Written by John Holt, as published at NaturalChild.org. Almost every child, on the first day he sets foot in a school building, is smarter, more curious, less afraid of what he doesn’t know, better at finding and figuring things out, and more confident, resourceful, persistent and independent than he will ever be again in his…
Tag: schooling
How do Unschooling Parents Know their Children are Learning?
Written by Jan Hunt for NaturalChild.org. In unschooling, the child’s current interests are followed, and the parents act not as teachers but as tutors and resource assistants. This approach is often misunderstood, because it is based on assumptions that are quite different from those implicit in conventional schooling.Read the full thing »
Embracing the Moment
Send him mail. “One Improved Unit” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OIU-only RSS feed available here. I have recently discovered a major weakness of mine. I have heretofore been aware of it, but justified it…
Reflections on School and Prison
Written by John Taylor Gatto, as published at The Link. Almost all Americans have had an intense school experience which occupied their entire youth, an experience during which they were drilled thoroughly in the culture and economy of the well-schooled greater society, in which individuals have been rendered helpless to do much of anything except…
Coming and Going
Send him mail. “One Improved Unit” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OIU-only RSS feed available here. What would a column about my personal growth and improvement be without an analysis of the coming year? As…
Doing Something Different: Growing Without Schooling
Written by Susannah Sheffer for The Natural Child Project. I’m sitting with three teenagers who have recently left school to begin learning at home and in the wider world. On the table in front of us lie notes about possibilities – ideas, wishes, plans for further investigation. I’ve scribbled down, “Call homeless shelter; find out…
Deschooling a Parent: Learning to Trust
Written by Jan Hunt for The Natural Child Project. It’s only natural for parents to feel uneasy and uncertain when contemplating a path for their children other than the one they themselves traveled. Those of us who decide to unschool – even when we are convinced that this is the best option for our child…
Which Shall We Treat, the Problem, or Symptoms?
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. Voluntaryists are not pacifists, though they do encourage strategic pacifism on many fronts. In regards to the private ownership…
Why I Had to Become My Own Father
Send him mail. “Insight for the Young and Unrestrained” is an original weekly column appearing every Thursday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Gregory V. Diehl. Gregory is a writer, musician, educator, and coach for young people at EnabledYouth.com. Archived columns can be found here. IYU-only RSS feed available here. My journey toward the voluntarist philosophy of a…
Love It Forward
Written by Dayna Martin for NaturalChild.org. As I prepare for our next family trip, I am remembering a flight that my family took back from England where I was the keynote speaker at the first ever unschooling conference in London. On the flight home, there was a mother traveling alone with two kids who were…