be 100X better off homeschooled, especially if you live in any kind of community or live in a sociable area. There are many options as to how you homeschool and those decisions will depend on your own circumstances.
Much Love, and GO FOR IT! <3
I'd like to leave you with a nice movie
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Nice reading Alex. It is good to read this kind of stuff being at some crossroads on this topic. Much love.
well blame my school for bad French! ;-)
WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION!
Ok, you won my once/month resteem as i have quite some un-, home- and other non-schoolers in the following :-)
sweeeet
I really enjoyed your articles, hope you get around to writing about some of it ;-)
Hey Alex, totally with you that one! but unlike yourself and many others I found I was not great at providing all the support my son wanted on a learning level as i was working full time making boots to support us.. He also wanted to be with other kids at least 12 hours a day! so i set up a small free school in our valley (4 hours a day 4 days a week) where the kids play, get creative and have fun in nature, they decide which teachers stay, what they learn and how the school is run, from 3 years to 11 years, its now 4 years going strong :-), I have just joined and my next blog will be about the free school
i saw something on your blog about this.. way to go! WHat you are doing is often the missing key to a successful community.. the kids who used to live here where i am had to leave in the end as they needed better schooling, and more importantly friends and more connections once they reached 10 years old..
where abouts are you living now?
ill keep an eye on your posts for sure!
<3 alex
well...its kind of the same here, once the kids here turn 16 thats it they are off (usually to study theatre/drama in lewis in south uk!) there is a great guy round here called Andy who runs small groups/classes with a huge range of subjects with different locals for kids who want to do there GCSEs or spanish exams later, and Luke who was running our free school (age 3 to 12 year olds) will possibly return next year to do a project for the 8-16 sort of age, a drop in school with many projects and classes offered and also good workshops and study spaces for kids with their ideas, i hope that one gets off the ground, We live in hills near Orgiva, on side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, which is what saves this place for me...as we right in the mono culture tortured land (not where the school is but where the houses yurts and trucks are) But right behind us and going up to 4000m is wild wild wild beautiful land, best wishes to you and thanks for your support :-)
oh wooow, what a location! i can hardly imagine what your community looks like, but if im ever in the Sierra Nevada mountains ill be sure to look you up!
I think its really important to do what you are doing for the future of the community. If the kids grow up and leave then things can get very difficult for everyone.. so giving them the opportunities that they desire as they grow more curious about the world is super important.
<3
Welcome any time! Now I leftliving in that valley which was kind of a mix of a community, a village and a squat! too hard to carry sleeping kids shopping and gas bottles half hour goat path up the hill!, also at least 75% of the place are really heavy smokers, nothing against that but ut kind of dragged the energy down somewhat, the school adds a bright feel in the heart of the place and changes the energy, but im out now leading a more lazy life! love to return for school runs though :-). it does seem that the kids nearly always leave the communities, and want to try living in totally opposite way that there parents do. The only place i saw the opposite was in mate venero community north of madrid, the teenagers were all proudly anarchistic, had their own goat herd, made cheese to sell at festivals and rode their own horses around, wanting nothing to do with the nearby town!, but here and everywhere else ive seen the kids try move into the towns and merge with the local teen culture, gel hair and shopping in h and m! :-O
Funny: I read the quote saying 'The end of education is character' And understood it as: When we end education we get character. Which is funny because I 've read this quote before and have always understood it as: 'The result of education is character'. Not this time.
HA! INTERSTINGGGGGggg! nice ;_)
I couldn't agree more and have been in this niche of life for 30 years including many conferences, groups etc. So I have a LOT of experience and honestly the happiness part is the MOST import IMO and sadly SO UNDERRATED.
Thanks for writing this.
Blessings~*~
Thanks so much for writing this eco-alex, It really is important to promote home learning of any type. My girls are home educated and I couldn't imagine ever putting them into an school. Their capacity for learning is huge especially when they learn by themselves, in school all that self discovery is crushed. Their way of learning is different in each of them, something that is never taken into consideration in public schools. They also get so excited when they discover things for themselves, exactly how learning should be, fun.
yes this is really good to hear. 100% agree with what you say@
I agree to each and every word you wrote here. I know people in my country who don't know how to read and write and are trading in different stock exchanges. Skill is the most important things that schools don't teach. They are producing slaves!
YES! thank you for this.. quite correct!
I am imagining the paper headline now! This is hilarious!
Agreed on the philosophy, all school does is dumb people down and destroy their dreams and passions!
lol. that headline is hilarious too! France Is terrible for vegans for SURE.. the land of Butter and Snails!
Absolutely totally agree with you. Although home / un schooling children can take its toll on the parent's relationship.. unless they make sure that they have a supportive community around them, and especially other children for their kids to play with.
yup i think that is crucial UNLESS you have a VERy tight family unit. having friends for the children is especially important and it might require some effort to manifest that if you dont live in a community.
What it requires is more than some effort.. it requires total commitment by the parents to shape their work, home and family life in a way that is suitable for homeschooling.. For many parents, this isn't an option as their jobs, careers or financial situation requires both parents to go out to work.
As a former homeschooling mom, I appreciate your post. All homeschool situations are different and I can only speak to my own, but it was a wonderful experience for us. I taught my 5 kids most of the way through (One chose to enter highschool for his last two years and four of them attended technical school during their last two years of highschool part time as they finished up their schooling.
The biggest thing for me as a homeschool parent was to teach them how to learn and facilitate their strengths and teach them to work around/deal with their weaker areas.
They are mostly all adults now and I couldn't be more proud of all of them if I tried. Although it was difficult at times, I'm very glad that we chose this route for our children's educations.
hats off to you! Congratulations for being brave and doing what is right and best! Im sure they have turned out to be far better off from by the sounds of it. I think a BIt of schooling is a good thing, even just to KNOW and see what it was all about..
blessings to you
I could not be prouder of my 27yo home schooled/unschooled son. thanks for the post :)
thats GREAT to hear! very happy for you both!