Can a Single Parent Unschool?

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Jan Hunt, M.Sc., offers telephone counseling worldwide, with a focus on parenting, unschooling, and personal matters. She is the Director of The Natural Child Project and co-editor of the Unschooling Unmanual, author of The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart and A Gift for Baby. To request counseling, order her books, or for other information, visit her website at www.naturalchild.org.

These days, many parents find themselves alone, whether by choice or by circumstances. Many of these parents assume that unschooling is not an option for them, but like many other assumptions, this can be self-fulfilling. Happily, unschooling in single parent families is easier now than it has ever been. With commitment, creativity and support, single parent unschooling can be not only possible, but very rewarding.

If a parent considers herself a resource person rather than a teacher, unschooling will be much more feasible. "Unschooling" (interest-led learning) is much easier and more enjoyable for both parent and child than a structured curriculum, and takes far less energy. This is likely to be especially appreciated by a parent who has the full responsibility of her children, whether he or she is a single parent or a parent whose partner travels frequently or works long hours. Without the unnecessary burden of a curriculum, parents are free to respond to their child in a more natural and far less time-consuming way.

How to Create Non-Readers

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Alfie Kohn is an American author and lecturer who has explored a number of topics in education, parenting, and human behavior. He is considered a leading figure in progressive education. His website is here. You can find this original post here.

Not that you asked, but my favorite Spanish proverb, attributed to the poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, can be translated as follows:  “If they give you lined paper, write the other way.”  In keeping with this general sentiment, I’d like to begin my contribution to an issue of this journal whose theme is “Motivating Students” by suggesting that it is impossible to motivate students.

In fact, it’s not really possible to motivate anyone, except perhaps yourself.  If you have enough power, sure, you can make people, including students, do things.  That’s what rewards (e.g., grades) and punishments (e.g., grades) are for.  But you can’t make them do those things well -- “You can command writing, but you can’t command good writing,” as Donald Murray once remarked -- and you can’t make them want to do those things.  The more you rely on coercion and extrinsic inducements, as a matter of fact, the less interest students are likely to have in whatever they were induced to do.

Free PDF of Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree

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Free PDF for teens and college students of Blake Bole's new book, Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree.

From Amazon:

Better Than College provides the step-by-step guidance and inspiration necessary to design your own higher education. This book teaches you how to find community, stay on track, and get hired or start your own venture, all without a four-year degree. Curious college students will learn to think clearly about their motivations, plan a gap year, or navigate life after school. And Better Than College will show parents how self-directed learning can lead to a lifetime of achievement no expensive institution required. 

Free PDF

Take Back Your Education

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John Taylor Gatto wrote this article for The Wall Street Journal, July 25th, 1991. Gatto was a New York State Teacher of the Year. An advocate for school reform, Gatto’s books include Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, the Underground History of American Education and Weapons of Mass Instruction.

More and more people across America are waking up to the mismatch between what is taught in schools and what common sense tells us we need to know. What can you do about it?

Nobody gives you an education. If you want one, you have to take it.

Only you can educate you — and you can’t do it by memorizing. You have to find out who you are by experience and by risk-taking, then pursue your own nature intensely. School routines are set up to discourage you from self-discovery. People who know who they are make trouble for schools.

10 Unschooling Mistakes You Want to Avoid

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List is written by Radio Free School. Their blog is here.

1.Comparing. I believe that the root of all evil is comparison. When you find yourself about to do the "is my child keeping up?" or the "her child is better at piano then mine, and they're the same age," just stop. Don't do it. When you look at another unschooling mum and back at yourself and feel that you fall short, don't go there. Rather, allow her to inspire you; don't feel down.

2. Believing that everyone should agree with you. This is the attitude of any newbie. I remember how militant I was when I first became a vegetarian (I no longer am-a vegetarian). I couldn't tolerate people who weren't. I must have been an insufferable 'know it all.' I know I certainly annoyed people.

3. Getting offended/feeling hurt when people don't (agree with you). The world owes you nothing. If someone tosses you a dubious look or expresses doubt in what you are doing-deal with it in a mature way. Learn not to take yourself so seriously. Laugh.

50 Best Blogs in the Unschooling Movement

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A comprehensive list of 50 of the best unschooling blogs, compiled and written by onelinecollege.org.

Unschooling has garnered a fair amount of visibility lately, and like other homeschooling techniques, comes packaged with its own controversies.

The technique, which emphasizes life experience over traditional academics, is utilized by households from every political and religious leaning imaginable. Parents possess different reasons for starting their children down the unschooling path, but the only thing they have in common is an interest to raise them as effectively as possible.

Though the following blogs stem from a wide range of ideologies, they provide an interesting glimpse into the wide world of homeschooling and unschooling for anyone interested in reading more. See what they have to say, and pay visits to other resources not listed here for a broader glimpse at a growing movement.

Excerpt From A Language Older Than Words

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Excerpt from A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen

I've since come to understand the reason school lasts thirteen years. It takes that long to sufficiently break a child's will. It is not easy to disconnect children's wills, to disconnect them from their own experiences of the world in preparation for the lives of painful employment they will have to endure. Less time wouldn't do it, and in fact, those who are especially slow go to college. For the exceedingly obstinate child there is graduate school.

I have nothing against education; it's just that education--from the Greek root educere, meaning to lead forth or draw out, and originally a midwife's term meaning to be present at the birth of--is not the primary function of schooling. I'm not saying by all this that Mrs. Calloway, my first-grade teacher, was trying to murder the souls of her tiny charges, any more than I've been trying to say that individual scientists are necessarily hell-bent on destroying the planet or that individual Christians necessarily hate women and hate their bodies. The problem is much worse than that, it is not merely personal nor even institutional (although the institutions we've created do mirror the destructiveness of our culture). It is implicit in the process, and therefore virtually transparent.

Sustainable Education

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Another by Jerry Mintz (the original article can be found here) who has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement for over 30 years. In addition to his seventeen years as a public school teacher and a public and independent alternative school principal, he has also founded several alternative schools and organizations and has lectured and consulted around the world, and has written the book No Homework and Recess All Day: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education

What is NOT sustainable is the national craze of high stakes testing. It is from the last vestiges of a failed education system. Its paradigm was “We are the teachers. We have all the information you will need to have a productive life. Just listen to us, learn what we think you should learn, and you’ll be set for life.”

Well, if that paradigm was EVER useful, it certainly doesn’t work in today’s world. What people need today (and children ARE people!) is confidence in themselves as learners, tools so they can find the answers to their questions themselves, preparation for life-long learning, and in general, a learner-centered approach rather than one which is curriculum driven.

And most important, memorizing facts is NOT important (and this is the most typical aspect of high stakes testing). When Albert Einstein was once asked the speed of sound he said, “I don’t bother memorizing what I can easily look up!”

Ten Signs you Need a Different Kind of Education for your Child

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The original article can be found here. Jerry Mintz has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement for over 30 years. In addition to his seventeen years as a public school teacher and a public and independent alternative school principal, he has also founded several alternative schools and organizations and has lectured and consulted around the world, and has written the book No Homework and Recess All Day: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education

Many parents don’t realize that the education world has changed drastically since they were in school. Schools and class sizes used to be smaller, dropout rates lower, in-school violence almost unheard of, and teachers weren’t terrified of showing affection to their students, or of discussing moral values. Of course, even then, school was far from perfect, but at least the teachers—and usually the principal—knew every student by name, something that is increasingly rare today.

Because our public school system has deteriorated considerably, many parents, teachers, and individuals have taken it upon themselves to create public and private alternatives to that system; and it is important for parents to know that they now have choices.

So how do you know that it’s time to look for another educational approach for your child?

BP Helped Write California's Environmental School Curriculum

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How many of you feel comfortable with oil giant BP teaching your children about the environment? By Rick Daysog

BP, the energy giant responsible for the largest offshore oil spill in history, helped develop California's framework for teaching more than 6 million students about the environment. 

Despite a mixed environmental record even before the Gulf of Mexico disaster, state officials included BP on the technical team for its soon-to-be-completed environmental education curriculum, which will be used in kindergarten through 12th-grade classes in more than 1,000 school districts statewide.

Environmental watchdogs and some experts who worked on the project said BP's involvement is troubling given its handling of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, which killed 11 workers and dumped more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Watch The War On Kids for Free!

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The War on Kids is a 2009 documentary film about the American school system. The film takes a look at public school education in America and concludes that schools are not only failing to educate, but are increasingly authoritarian institutions more akin to prisons that are eroding the foundations of American democracy. Students are robbed of basic freedoms primarily due to irrational fears; they are searched, arbitrarily punished and force-fed dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. The educational mission of the public school system has been reduced from one of learning and preparation for adult citizenship to one of control and containment. (from Wikipedia)
Watch for Free

The Case Against Grades

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Alfie Kohn is an American author and lecturer who has explored a number of topics in education, parenting, and human behavior. He is considered a leading figure in progressive education. His website is here. You can find the original article here.

By now enough has been written about academic assessment to fill a library, but when you stop to think about it, the whole enterprise really amounts to a straightforward two-step dance.  We need to collect information about how students are doing, and then we need to share that information (along with our judgments, perhaps) with the students and their parents. Gather and report -- that’s pretty much it.

You say the devil is in the details?  Maybe so, but I’d argue that too much attention to the particulars of implementation may be distracting us from the bigger picture -- or at least from a pair of remarkable conclusions that emerge from the best theory, practice, and research on the subject:  Collecting information doesn’t require tests, and sharing that information doesn’t require grades.  In fact, students would be a lot better off without either of these relics from a less enlightened age.

4 Reasons to Change the Way We View Education

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Author Mary Hickcox is an unschooling advocate, mother, and life guide to three sons (11, 7, 3). In this very thought-provoking article, she lists the four reasons we should change education. Read the original article at Activist Post.

The way in which we view education has a lot to do with our past; how we grew up, societal influences, and the way we were schooled ourselves. It is the legacy that we pass on to our children. Tragically, the current way our education system is engineered, it appears our children seem doomed to be unsuccessful.

We live in a time where our schools are failing, our children are unhappy and overworked, and the current system becomes more obsolete every year. Something needs to change if we want our children to be happy, and our country to be successful, once again. The system we have now was built on a fault line and it has become increasingly evident that the cracks are growing exponentially. It isn’t too late to change that model.
We could talk about how to improve schools, maybe more money or less political involvement, but in the long run those are not the things that stand in the way of our children’s futures. What stands in the way is an archaic mindset build on false education and an inability to look past the norm. With our country in a dire economic situation with mass joblessness and stifled innovation, it is time to step outside of the box that public education has put us in to find solutions.

10 Rules to Raise Terrific Kids

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By Dr. Laura Markham of AhaParenting.com, author of  Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How To Stop Yelling and Start Connecting. She trained as a Clinical Psychologist, earning her PhD from Columbia University.  But she's also a mom, so she translates proven science into the practical solutions you need for the family life you want. 

Research shows that the kids who act most ethically come from families with strong values, lots of discussion, and -- surprise! -- fewer rules!  That's because when kids just get used to following rules, they aren't thinking. If, instead, parents role model behavior that expresses their values, children come to value those things -- and they act accordingly.

So it isn't the rules we give our children that matter most; it's our role modeling and the constant discussion of values and principles in our home.  In fact, I think kids really only need one rule, which is basically the Golden Rule: Treat others, and ourselves, with kindness and respect.

But there are some rules that are really helpful in raising caring, responsible, happy children.  Those rules are for us as parents. I've condensed them to the ten most helpful reminders I know.

Endless Summer

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Sarah Karnasiewicz is a freelance writer and photographer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Until recently, she was senior editor at Saveur magazine; prior to that she was deputy Life editor at Salon. She has contributed to the New York Times, the New York Observer and Rolling Stone, among other publications. For more of her work, visit thefastertimes.com/streetfood and Signs and Wonders.

Celine Joiris has never failed a test. Never eaten crappy cafeteria food. Never been picked last during gym. It’s not that she’s a supernaturally lucky 16-year-old — she’s simply never been to school. “I like the idea of studying, but school is just like incarceration,” she explains. Her brother Julian, 17, agrees. “My approach is, planning, schedules — OK. Tests, OK. College, OK. Whatever. But I don’t really want to think much about it,” he shrugs. “I can’t tell you where I’ll be in two years.”

What’s that? A smart 17-year-old without a plan? A bright, middle-class teenager who’s not stressing out about SATs and admissions essays? In an era when college prep begins in preschool and adolescents need Palm Pilots to manage their after-school activities, such nonchalance has the power to shock. What about all those stories about home-schooled kids dominating national spelling bees and hogging spots at Harvard? Surely “whatever” is not in their vocabulary.  

10 Celebrity Parents Who Choose Homeschooling Instead of Public School

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Written by Alexandra Martinez, find out a few celebrities wh0 choose homeschooling over public school (with photos!). The original article can be found here.

Celebrity parents face a unique set of challenges with their children's education -- with erratic work schedules, frequent travel, and paparazzi on every corner, it's no wonder many actors, writers, and entrepreneurs choose to keep their children out of a traditional school.

But the practical concerns aren't the only reason that famous families turn to homeschooling and private tutors: Many of them also prefer the individual attention, customized curricula, and wide range of experiences that make homeschooling so appealing to the rest of the 2.4 million homeschoolers in America today. You may not be able to fly in tutors from all over the world to educate your kids, but you can follow the lead of these well-known homeschoolers even without their A-list status.

20 Ways to Find Your Calling

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Jessica Hagy is an artist and writer best known for her award-winning blog, Indexed and her book with the same title. A fixture in the creative online space, Jessica has been illustrating, consulting, and speaking since 2006.

Not sure what to be when you grow up (whenever that is)? Fret no more.
We can figure this out together. Let’s get started.

1. Ignore the future, deal with the present. 
The question, “What should I be when I grow up?” is wrong. Ask instead, “What is next today?” People become fat one bite at a time, and we become adults one hour at a time, so what we do today matters.