Welcome to the overview and introduction to Alternative education and learning.
The last few years have been a rollercoaster ride for us all. The world is changing; societies are changing, and education, technology, the way we work, and the way we live are all changing.
A new era is upon us. If you have or are about to have children then compelling questions are upon us as well.
- How do we parent for this fast-approaching future?
- Is it time to let go of family parenting ideas, approaches and philosophies that have been around since the Industrial Revolution?
- Is it time to realize that the way we learn and how our children will learn is changing forever?
In this first article we break down some of the terms thrown around in the alternative education world. We invite you to use this as a place to dip your toes in and get a feel to see if any of it resonates with you. Or perhaps through reading you can sense whether your child might flourish from this way of learning.
For us, it has been the most amazing, breath-taking, heart-warming, challenging and unexpected journey. We have been with our children on their learning journey and we have watched them grow into who they are. Read on if you would like to know more about it as we guide you through this new territory.
We have had years of experience, seen the pit holes, the wins, felt the ups and downs, so we know the terrain. On our website and in our book we share with you tips, ideas, resources and our story. We show you how you can raise young people in a fast changing world without selflessly throwing yourself on the parental cross in the process! Learning for your children and you means plunging into life and rethinking everything that you have ever thought about education and this is where the first step starts.
We are asked many questions about how we live and how our children have learned. On this blog we use the terms unschooling, self directed learning, worldschooling and homeschooling. This is because for almost all their childhoods our children have not attended a school. Nor did we make one at home, well Lehla did for a bit but that didn’t work out. This does not mean they didn't learn anything. Quite the contrary.
To make it clear, we have set out below short definitions of both home schooling, unschooling and worldschooling as we practice it. Like many words that define certain ways of living, there are a variety of definitions. These are ours.
What is Unschooling?
Unschooling is an approach to life and learning that aims to fully remove the line separating learning and education and daily living. Unschooling relies on the potential for learning across all daily living activities and contexts provided by all members of the family. Parents focus on children's innate natural curiosity, which is fostered and supported. The child is encouraged to freely select what, when and how they interact with their environment in their daily lives in so far as it is safe and feasible.
How is Self Directed Learning different?
Unschooling and self directed learning overlap and compliment each other. Self-directed learning is encouraged where the children learn by self-selecting what they are interested in engaging with. Parents rely on the process of facilitating learning with children so as to leverage their natural curiosity. Teaching takes place only when required by the child and with their consent. It is simple but radical if you think about it. Unschooling and self directed learning seek to maintain a collaborative approach with children where power is appropriately focussed in the relationships and individuals within the family rather than only in the adults. Self directed learning prioritizes the child's overall wellbeing and positive natural growth over reaching predetermined time bound learning objectives.
In raising our children we have followed self directed learning and self chosen paths which has allowed the kids to remain open, independent, curious, playful and questioning.
We have followed their desires and passions as best as possible by guiding them towards self-directed learning.
Homeschooling
Home schooling is teaching school subjects and usually following a curriculum outside of a learning institution such as a school, usually at home. Home schooling parents may collaborate with other home-schooling families. A homeschooling family can have widely varying approaches to learning but the core principle is the teaching of children aligned mostly to a curriculum linked to mandatory examinations in fixed time frames in the subjects taught. Many home schooling families use a mixture of approaches to the process of learning some of which are shared with unschooling although they usually stop short at granting full self-direction to the children. Some homeschooling families are increasingly transitioning to unschooling as we have done.
Worldschooling
This is an approach where the world is your classroom, literally. For a simple example; when they have to go and buy that loaf of bread and figure out the currency and the language, learning is going on. The brain is constantly having to adjust to adapt to new environments and often when children are travelling they are picking up languages and being young is the perfect time to learn! Many people are living nomadically and working from their laptops and they can travel and go anywhere. There are worldschooling hubs springing up all over the world, in Andalusia Spain, Bansko Bulgaria, Capo Verde, in Mexico. There are many children that are being raised on the road and meeting up at these various hubs, where lifelong international friendships are formed. They are travelling and learning from various cultures, experiences and lifestyles. We have been ‘Worldschoolers’ and I think it is a great experience for children to get out of their comfort zone and if the parents work can allow it this can be a great experience of the world in all its beauty and complexity.
We have met many worldschoolers and what strikes me is that they are adaptable, often entrepreneurial, flexible and are not flustered by change. They move from place to place, so they have to learn to adapt. Worldschooling is a great way to raise children as a child's eyes get truly opened as to what is out there in the world.
How Self Directed Learning and unschooling has Happened in Our Household
Unschooling starts from the minute I wake till the moment I go to bed. The opportunities to learn are endless and learning moments come up at all times, even when the kids are about to go to sleep and one of them asks me a really interesting, profound question such as, ‘What is sleep?’
In our household unschooling has meant that we have been available to help with projects, ideas and needs, etc. It is a process of learning in an organic way. The main focus of unschooling for us parents has been our relationships with our children and our ability to as best as we can follow our children’s passions and interests. It is also them learning through us by watching us do what we need to do, i.e. work at home. Our roles have been fellow travellers, useful guides, and learning companions to curiosity. Gofers, too, to bring stuff into their worlds. On top of this we are parents, who do all the things parents do, cook, clean, pay bills, juggle working and parenting. Sometimes it has been chaotic, sometimes it has been a rollercoaster but in looking back over the years raising our children this way has been the most rewarding thing that we could have done. Seeing them unfold into who they genuinely are as people has been an honour.
The Questions having Self Directed Educators has raised
I wonder if we had had our children in a ‘normal’ schooling system over these years whether there would have been so many challenging questions. Here are some that confronted us.
How do you as a parent react to your child and how, when and what they decide to learn? How do you remain in equal partnership with them yet also remain a parent with all that that entails? How do you respect them as an equal and not someone to talk down to, or diminish just because of their age? How can you have faith that your child will learn even though the learning that is happening looks different to everything that you have been taught about learning? Can you have faith in them? These are some of the great questions that unschooling or raising a self directed learner brings up. They are important questions, ones that could change the trajectory of a child’s life.
Is there any Teaching or just Facilitation?
With self directed learners I had to step away from the fact that I was the leader, the ‘teacher’ and believe me that was tricky, I come from a family of teachers. If a child is not engaged in what you are ‘teaching’ then that child closes down, the fun has gone, the learning stops. So I am talking about the fine balance of facilitation, I think learning arrives in the way that a butterfly does on your finger. If you move too fast it will fly off and you may never see it again. If you give children the space to learn and know when to step out (a lot) and step in (only sometimes) then this to me is the key to great facilitation.
It is the difference between closing down a child by the sheer fact of asking the wrong question at the wrong time or opening up a kid's mind to the magic of everything because in their worlds everything is new, interesting and up for grabs.
It is a fine balancing act that requires patience and ultimately faith in your children. It is a lesson that I am still learning as I often fall into the trap of wanting to take over. I have learnt that stepping back and actually having faith in their ability to learn things is often the hardest but the best thing to do. As an example our children learnt nine years of Maths in a year, on their own, thanks to The Khan Academy. Once you get out of your child’s way the magic happens and your child will know what it is like to be fully autonomous with a sense of self, purpose and an intrinsic desire to learn and step into life fully. I think that is possibly what we as adults strive for our whole lives.
Alternative Education Schools
These schools follow the learner and their passions and dreams in what they want to do. Most notably is A.S Neill's Summerhill School
When we went to visit one of the first things that I noticed was that the children were incredibly self confident. It was an ‘open day’ and I was waiting for the adults to show up and show us around. This shows my conditioning, as I kept waiting for one or two to appear until the penny dropped, they were not necessarily going to appear. In fact no adults showed up until mid afternoon. The children showed us around, they were confident, could look you in the eye and were passionate about Summerhill and what they were learning. Some were too engrossed in a book, or designing something on the computers to engage and they didn’t apologize for that. They were who they were, there were no awkward smiles, or people pleasing behaviour. It was noticeable to me, I liked it. When the adults did appear they were not looking to teachers to back up what they were saying or for reassurance.
There are a variety of amazing alternative schools out there that embrace the self directed learner. I was very moved by that experience. In fact the book ‘Summerhill, A Radical Approach To Child Rearing’ was the springboard for me to take a different direction when it came to our children’s education. It was from there that I realised that some of the core ideas that I had been having around education and raising children had been written down in a book 45 years earlier.
With all these ways of educating children and them being able to choose what one learns, how, when, where and with whom can be the foundation for a life well lived. Freedom and having agency and autonomy, you could say, is a recipe for happiness. It is very different from the frustration and irritation which so many children experience within the schooling system.
Setting the Seeds in Childhood for a Future Life Well Lived
If our children can carry that feeling of autonomy with them and can look back on their lives and their childhood remembering a sense of wonder, mystery, fun and happiness, we can know that we did our best to give them what is most precious. They would have had a self directed well lived childhood and an opportunity to discover self actualisation and to step in to who they actually came here to be.