If Babies Were Placed Into
Government Infant Schools From Birth,
The Same Government
That Has Convinced The Masses
That Children Need Public Schooling
To Learn Reading, Writing and Arithmetic,
Would Soon Have The Public Believing
That No Baby Ever Learned To Walk Or Talk
Without Their Assistance.
Image Source
Please read the above quote again if it didn't sink in.
If our governments took our newborn babies away for most of the day ... and sent them to the "experts" to teach them to babble, roll over, crawl, then walk and run and talk ...
... would we soon be thinking that a baby couldn't learn these things on their own at home with their parents?
If a parent refused to put child into government baby school, would they be labelled as 'neglectful' parents?
Babies learn all these basics because LIVING IS LEARNING.
They want to do what everybody else can do, and they will get there no matter what! It doesn't matter how many times that they fall down -- they will keep trying again and again and again until they can stand and walk without falling.
When they first start talking and nobody can understand them, they don't give up. They keep listening, trying to comprehend, and trying to speak until they figure out what works.
image source
This is the way that older children learn too. They don't stop learning on their own once they reach the 'magic' age of 5 and public (or private) school begins!
If children want to learn something badly enough, they will!
Of course it helps to leave lots of resources available to them, and to be a resource when they request help from you.
When your child, whether age 5 or age 12, wants to read, or realizes finally that they need to read to get what they want in life ---- THEY WILL LEARN IT! Same thing with writing or math.
It's pretty hard to get by in today's computer world without reading skills, and using computers may be the way they learn those skills.
My three children are Unschooled.
This means that they learn what they want, when they want, and in the manner that they want.
In an earlier article I wrote (below) about my Right-Brained 12-year-old son. Typical reading expectations and methods did not work for him. But that's okay because he is learning it in his own way --- largely through typing commands on Minecraft and typing to his friends on Minecraft actually!
Honestly, "Google University" has helped my son in tremendous ways! He has watched hours upon hours of videos on things like electricity, repairing eletronics, building computers, and a host of topics.
At the age of 9, we had a visit with an electrician and he had a long chat with my son who was showing him the remote control car that he was modifying and repairing. He later informed us that our son already knew all the stuff that they teach when you start out in Electrician Training at Tech School. He was very impressed that a young child already knew it.
My husband operates Excavators and my son had helped him a few times with work around our property plus visited his dad's job sites. My husband showed a video of our 9-yr-old boy running the Excavator to his employer, and the boss remarked that our boy could operate that machine better than several of the grown men that he had hired!
Isaiah also fixes many of the broken machines around our house and repairs things when needed. In fact, his friends bring their malfunctioning computers over to our house for him to repair.
This is an example of what a child can do when they have the time and encouragement to follow their own interests and passions!
Stories abound of unschooled children who taught themselves 3 or 4 school years worth of a subject in a matter of weeks or months, all because he decided that he needed or wanted to. Simply waiting until a child is older and ready and able to learn something can save years of drudging through the subject before he was ready.
I believe that academics are usually "Better Late Than Early."
In the young years, let them play. Afterall, playing is a child's work!
Read more article like this one at my Blog @canadian-coconut
Please Comment Below and Let's Have a Productive Conversation!
Wow @canadian-coconut! So much knowledge and information just in one post and a thread of comments. Thank you for this post and bringing so much interaction amongst like minded people. I definitely have found more people just from this comment thread that I would love to connect with. I agree with your stance. If a child is ready to learn that child will learn. I have been homeschooling my children since they were born. I never listened to the "law" of my state that says we have to start schooling our child by the time they turn 7. Well my children have been reading since they turned age 3. You know what their first language was...sign language. I wanted my children to be able to communicate with me at a very young age so I started teaching them how to sign when they were 6 months old. They were signing more, eat, mama, dada, all done, sorry, milk, up, help, friend, sister, brother, aunt, uncle etc by the time they reached age 1. No daycare taught them that, no trained teacher taught them that I and their father did.
I feel that I add unschooling with my homeschooling. Due to the laws of our state we do have to record subjects and hours that they complete but at the same time I get creative with what I record. All of the time we spend outside of our home i.e. museums, parks, grocery stores I add that into our curriculum according to what subject it may line up with. We give our children choices because we want them to be strong decision makers now and as adults.
When my first born started reading at age 3 (on a kindergartner level I kid you not) she was ecstatic that she was doing it. But when she reached age 5 for some reason she got discouraged and didn't want to pick up a book. I took her to the library, drove around town for her to read signs, left new books on her bed when she wasn't there...I tried everything to get her interested in reading again. Well finally I just stopped and said maybe she will just read when she's ready. Well 1 year later (yes it took that long for her to be interested in self reading time again) she found a new interest in insects and bugs. I let her go outside and explore and get dirty in the mud. We saw that she really loved roly polys. So we purchased her a little home for a roly poly which you can buy online. We let her take it into our home during the day to feed it, give it water and to study it's nature. At night she had to let the roly poly back outside. Well guess what, she wanted to start reading about them. So we got books on roly polys and other insects and whaaalaaa her joy of reading was reborn!! Now at the age of 7 we can't get her to put a book down to eat dinner. When an interests is sparked in your child, run with it and encourage it. Our support and attention helps them blossom.
I shared that piece of my life to say be patient with your children and they will blossom right before your eyes. When you give them space and let them gravitate toward their interests, they will have joy in learning! This post was right on and so very true. I have seen it with my own eyes. I am blessed to have 4 children that interact with each other everyday. They learn how to problem solve, share, help one another, serve one another and to live peacefully with each other. I don't need an institution to instill that in my babies. We as parents were equipped for this and no one can do it better than we can because we know our children best. So for those that think they are not getting socialization skills you are mistaken. My children interact with other children and adults quite well. When we go out into public people are amazed at how well mannered and intelligent my children are. We are blessed~
Great examples!
Thanks so much for sharing your story too.
I'm glad that we 'met' here on Steemit!
Thank you so very much! It's a pleasure sharing with you and others who are on the same journey. Thank you for sharing about your son. That was so inspiring and encouraging. My oldest son loves to build with blocks and create massive towers with legos. He also loves fixing things and putting them together. We're not sure if he'll gravitate toward being an architect, electrician or mechanic but whichever it is we're excited to support his interests. Continue to be an inspiration, this is what keeps me loving Steemit! 😉
I feel a beautiful team growing here :)
@chron, myself and @jockey are very much enjoying your posts from around our table here in Bali and we are all extremely grateful for your ongoing support. Thank you so much for this. We were just saying tonight how much we would love to Skype chat with you?
I do believe that the subjects we share here are amongst the most important of all on Steemit.
How can we best assist our NEXT GENERATION toward a better world for all? I cannot think of a more pertinent subject.
So, thanks again. Upped & resteemed ;)
And let us think about how the four of us might potentially collaborate on a vaccine awareness project.
Or something along these lines...
Me & Esteban ;)
Thanks!
I am getting so much LOVE lately on Steemit that it is truly amazing.
Many of us have found our 'tribe' on here.
I look forward to future endeavours together
... to be continued
Hi @canadian-coconut I've published an article about you, check it if you can, thanks.
29 Best Steemians Of The Day To Follow 29th July 2017
https://steemit.com/blog/@jzeek/29-best-steemians-of-the-day-to-follow-29th-july-2017
Tribe!
My 3 year old is learning to read and write by herself. Not because we are trying to teach her, but because she wants to. Guess what. We are unschoolers. There is no way on earth I'm sending her to school to have her love of learning replaced by drudgery.
We saw sandra dodds speak last year, and she was a great reminder of exactly why unschooling is the way forward if you want a kid to grow up with a natural inquisitiveness which will never be diluted by government indoctrination. Keep up the great work @canadian-coconut. We are right with you!
I agree entirely with the idea of unschooling, however I do think sometimes we all might be going to the extremes. Perhaps I was blessed with luck or ADD, but in many ways I did enjoy going to school. Let me explain why though. I didn't take school seriously, and so whenever I felt comfortable in a subject and if the subject was worthy of my attention, I would pay attention because I did want to learn about it. Whenever the subject was too boring my mind drifted. I was always rebellious in a silent way, I felt that if I needed to fail the subject then so be it. In general some of my teachers were cool but this has nothing to do with the main reason I liked school and that reason is that I had friends and was surrounded by others my age. I never had any problems being bullied, nor did I ever witness any of it, so like I said perhaps I was blessed. I was also well-protected from good friends. I can't help but remember that at the time the most important thing for me was to have fun, and I think that's ultimately what schools should do. They should provide a safe space for children to socialize and make friends, and probably do whatever they want. It should be free-flowing and kids should be able to choose what they want to learn. To not make this into a big essay, my point is that I do wish to see schooling reinvented in as many ways as possible. If we were to say open-source schooling, then we could all have a base to work on and improve, and it will constantly be improved over the years and this is how it Should be. Now with the internet, perhaps all schools need are computers and supervisors and the tools for kids to put what they learn on the internet into practice. Our public schooling system as it is is usually not that good, mine was ok and I enjoyed some of it though I wished I didn't waste time on things I didn't care for, but the point is we could be doing way better than we are doing now on so many different levels.
I think it's important for kids to socialize and have a place where they can always meet with their friends. Playing, in my opinion is also important because it will reflect how the mind prefers to develop and can signal important things about the children. This can help further guide them into a direction they will enjoy in their studying. If you were to have classrooms that taught X subject, and only kids who really wanted to study X subject attended it, then they might have an easier time making friends who are on a similar path with similar tastes etc. This might even make learning Subject X more enjoyable since they are surrounded by friends who enjoy the subject and could probably help each other
I don't think anyone is actually saying schooling is bad, but rather the way in which we are taught.
I think one of the things that people often think about unschooling is that the kids don't interact with and socialise with other kids. This is a massive misunderstanding. My daughter is brilliant with other kids, very emotionally stable and intelligent, and enjoys being with other kids on a daily basis. Unschooling is far from keeping them from other kids, more observing what interests them, and providing them with the resources for them to learn at their own pace the things that they are curious about in that moment.
At a loss for words. You are so right! This is such a thought-provoking post. Starting with the oh-so-true it's unmistakable like a slap on the face John Holt quote on living and learning to your own story about Google University and how your kids are learning hands-on especially the amazing Isaiah.
We had considered home schooling for our daughter when we returned to our country 2 years ago from Indonesia, but didn't have the guts to go ahead with it. As a result, my daughter who's in the third grade spends 6 hours every day at 'school' and then 2 hours at home reluctantly doing further homework from school (practise cursive writing, answer questions on how the inkjet printer differs from the dotmatrix printer, perform endless addition and subtraction problems, mug up English words for a dictation test and what not: none of which I personally feel are particularly meaningful for a 7 year old) when all she wants to do is go out and play!
And life is flying by fast. I do my own type of home schooling the rest of the time, but I'm not satisfied by it ... I'll have to ramp up my efforts. Probably take her out more, let her feel life more. Thanks so very very much for this @canadian-coconut. You woke me up with your inspiring post. Upvoted and resteeming.
What a great comment.
You are a very thoughtful, intelligent person.
I wish you the best in determining a way to make your daughter's childhood as great as possible!
You are very kind. Thank you so much @canadian-coconut! You are an inspiration.
Wow, you know how to generate some comments - LOL. I am the second oldest of seven and my older sister ( @uglysweater ) and I were 'homeschooled.' Thank you, thank you Mom and Dad for never sticking us in an institution. Due to some radical changes in our lives, i.e. moving to Chile, my younger siblings have pretty much been 'unschooled.' My parents try their best to provide material for everyone's interest. Me being here on steemit is a perfect example. My Dad discovered steemit last July and did everything he could to convince me that it would be a perfect fit for me. I didn't listen immediately and it took a whole month of convincing before I jumped in. And during the beginning and through the $0.08 price of steem, my parents made sure all my expenses were taken care of, ( their version of venture capital, I guess you could say ). In recent weeks / months, others of my family have joined steemit. It is turning out to be a great source of learning. My younger siblings are learning to write, meaning express thoughts through the written word, for example. Of course, they are learning very basic web development in the process as well. My Dad likes to use the following statement a lot "I never let school get in the way of my education." Thanks for being willing to throw this subject out there for others to consider.
Thanks for sharing your story here!
That's really neat how your parents are helping basically start your own business by supporting your writing here on Steemit.
I've been trying to convince my son to start posting but he doesn't want to yet. He does have an account and has only used it to leave a couple of comments.
But perhaps that is all for the best as now the rules are that you have to 13-years-old.
He will be 13 in September, so I'll try to encourage him more then.
Anything I can do to help, please let me know. I've been mentoring many family members, so I'm seeing real time examples of what works and what does not and I'd be glad to help him.
I'm so glad to have stumbled upon some other homeschool/ unschool families here on Steemit. When it comes to choosing this way of life (it really is a way of life ) it's good to have other people around with shared experience and understanding. So much time can be spent just trying to explain to people 'how do your kids learn anything if they don't go to school' it's good to get a break from that and know we're not the only ones.
The internet is an amazing resource for children and parents, if used well. What's happening here on Steemit is very encouraging.
Totally enjoyed reading your post! Yes, this is what unschooling is all about - children's natural desire to learn! My son goes to YouTube University and today he was telling us something about Pascals and Newtons! And later, in the park, he lectured me on the importance of the sun in vitamin D production. It's amazing the quantity of information they absorb while doing things they enjoy!
Thank you for writing this. Public schools cannot be changed, but maybe mentalities can!
thank-you! That's an awesome example!
Very amazing indeed @ladyrebecca !
My five year old tells me things I didn't know all the time, about dinosaurs and wonders of the natural world. He's always surprising me with his knowledge about things like freshwater sharks and Australian cone snails.
Meanwhile, my fourteen year old has a deep, instinctive understanding of internet algorithms. He just knows this stuff. I didn't teach it to him. In fact , when I joined steemit, he took one look at it and told me exactly how it works. Go figure!
Wow I really do applaud you on your stance. I agree that the most worthwhile things you can learn do not come from a formal education, they are things that you can learn on your own accord, either through necessity or through a passion.
I did the whole formal education thing right to university and there is no way I would force my kids into it. The social aspect is fantastic but the lecturing is less than useless and does not provide you with the skills you need for the working environment.
I don't think we could unschool our kids in this country without getting into some serious trouble, you can home school but I believe you have to show the curriculum that you are working through.
What country are you in?
Some parents do unschool but get creative about their reporting.
Basically you have to write down what your child has done for the day, and find a creative way to make it fit into the Learning Outcomes.
So if your child played with frogs that day at the swamp, you turn it into how they learned about amphibians and their habitat, and figure out how to check off some of the science outcomes that are expected of you.
The natural learning can usually fit most of the required categories if you are creative.
But you will probably have to do a few planned out lessons to fill in the missing gaps.
I am VERY fortunate where I am, because I have the choice of requesting a teacher to oversee us, where I would have to meet provincial learning outcomes (albeit in a creative way without curriculum) OR ... I can simply register that my child will be learning at home and I alone am responsible for giving them an education that I deem appropriate. So I can truly unschool without the headaches of reporting and trying to fit my child into any sort of a box.
I feel this is ridiculous and I think it's sad that one must report everything and conform to their imposed culture of authority. It is We the people who should be supervising and asking questions to politicians, not the other way around. We the people Should have Freedom to the point where a report would look like "What has your child done for the day" And you respond "Freedom." It enrages me that these harmless creatures blessed with innocence and purity must be questioned to why they are not attending the institutions that would turn them into slaves of authority and enforcers of the crimes that are committed on a daily basis by authority (War). If they were not concerned with brainwashing everyone into this culture of authoritative crime, they would not have any reason to question your freedom and the freedom of your child.
Yes.
I am definitely using the educational freedom that I have in my province, because it is RARE in Canada or the world.
Our province allows us to educate our children how we wish without reporting to anyone other than a simple registration each year.
I completely agree, specifically with the 'slaves of authority'. However it is sad to say that some peoples circumstances don't permit home-schooling/un-schooling. So if we do have to send our children to school we need to be extra mindful that we teach them the truth or more importantly how they can work the truth out for themselves. I think we need to teach our children to 'Question More' and not just believe the fallacies that institutions/people of power preach.
An example, this is the most disgusting piece of homework I have ever seen and if my child were given it I would have been straight down the school to tell them whats what. But it would have at least started a dialogue between yourself and your child, about not only world politics but the importance of self-education and to not mindlessly believe everything we are given.
We currently live in Scotland and upon reading your response I wanted to do a little research and find out the legalities. It appears that it is nowhere near as strict as I thought. I don't know where I have got this misconception from but I guess it is just drummed into you from a young age, that your kids must attend school. Oh no have I turned into a sheeple? Lol.
My kid has just finished his first year of primary and I think the best thing he has accomplished is his social confidence. He has really come out of his shell and actually loves going to school to see his friends. Most of the other parents are worried about their reading and writing levels and why they haven't brought the next level reading material home yet. I think my son has learnt to read more in the summer holidays watching and navigating YouTube videos, on the rainy days of course, than he has in the whole of his first year at primary.
His extra curricular activities definitely teach him a significant amount, but now we have started with school I don't know if I could take him out because of his fondness towards it (actually towards spending time with his friends).
Now that you have enlightened me my opinion may change when he reaches secondary school level because in my opinion that is when you are taught things that are less than useless in everyday life.
Why are we taught trigonometry but not taught how to grow our own crops, or find water (in Scotland this one isn't too difficult, lol) or make a fire?
My wife was talking about an alternative private high school she read about in the Highlands where they actually teach you useful life skills. I wonder why there can't be more state schools like this?
I love your question "Why are we taught trigonometry but not to grow our own crops or find water or make fire."I wish more people asked this question
Thanks, friend, for this remarkable article.
I am a "right-brained" person who never fit in or felt comfortable in the "educational settings" I was compelled to suffer during the first part of my life. I learn what I am motivated to learn, and I do so very rapidly and intensely, as needed.
I abhor compulsion in all of its guises. Thank you for such a clear presentation of the advantages of unschooling!
😄😇😄
Amen ^^ Though I have to say, the experience itself led me to the insight I have today. So in some way, I am thankful.
Do you mean "the experience" of being schooled?
I would agree that negative experiences can teach us, but I would much rather learn positively.
Won't go in too many details as to my whole life story :p But yes, mostly the experience of the schooling itself, together with many other factors, has eventually led me to great insights. Of course I would rather learn and experience in a positive matter as well. But then again, if that were the case, I would be a completly different person right now..
I guess I should send my computers to your kids so they can REALLY get fixed and cleaned up eh?
LOL.
I like the quote at the beginning and how you even know some people need to read that a 2nd time, it can honestly slide by some people for sure.
Statists gonna state Linda.
I used to be one, but once I saw for myself as an activist actually DOING stuff, going to council meetings to see where my tax dollars were going, and the crap these sociopaths pull daily with our taxes and civil rights --- I learned awful fast they are not the solution, with all their laws and their gov't paychecks to infringe on us.
You are a good parent, and have ID'd your kids areas for strengths/weaknesses and can help guide the next gen. better than any statist propaganda nonsense ever could.
TY for LMK you had a post up!!!
Thanks so much Barry.
I'm glad that you enjoyed reading it.
That saying at the top of the article has really stuck with for years, so I'm glad that I could write about it today.
You have become a favourite over the last year by what you write, how you write it --- and how you conduct yourself.
We are lucky to know you.
You are welcome my friend.
We are better here with your truths and decent behaviour as an example to all.
Thanks for all that.
Great post! I'm someone who went through school and university. I did really well in both and got my first job straight out of uni. On day one of my job in my chosen career I realised I knew NOTHING. I didn't have the skills to do the job even though I knew the theory and had the paper work to prove that. It took a good 6-12 months before I felt confident about myself to do it. I didn't even know what I should say to the person on the other end of the phone. I was clueless!
Now that I have a daughter I am very keen on homeschool/ unschooling her. However when I raised this with my partner he's adamant that she's going to school. He refuses to even listen to me to hear about the benefits. She's still a baby so I have a few years to work on him. It makes me sad that I might lose this battle though and have to send her to school where she will learn useless information that doesn't really set her up for life.
Our school system here is so behind. Only recently have they been talking about teaching computer skills like programming in school. This is something that should have happened years ago. Now, there's a discussion about teaching kids how to drive. Hurray, finally a life skill of some sort might get taught here, but knowing how slowly things move my daughter will be an adult before the curriculum changes!